Cougars Down Wildcats in Ogden

OGDEN -- Sophomore setter Karina Puikkonen tossed up a career-best 67 assists Tuesday as BYU defeated Weber State 3-1 at the Dee Events Center. The Cougars earned their fourth straight road win with the 30-25, 27-30, 30-27, 30-22 victory.

BYU (ranked No. 14 by Volleyball magazine and No. 16 by AVCA/USA Today) improved to 16-4 overall with the non-conference win while the Wildcats of the Big Sky Conference fell to 11-11 on the year. The home loss was only the second Weber State setback in nine matches this year at the Dee Events Center.

Puikkonen's 67 assists equaled her career high set last year and is the highest total achieved by a Mountain West Conference setter this season. She also was effective with her own attack, hitting a match-best .455 percentage with seven successful dumps in 11 attempts with only two errors.

The Cougars hit a sizzling .459 in the first game to overpower Weber State despite the Wildcats' impressive .342 offensive attack. When BYU cooled off in game two, hitting .146, Weber State continued to play well and evened the match with an efficient .324 attack percentage for the game. BYU rebounded in game three while holding the Wildcats to a .095 attack and eased to a 30-22 victory in the decisive fourth game.

Nina Puikkonen, who earned MWC Co-Player of the Week honors Monday, posted her 10th double-double of the year, tops this year among MWC players along with Utah's Sylva Strzinkova. She finished with 17 kills and 10 digs and added a team-best six blocks. Four Cougars recorded double-figures kills for the match, led by Sunny Mahe with 20. Jackie Bundy added 14 and Lauren Richards equaled a personal best with 12 kills. Natalie Whittaker had a match-high 13 digs for the Cougars.

Natasha Widdison shared match-high honors with Mahe, totaling 20 kills for the Wildcats. Stephanie Metcalf and Stephanie Kropushek each contributed 11 kills and Kris Hollingsworth had 11 digs for Weber State.

Overall, BYU hit .280 for the match with Weber State maintaining a .215 attack percentage. The win was BYU's 50th straight without a loss in the series against the Wildcats.

BYU now prepares to face No. 6 and unbeaten Colorado State (19-0) in the Smith Fieldhouse Friday. The match begins at 7 p.m. and will be televised on KBYU-TV and BYU-TV.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
            BYU Cougars vs Weber State (Oct 30, 2001 at Ogden, Utah)
    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|  6   1  17  .294|  2|  1   1|  0| 13| 1  1  0|  0|   8.5
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  4|  7   2  11  .455| 67|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  4| 17   9  34  .235|  2|  2   1|  0| 10| 1  5  0|  0|  22.5
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  4| 14   4  29  .345|  2|  0   1|  0|  8| 1  0  0|  1|  15.0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  4|  0   1   1-1.000|  1|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 MAHE, Sunny.........  4| 20   9  40  .275|  1|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0|  21.5
 11 RICHARDS, Lauren....  4| 12   6  25  .240|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  13.0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 76  32 157  .280| 75|  5   7|  0| 52| 3 10  0|  1|  89.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  3  37  .459   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18 12  41  .146   BYU Cougars......... 30 27 30 30  16-4, MWC 8-2
   3  18  7  34  .324   Weber State......... 25 30 27 22  11-11, BSC 7-4
   4  20 10  45  .222
    Weber State            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Natasha Widdison....  4| 20   9  39  .282|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  6  0|  0|  23.0
 5  Stephanie Metcalf...  4| 11   6  31  .161|  0|  0   1|  1|  7| 0  1  0|  0|  11.5
 6  Kris Hollingsworth..  4|  8   3  20  .250|  2|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  3  0|  0|   9.5
 7  Laura Robinson......  4|  0   1   1-1.000| 33|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  Holly Montano.......  4|  8   4  21  .190|  1|  0   2|  4|  6| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 11 Stephanie Kropushek.  4| 11   2  26  .346|  0|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  4  0|  0|  13.0
 8  Shannon Downey......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 Becky Montague......  4|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 13 Penny Weston........  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Michelle Smith......  4|  3   3  12  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  2  0|  0|   5.0
 15 Lacey Rice..........  4|  1   0   2  .500| 22|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 64  30 158  .215| 58|  0   5|  5| 40| 1 18  0|  1|  74.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  7  38  .342   Site: Ogden, Utah (Dee Events Center)
   2  15  4  34  .324   Date: Oct 30, 2001   Attend: 487   Time: 1:49
   3  16 12  42  .095   Referees: Tana Beall-Martin, Ann Fruechte
   4  13  7  44  .136