Home Winning Streak Ends at 20

PROVO -- Suffering its first home loss to Utah State since 1979, BYU had its 20-match home court winning streak come to an end Tuesday as the Aggies swept the Cougars 30-26, 30-23, 30-21 at the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU fell to 12-3 with the loss while Utah State improved to 10-4.

"We are very fortunate beating a really good team," Utah State coach Burt Fuller said.

The 13th-ranked Cougars, who had won 16 straight at home vs. the Aggies dating back to October 1979, could never get on track as Utah State made only 10 hitting errors while hitting a sizzling .396 attack percentage. Each Aggie hitter hit better than .300 individually, led by Michelle Matheson who hit .500 with 10 kills. Lisa Borom and Shauni Fluckiger each put down a team-best 12 kills.

"They did a nice job using the block," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "The slide is tough to block on the left side and we have some inexperience there. Offensively, we just had too many errors."

The Cougars misfired 22 times on their attack, with the Cougars' all-conference middles of Nina Puikkonen and Jackie Bundy committing 12 errors combined. Puikkonen played with a sprained finger on her right hand.

BYU did finish with a respectable .266 hitting percentage, thanks to some solid attacks from the outside. Freshman outside hitter Lauren Richards hit a career-high .409 with a personal-best 12 kills to lead BYU while rightside hitter Sunny Mahe added 12 kills and Puikkonen had 11. Senior outside hitter Natalie Whittaker, the Mountain West Conference digs leader, had a match-high 10 digs and was solid offensively with eight kills and a .278 hitting percentage .

BYU finished the night with one more kill and four more digs than the Aggies but were out blocked for only the third time this year. BYU has lost all three matches in which it has been out blocked this year.

"We need to get ourselves playing at the level we normally play," Michaelis said. "We haven't really been there in the last couple weeks."

BYU, 6-1 in MWC matches, returns to conference action Friday while facing another in-state rival. The Cougars travel to face No. 18 Utah at Crimson Court at 7 p.m. The Utes, 5-2 in conference play, are 12-4 overall after defeating Weber State Tuesday.

Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
            USU Aggies vs BYU Cougars (Oct 16, 2001 at BYU PROVO UT)
    USU Aggies             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  FLUCKIGER, Shauni...  3| 12   2  27  .370|  1|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  2  0|  0|  13.0
 7  NEVES, Chelsi.......  3|  3   1   5  .400| 46|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  1|  2|   3.0
 9  MATHESON, Michelle..  3| 10   0  20  .500|  0|  1   1|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0|  12.5
 11 MACKAY, Hailey......  3|  8   2  16  .375|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  1|  0|   9.0
 16 BOROM, Lisa.........  3| 12   4  26  .308|  2|  1   0|  2|  7| 1  1  2|  0|  14.5
 18 CARTWRIGHT, Erin....  3|  8   1  16  .438|  1|  0   0|  0|  5| 1  2  0|  0|  10.0
 12 KENNEDY, Emily......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 OLMSTEAD, Heather...  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  2   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 54  10 111  .396| 50|  4   2|  2| 37| 2 10  4|  2|  65.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  4  42  .333   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19  2  35  .486   USU Aggies.......... 30 30 30  10 - 4 ; 6 -1 BWC
   3  17  4  34  .382   BYU Cougars......... 26 23 21  12 - 3 ; 6 -1 MWC
    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..  3|  8   3  18  .278|  2|  0   2|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  3   0   4  .750| 45|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  1|   3.0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3| 11   7  23  .174|  0|  0   3|  1|  3| 2  2  1|  0|  14.0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  3|  9   5  22  .182|  0|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  3|  0|   9.0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  2   1|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 15 MAHE, Sunny.........  3| 12   4  33  .242|  1|  0   2|  1|  7| 0  2  1|  0|  13.0
 3  BROWN, Lexi.........  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  STEELE, Lindsey.....  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 RICHARDS, Lauren....  3| 12   3  22  .409|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  0  1|  0|  13.0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 55  22 124  .266| 49|  2   8|  4| 41| 3  4  6|  1|  62.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  22  6  46  .348   Site: BYU PROVO UT (SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
   2  19  8  40  .275   Date: Oct 16, 2001   Attend: 1066   Time: 1H 30M
   3  14  8  38  .158   Referees: BRUCE GRANT, TOM GIVEN, MARINDA ASHMAN