Cougars Sweep Washington in Season-Opener

SEATTLE -- All-American Nina Puikkonen had 11 kills to lead 11th-ranked BYU to a 3-0 season-opening win over Washington Friday at the Point Huskies Invitational Tournament in Seattle. The Cougars swept the host Huskies 30-25, 30-26, 32-30 in the season debut for both teams at Bank of American Arena.

"I was pleased with our play for a first match," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "Our blocking and defense was very good in the first two games and our serve was the difference in game three. I'm most pleased with how we served. What won the match was our serving."

Playing the new rally-scoring format adopted this season in women's volleyball, Michaelis instructed her players to stay aggressive with their serving. The Cougars recorded seven service aces, led by sophomore defensive specialist Uila Crabbe, who had a career-best three aces.

Puikkonen hit .350 for the match on her way to a team-high 11 kills, while senior middle blocker Jackie Bundy and junior rightside hitter Sunny Mahe each put down nine kills. Bundy was also just one dig shy of her career high with a match-best 13 defensive gems. Sophomore setter Karina Puikkonen hit .571 with five kills while setting the Cougars to an efficient .281 team hitting percentage.

Returning four all-conference starters from last season, Michaelis added senior Natalie Whittaker to the starting lineup at one outside spot and junior college transfer Allison Larson at the other, with Crabbe playing back row in the rotation for Larson. All contributed to the win as Whittaker had a career-high eight kills with nine digs, while Larson added seven kills and Crabbe recorded eight digs with her three service aces.

The Cougars led throughout most of the first two games while achieving 30-25 and 30-26 wins before Washington jumped out to a 24-19 advantage in game three. The Cougar serve came through, however, as BYU was able to tie the score at 27-27 before Whittaker's ultimate match-winning kill off the Huskie block gave BYU the 32-30 victory.

The Huskies were led by senior middle blocker Allison Richardson, who had a double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs to go along with a team-best three service aces.

In the first game of the day, Bethany Howden had 18 kills to lead Texas past Purdue 3-0 (31-29, 30-25, 30-26).

All four teams will be back in action Saturday for the second and final day of the Point Huskies Invitational Tournament. Washington will play Purdue at 10:30 a.m., and Texas at 7:30 p.m., while BYU and Texas face-off at 10:30 a.m. in the Pavilion Addition and Purdue plays BYU at 5:30 p.m.

Score
        No. 11 BYU Cougars vs Washington (Aug 31, 2001 at Seattle, Wash.)
    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   2  24  .250|  2|  0   2|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  5   1   7  .571| 35|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  2|   7.0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3| 11   4  20  .350|  1|  2   2|  1|  7| 0  4  0|  0|  15.0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  3|  9   4  19  .263|  1|  1   4|  0| 13| 1  3  1|  0|  12.5
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  3   2|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 15 MAHE, Sunny.........  3|  9   3  28  .214|  1|  1   1|  1|  3| 1  2  0|  0|  12.0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  3|  7   3  15  .267|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 49  17 114  .281| 41|  7  11|  5| 43| 2 14  1|  2|  65.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  5  40  .250   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  3  33  .333   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 32  1-0
   3  20  9  41  .268   Washington.......... 25 26 30  0-1
    Washington             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Paige Benjamin......  3| 11   4  29  .241|  0|  0   5|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0|  11.5
 4  Allison Richardson..  3| 15   1  23  .609|  0|  3   1|  1| 13| 0  2  1|  0|  19.0
 5  Kaitlin Leck........  3|  7   5  17  .118|  1|  0   1|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   7.0
 6  Gretchen Maurer.....  3|  0   2   3 -.667| 42|  1   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 12 Elissa Ross.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 Lisa Underhill......  3|  5   1  14  .286|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 7  Vanessa Gilliam.....  3|  8   7  22  .045|  1|  0   2|  2|  2| 1  3  0|  0|  10.5
 8  Libba Lawrence......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 Britni Churnside....  3|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  1   3|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  20 110  .236| 45|  5  12|  7| 42| 1  8  1|  0|  56.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  8  36  .194   Site: Seattle, Wash. (Bank of America)
   2  15  7  36  .222   Date: Aug 31, 2001   Attend: 1159   Time: 1:32
   3  16  5  38  .289   Referees: Ray Mink, Bob Oshita