BYU's Season Ends with Second Loss to Arizona

LINCOLN -- The Cougars had beaten teams ranked 1-4 this year but fifth-ranked Arizona was not about to be the fifth top-five team to lose to BYU this season, downing the Cougars in three games at the NCAA Central Region semifinals Friday in Lincoln, Neb., 15-6, 15-6, 15-9.

The Cougars' season and their 13-mach winning streak ended at the hands of the fifth-ranked Arizona Wildcats, who also defeated BYU in Provo earlier this year, 3-1.

"Arizona played a great match," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "They served well and that affected our passing, which kept us from what we wanted to do on offense. I'm proud of our team but we didn't put our best team out there tonight. But Arizona is a great team. You have to give them a lot of credit."

BYU ends the year with a 26-7 record after advancing to the NCAA regional round of 16 for the fifth straight season.

"It's sad," said BYU outside hitter Melissa Layton, the only senior on the team. "It's sad to end like that but I'm excited for the team next year. They are going to be a great team."

The Cougars got in a 12-5 deficit in both the first and second games on the way to identical 15-6 Arizona wins. Despite hitting .267 in the first game, BYU could not stop Arizona's potent offensive attack as the Wildcats put up a .344 attack percentage. The Wildcats stayed hot in game two, hitting .345 while BYU committed 10 hitting errors with their 12 kills to hit only .056 for the game.

Nina Puikkonen, Melissa Layton and Kalani Tonga each totaled six kills for BYU after the first two games. Layton was the most effective hitter, making only two errors in her 12 attempts. Arizona's Allison Napier led the Wildcats with 12 kills, five in game one and another seven in the second game.

The Cougars gave Arizona its only real trouble of the match in the third game when Layton put down a kill to even the game at 8-8. Arizona went on, however, to score six straight points to break a 9-9 deadlock and win the match.

"Serving really set the table for us," Arizona coach David Rubio said. "We are playing the best that we have played all season long."

The Wildcats, who advance to the regional finals for the first time, were led by Napier and Jill Talbot with 18 and 10 kills, respectively. The Wildcats hit .333 for the match while BYU attacked at a .168 percentage.

Layton had a strong match for the Cougars, sharing team-high kill honors with Kalani Tonga at nine. Layton hit a team-best .286 for the match while Tonga had a team-high 10 digs for BYU. All-American Nina Puikkonen added eight kills and five blocks but was held to a .050 hitting percentage.

In addition to beating four top-four teams this year, BYU had nine wins over top 20 teams while achieving its 27th consecutive 20-win season under coach Michaelis.

Arizona advances to face the winner of No. 1 Nebraska and No. 15 Ohio State for the NCAA Central Region title.

Volleyball Box Score
           BYU Cougars vs Arizona (Dec 08, 2000 at Lincoln, Nebraska)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  2   2   7  .000| 31|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  3  0|  1
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3|  8   7  20  .050|  0|  0   1|  1|  1| 1  4  0|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  3|  4   2  15  .133|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  3|  9   3  21  .286|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 14 TONGA, Kalani.......  3|  9   3  27  .222|  2|  0   1|  2| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  3|  5   2  15  .200|  1|  0   1|  1|  0| 0  4  0|  0
 2  WHITTAKER, Natalie..  3|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 3  CRABBE, Uila........  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 37  19 107  .168| 35|  0   6|  5| 32| 1 14  0|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  4  30  .267   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12 10  36  .056   BYU Cougars.........  6  6  9  26-7
   3  13  5  41  .195   Arizona............. 15 15 15  28-4
    Arizona                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Williams, Rachel....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 7  Napier, Allison.....  3| 18   8  40  .250|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 1  1  0|  0
 10 Saragosa, Stefani...  3|  5   0  10  .500|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  1
 13 Rutledge, Lisa......  3|  6   4  14  .143|  1|  1   2|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 21 Burkholder, Dana....  3|  7   1  11  .545| 36|  2   0|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 32 Talbot, Jill........  3| 10   1  19  .474|  4|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 3  Clark, Elvina.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  2   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 12 Dalee, Marisa.......  3|  6   1  17  .294|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  1  2|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 52  15 111  .333| 45|  5   5|  0| 39| 2  2  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  5  32  .344   Site: Lincoln, Nebraska (NU Coliseum)
   2  14  4  29  .345   Date: Dec 08, 2000   Attend: 1152   Time: 1:18
   3  22  6  50  .320   Referees: Tom Pingel, C.J. McAbee-Reher