BYU Loses Battle with USC

LOS -- The men’s volleyball team dropped its second match to No. 5 USC Saturday. The Cougars looked to be on the verge of victory in the second and third set but eventually fell 3-2 (34-32, 33-35, 29-31, 30-23, 15-10) to the Trojans.

Despite the loss, several players recorded career and season highs on the night in kills, hitting percentage and assists. Freshman Russell Lavaja shattered his previous career record of 6 kills, contributing 13 of the Cougars’ 79. Fellow freshman Futi Tavana also improved his career high kills to 16. Junior Mat Taylor again lead the team with 18.

An ace by USC’s Tony Ciarelli clinched the Trojans’ 34-32 victory in the first set. BYU had a five-point run but was unable to come up with the win.

The Cougars came back to claim the second set after a back-and-forth battle. The score was tied at 33, before a kill by Taylor and an attack error by USC evened the score.

The third set closely resembled the second, with both teams struggling to gain an advantage. BYU finally pulled ahead with a kill by Tavana and another attack error by the Trojans to end the set 31-29.

A five-point run by USC early in the fourth set proved too much for the Cougars to overcome, despite their match-best .467 hitting percentage. The Trojans maintained the lead and easily tied the match at two all with a 30-23 scoreline.

Through a mixture of kills and errors, USC was able to finish the match with their second victory in as many nights.

With the loss, the Cougars drop to 5-6 on the season and 3-3 in MPSF play. BYU will take the week off before returning to host UC San Diego Feb. 20 and 21.

Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young Univ. Cougar VolleyBall
                 #9 BYU Cougars vs #5 USC (Feb 07, 2009 at USC)
   BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5  LAVAJA, Russell.....  5| 13   3  22  .455|  2|  0   5|  0|  2| 0  4  2|  0
10 TAYLOR, Mat.........  5| 18   9  39  .231|  0|  1   5|  0|  6| 1  5  0|  0
11 SAGERS, Kevin.......  5| 16   6  31  .323|  2|  1   8|  3|  6| 0  1  1|  0
14 PEREZ, Yamil........  5|  1   1   3  .000| 68|  1   6|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0
15 STEWART, Andrew.....  5| 15   8  36  .194|  0|  0   1|  1|  8| 0  2  0|  0
17 TAVANA, Futi........  5| 16   1  29  .517|  0|  0   3|  0|  5| 1  4  0|  0
1  TUTTLE, Kent........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0
3  CHILTON, Reed.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
4  SILVA, Joel.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0
7  ROBINSON, Jeff......  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
8  KAULIAKAMOA, Joe....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
   TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 79  29 161  .311| 75|  3  30|  5| 42| 2 18  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  8  40  .300   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  6  36  .306   BYU Cougars......... (2) 32 35 31 23 10  5-6, 3-3 MPSF
   3  18  4  32  .438   USC................. (3) 34 33 29 30 15  7-2, 4-1 MPSF
   4  17  7  34  .294
   5   7  4  19  .158
   USC                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Riley McKibbin......  5|  1   1   3  .000| 64|  1   3|  0|  6| 0  4  1|  0
11 Murphy Troy.........  5| 24   6  46  .391|  3|  3   6|  2|  5| 0  1  1|  0
12 Sean Dennis.........  5| 13   9  31  .129|  2|  0   3|  0| 10| 1  3  1|  0
14 Tony Ciarelli.......  5| 18   6  41  .293|  1|  1   2|  0|  5| 2  4  0|  0
16 Austin Zahn.........  5| 15   3  23  .522|  1|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
19 Hunter Current......  5|  6   2  17  .235|  1|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  7  2|  0
4  Jeff Carlson........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
7  Luke Morris.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1| 16| 0  0  0|  0
17 Tri Bourne..........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  5| 77  27 161  .311| 73|  5  22|  3| 43| 3 22  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  8  36  .194   Site: USC (Galen Center)
   2  19  8  42  .262   Date: Feb 07, 2009   Attend: 425   Time: 2:28
   3  18  8  34  .294   Referees: Chris Saunders, Scott Hogue
   4  16  2  30  .467
   5   9  1  19  .421