BYU Falls at No. 1 Long Beach State

LONG BEACH -- The BYU women's volleyball team finished its regular season late Saturday night with a four-game loss at No. 1 Long Beach State in the final match of the Long Beach Thanksgiving Invitational.

The 20th-ranked Cougars played well but still fell 22-30, 30-25, 24-20, 28-30 to the unbeaten 49ers in front of 2,491 fans at The Pyramid in Long Beach. BYU upset Long Beach State last year in Provo when the 49ers were ranked No. 2 in the nation.

The Cougars ended Long Beach State's 41-game win streak, the seventh-longest single season streak in NCAA history, with their 30-25 win in game two. BYU closed game two on an 11-4 run.

BYU finishes the regular season with a 20-8 record after going 1-1 at the Long Beach Thanksgiving tournament. Top-rated Long Beach is a perfect 28-0 on the season.

BYU freshman Lauren Richards had a career-high 20 kills to lead BYU, while junior rightside hitter Sunny Mahe totaled 12 kills and All-American middle blocker Nina Puikkonen added 11. Tayyiba Haneef led the 49ers with a match-high 24 kills, while All-American Cheryl Weaver hit .531 with 22 kills.

"We played very tough, but we just made too many errors," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "(In the fourth game) we hit the ball out while trying to even the score at 29. We out blocked them and both teams played some great defense, but their experience showed on the court."

The Cougars had a .189 attack percentage while committing 31 hitting errors. Long Beach State hit .285 with 25 errors, putting down four more kills during the match than the Cougars. BYU totaled 13.5 blocks to the 49ers 11, with Puikkonen and Jackie Bundy each recording six block assists. Five Cougars had four or more blocks.

Setter Karina Puikkonen had a good offensive night, dumping seven kills with only one error in 10 attempts. She had 47 assists. Natalie Whittaker and Uila Crabbe led BYU with 11 digs apiece.

BYU now awaits the announcement of the NCAA tournament field on Monday. BYU has appeared in 19 of 20 NCAA tournaments, including the last 11 straight years.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
      BYU Cougars vs Long Beach State (Nov 24, 2001 at Long Beach, Calif.)
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WHITTAKER, Natalie..  4|  8   3  24  .208|  1|  0   2|  1| 11| 0  4  0|  0|  10.0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  4|  7   1  10  .600| 47|  1   0|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  2|   9.0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  4| 11  12  37 -.027|  1|  2   0|  0|  9| 0  6  1|  0|  16.0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  4|  6   6  26  .000|  3|  0   2|  0| 10| 0  6  1|  1|   9.0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 MAHE, Sunny.........  4| 12   3  35  .257|  1|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  5  0|  1|  14.5
 11 RICHARDS, Lauren....  4| 20   6  43  .326|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  22.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 64  31 175  .189| 54|  3   7|  2| 52| 0 27  2|  4|  80.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14 10  37  .108   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  7  47  .213   BYU Cougars......... 22 30 24 28  20-8
   3  17  6  44  .250   Long Beach State.... 30 25 30 30  28-0
   4  16  8  47  .170
    Long Beach State       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  HOCHEVAR, Brittany..  4|  7   5  20  .100|  6|  1   1|  0| 18| 0  3  0|  0|   9.5
 8  BULQUERIN, Tracy....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   1|  0| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 NISHIMOTO, Keri.....  4|  3   0   5  .600| 53|  0   2|  0| 15| 1  2  1|  1|   5.0
 16 HANEEF, Tayyiba.....  4| 24   4  55  .364|  0|  0   2|  1| 10| 0  2  0|  0|  25.0
 21 TAYLOR, Ashanti.....  4|  1   4  12 -.250|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   1.5
 27 WEAVER, Cheryl......  4| 22   5  32  .531|  0|  1   2|  1|  7| 2  4  1|  1|  27.0
 9  PHILLIPS, Lindsay...  4|  3   3  10  .000|  0|  0   1|  1|  7| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 26 THOMAS, Elisha......  4|  8   4  17  .235|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  1|  1|   9.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 68  25 151  .285| 61|  2   9|  3| 69| 3 16  3|  3|  81.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  6  29  .345   Site: Long Beach, Calif. (The Pyramid)
   2  15  8  42  .167   Date: Nov 24, 2001   Attend: 2491   Time: 1:47
   3  18  5  38  .342   Referees: Marvin Hall, Syd Church
   4  19  6  42  .310   BYU TRIPLE BLOCK IN GAME FOUR BY WHITTAKER, MAHE
                        AND KARINA PUIKKONEN