BYU Falls at No. 9 Colorado State

FORT COLLINS -- Avenging its only loss in the last 54 matches at Moby Arena, No. 9 Colorado State swept No. 14 BYU 30-18, 30-24, 30-15 in Fort Collins Saturday, handing the Cougars their first Mountain West Conference defeat of the season.

The Cougars, who ended Colorado State's nation-best 44-match home win streak last November while defeating the Rams for the Mountain West Tournament title, fell to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play while Colorado State remained perfect at 12-0 and 4-0.

"They (Colorado State) definitely avenged our beating them here last year," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "They just played extremely well. I thought we were ready but we didn't play like we were. It was one of those nights were the ball always bounced their way. They could do no wrong."

The first battle this year between the MWC's top two teams was dominated by the Rams, who gave the home crowd of 5,486 at Moby Arena plenty of reasons to cheer. Five Rams hit .500 or better as Colorado State put on a hitting barrage that totaled 63 kills and a team attack percentage of .534. Courtney Cox put down a match-best 20 kills while hitting .586, while Angela Knopf added 14 kills and a .560 percentage and Soraya Santos contributed 11 kills with a .529 attack efficiency.

While the Rams were clicking on all cylinders, BYU was misfiring, making 21 hitting errors while totaling its second lowest attack percentage of the season at .181. The Cougars recorded season lows of 40 kills, 23 digs and only two blocks while not serving an ace for the first time this year. Colorado State ended a string of six straight matches in which BYU held its opponents under a .200 hitting percentage. No team had topped a .240 on the Cougars this year until Saturday.

BYU All-American Nina Puikkonen had 11 kills and a .320 attack percentage while fellow middle blocker Jackie Bundy hit .261 while recording a team-leading 13 kills for the Cougars. Sunny Mahe hit .273 and finished with seven kills, ending a string of 10 straight matches with double-digit kills. Setter Karina Puikkonen led BYU in digs with nine. Freshman Lauren Richards, playing in her second match since coming out of a redshirt season, had only one kill in 10 attempts with five errors.

BYU returns home to host San Diego State Friday and UNLV Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                         Colorado State 2001 Volleyball
          BYU vs Colorado State (Oct 06, 2001 at Fort Collins, Colo.)
    BYU                    |     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|  4   1  11  .273|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  3   3  10  .000| 31|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3| 11   3  25  .320|  1|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|  11.5
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  3| 13   7  23  .261|  2|  0   1|  2|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  13.5
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 MAHE, Sunny.........  3|  7   1  22  .273|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 6  STEELE, Lindsey.....  1|  1   1   3  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 11 RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  1   5  10 -.400|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 40  21 105  .181| 35|  0   4|  2| 23| 0  4  0|  0|  42.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 2.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  7  32  .219   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  8  38  .237   BYU................. 18 24 15  11-2 (4-1 MWC)
   3   9  6  35  .086   Colorado State...... 30 30 30  12-0 (4-0 MWC)
    Colorado State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  DARGER, Emily.......  3|  2   1   6  .167|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 4  COX, Courtney.......  3| 20   3  29  .586|  0|  0   0|  0|  6| 1  1  0|  0|  21.5
 5  KNOPF, Angela.......  3| 14   0  25  .560|  0|  2   5|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  0|  16.5
 6  SANTOS, Soraya......  3| 11   2  17  .529|  4|  0   1|  0|  6| 1  4  0|  0|  14.0
 15 PECKHAM, Allison....  3|  4   1   7  .429| 48|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0|   5.0
 20 KERR, Kelly.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 SARAUER, Becky......  3|  5   0   8  .625|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   5.5
 11 SHIRLEY, Katie Jo...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 13 KNOX, Michelle......  3|  7   1  11  .545|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 2  6  0|  0|  12.0
 14 KERR, Lindsey.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 63   8 103  .534| 55|  2   9|  0| 34| 4 15  0|  0|  76.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  2  26  .654   Site: Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
   2  22  4  40  .450   Date: Oct 06, 2001   Attend: 5486   Time: 1:20
   3  22  2  37  .541   Referees: Ken Taylor, Bill Peer