Batista and Holmes Lead BYU to Victory

PROVO -- After four road matches and a week off, the BYU returned to Provo to sweep the Pacific Tigers (30-28, 30-25, 30-23) behind the dominant play of Cougar middle blockers, Victor Batista and Russell Holmes. With the win, BYU improved to 17-4 overall and 13-4 in the MPSF while Pacific fell to 7-16 overall and 5-12 in conference play.

"We had too many errors to start but there were a lot of positives," said BYU coach Tom Peterson. "We passed pretty well tonight. That allowed us to go to our middles and they were dominant."

Leading the Cougars with 15 kills for the match was Batista. Yosleyder Cala and Holmes also had strong nights with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Senior Rob Neilson led the team in assists and digs, recording a match-high eight digs for the night. Despite several hitting errors in the first game, the Cougars hit .333 for the match while keeping Pacific to .170.

Pekka Seppanen led the Tigers with 10 kills, while Andreas Baboulidis added seven. Simon Chen-Byerley led Pacific in blocks with five assists and one solo.

Game one was close from the start. However, BYU managed to pull out at the end with a 29-26 lead. Pacific fought back winning two-consecutive points on a kill and solo block by Blake Gentry. The Cougars won the game, 30-28 off a Pacific service error. Both teams struggled throughout game one with BYU hitting .103 and Pacific hitting .033. Holmes led the Cougars with five kills and five block assists. Cala also contributed with four kills and four block assists.

BYU showed more strength in game two, hitting .514 for the game. After losing the first point to a service error, the Cougars won the next point and led the rest of the game. BYU pulled away with a 10-6 lead and didn't look back, leading by at least two for the rest of the game. Batista led the Cougars with six kills for the game. The Cougars' dominance was evident in their hitting, with 22 kills for the game, while keeping Pacific to only 11.

Having lost the first two games, Pacific bounced back in game three and kept it close until BYU pulled away after a 19-19 tie. The Cougars won the game with an 11-4 run winning game point off a Tiger service error. BYU continued hitting strong with a .419 hitting percentage for the game. Batista continued to lead the Cougars through game three, with six kills, hitting .750.

The Cougars played hard and despite errors, showed a strong performance for the night.

"It was a series of spectacular plays and lackluster plays," Peterson said.

The Cougars will be back in action against Pacific Saturday night at 8 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse, the last home match of the regular season. Following the match, the team will honor this year's seniors Victor Batista, Rob Neilson, Brian Rowley, Taylor

Evans and Josh Brecheisen.


                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
    #15 Pacific Tigers vs #2 BYU Cougars (Mar 31, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
    Pacific Tigers         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Hazelett, Mitch.....  3|  0   1   3 -.333| 31|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0|   1.0
 4  Gentry, Blake.......  2|  4   2   7  .286|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  0  0|  0|   5.0
 9  Adamson, Brian......  2|  0   5   7 -.714|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 11 Baboulidis, Andreas.  3|  7   4  16  .188|  1|  1   4|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
 13 Seppanen, Pekka.....  3| 10   3  24  .292|  0|  3   3|  3|  2| 0  3  0|  0|  14.5
 14 Chen-Byerley, Simon.  3|  4   1  10  .300|  0|  0   0|  1|  3| 1  5  0|  0|   7.5
 1  Morales, Garrett....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  Forbes, Joe.........  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 5  Cunningham, Drew....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 Hammer, Dan.........  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 Cornell, Matt.......  3| 10   3  19  .368|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 35  20  88  .170| 33|  4   8|  4| 24| 2 13  0|  0|  47.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  9  30  .033   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  11  4  24  .292   Pacific Tigers...... (0) 28 25 23  7-16, 5-12 MPSF
   3  14  7  34  .206   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  17-4, 13-4 MPSF
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  3| 13   3  24  .417|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  4  0|  0|  15.0
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  3|  6   7  19 -.053|  0|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   7.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3| 12   2  19  .526|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  5  0|  0|  14.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  1   1   2  .000| 54|  2   3|  0|  8| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3| 15   3  22  .545|  1|  1   6|  0|  0| 0  3  2|  0|  17.5
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  1|  2   4   7 -.286|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  MUAINA, Shaun.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  BRECHEISEN, Josh....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  2|  7   1  12  .500|  0|  1   0|  2|  3| 0  2  1|  0|   9.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  21 105  .333| 56|  4  17|  4| 29| 0 17  3|  0|  68.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 12  39  .103   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE (ELAINE MICHAELIS CRT)
   2  22  4  35  .514   Date: Mar 31, 2006   Attend: 3206   Time: 1:40
   3  18  5  31  .419   Referees: BURT FULLER, LES CALLES, K. MAETANI,