Stowell Shines in First Match

PROVO -- The No. 2 ranked BYU Men's Volleyball team began the 2007 campaign the same way they did the 2006 season by beating Cal Baptist in three games 30-26, 30-18, 30-25 in front of 1,631 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse Friday night. The win is the Cougars first of the season while the Lancers fall to 0-2.

"Tonight we didn't have a lot of experience but we made some adjustments," BYU co-interim coach Shawn Patchell said. "The guys came through for us."

Junior Ivan Perez had a team-best 13 kills on .550 hitting percentage while All-American Russell Holmes had seven kills and on a team-high .636 hitting percentage. Freshman Robby Stowell had a stellar performance in his first match as a Cougar with 11 kills, five digs and three blocks.

"Robby had a huge night," said Patchell. "He was the go to guy tonight. Robby is a talented and athletic kid and he didn't make a lot of freshman mistakes."

In the first game the Cougars struggled to find any sort of rhythm early on. BYU trailed the entire game until the Cougars got back-to-back blocks by Stowell and Trent Sorensen to take a two-point lead at 28-26. The Cougars eventually put the Lancers away taking the first game 30-26 on another Sorensen block. Sorensen came up clutch for the Cougars ending the night with five blocks.

BYU started up the second game similar to the way they ended the first getting back-to-back-to-back blocks this time by Holmes and Perez. During that span the Cougars went on an 8-0 run to set the pace early taking an 11-4 advantage. The lead proved to be too much for Cal Baptist as BYU took the second game 30-18.

The entire third game of the match was controlled by the Cougars with the Lancers battling back each time BYU tried to build on its lead. When the Cougars thought they were going to put the game away having a five-point advantage over Cal Baptist, the Lancers battled back to come within three at 26-23. BYU was quick to respond to the late Lancer surge by defeating Cal Baptist 30-25 in the third game to take the sweep.

"Ryan McGuyre (Cal Baptist) is a good coach," said Patchell. "They'll make some adjustments for tomorrow and one of those will probably be Robby. They'll put a good game plan together."

BYU will face Cal Baptist Saturday night for the final match of the weekend. The match will begin at 7:00 p.m. (MST) in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
      Cal-Baptist vs #2 Brigham Young Univ. (Jan 05, 2007 at Provo, Utah)
    Cal-Baptist            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  GUNTHOR, Urs........  3|  8   2  13  .462|  0|  2   4|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 4  SPENCE, Corey.......  3|  4   1  11  .273|  2|  0   1|  0|  1| 1  0  0|  0
 5  AWUDU, Shamsu.......  3|  6  10  31 -.129|  0|  0   2|  1|  3| 0  5  0|  0
 6  SUN, Yukai..........  2|  2   5  13 -.231|  0|  0   3|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  BUEHRING, Dan.......  3|  2   2   5  .000| 26|  0   2|  0|  8| 0  0  2|  1
 23 VETTER, Romain......  3|  6   2  12  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  2  0|  0
 17 CAYLAR, Clement.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  1
 99 MENDOZA, David......  2|  3   5  14 -.143|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 31  27  99  .040| 30|  2  15|  2| 18| 2 11  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  6  31  .161   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10 11  38 -.026   Cal-Baptist......... (0) 26 18 25  0-2
   3  10 10  30  .000   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 30 30 30  1-0
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  5   2  11  .273|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 1  4  0|  0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 13   2  20  .550|  1|  0   4|  1|  4| 0  3  0|  0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  7   0  11  .636|  1|  0   2|  0|  1| 1  6  0|  0
 13 STOWELL, Robby......  3| 11   3  20  .400|  0|  1   2|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  1
 14 PEREZ, Yamil........  3|  0   3   3-1.000| 40|  1   2|  0| 10| 0  3  1|  3
 17 STEWART, Andrew.....  3|  8   7  20  .050|  0|  0   2|  0| 10| 1  1  0|  0
 5  COX, Scott..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 12 POMPEI, Andy........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  17  85  .318| 44|  2  15|  2| 34| 3 20  1|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  3  28  .429   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  15  6  29  .310   Date: Jan 05, 2007   Attend: 1631   Time: 1H 37M
   3  14  8  28  .214   Referees: Tom Given, Daphne Nelson, Ryan Mortensen