Cougars Top Cowgirls to Open Weekend Homestand

PROVO -- Holding Wyoming to just three kills in the second game, the No. 16 BYU women's volleyball team rallied back from a lackluster opening game to beat the Cowgirls 13-15, 15-1, 15-5, 15-11 Friday in the Smith Fieldhouse. The win moves BYU to 16-6 overall and 8-2 in Mountain West Conference play. Wyoming drops to 9-17 overall and 1-8 in the conference.

The Cougars used a solid defensive effort to make up for a slow start on offense, holding their opponent to a negative hitting percentage in the second and third games. Wyoming finished the match with a .050 hitting percentage. Junior Natalie Whittaker shored up the defense, recording 11 digs on the night.

Meanwhile, the Cougar offense began to click as redshirt freshman setter Karina Puikkonen dished out 19 assists in the third game. Sophomore Sunny Tonga tallied 20 kills and a season-high .679 hitting percentage in the match while All-American Nina Puikkonen finished with 18 kills and seven block assists.

After the game, BYU coach Elaine Michaelis looked ahead to Saturday's matchup with conference leader Colorado State.

"In our first match with CSU this year, we hurt ourselves with too many errors," Michaelis said. "In hitting, blocking and in most categories we were just about even. If we can correct some of our errors, we're right there with them."

The Cougars square off against the Rams, who are ranked third in the nation, Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. Colorado State enters the match undefeated in conference play at 9-0.

Volleyball Box Score
       Wyoming Cowgirls vs BYU Cougars (Oct 27, 2000 at BYU  PROVO UTAH)
    Wyoming Cowgirls       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BROWN, Katy.........  4|  3   0   7  .429| 29|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  1  0|  0
 4  RAUTER, Michele.....  4| 10   6  26  .154|  0|  2   1|  2|  8| 1  2  0|  0
 5  BURKE, Jamie........  4| 12  12  35  .000|  1|  1   1|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 7  PATRICK, Shannon....  4|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  1   0|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BRAGG, Barbie.......  4|  6   8  26 -.077|  1|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
 16 LAU, Rachel.........  4|  4   4  22  .000|  2|  2   3|  0|  4| 0  1  1|  0
 2  FRIEHAUF, Melody....  4|  8   6  21  .095|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 1  5  3|  0
 10 SNYDER, Stefanie....  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  6|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 12 JARMAN, Katie.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 SIPLON, Jansen......  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 44  37 140  .050| 40|  6   9|  4| 33| 2 12  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  9  47  .234   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2   3  8  24 -.208   Wyoming Cowgirls.... 15  1  5 11  9 - 17  1 - 8 MWC
   3   8 10  31 -.065   BYU Cougars......... 13 15 15 15  16 - 6  8 - 2 MWC
   4  13 10  38  .079
    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...  4|  5   0  11  .455| 52|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  4| 18   5  32  .406|  1|  0   3|  2|  6| 0  7  0|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  4|  8   8  24  .000|  1|  0   4|  2|  4| 1  7  1|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  1|  1   4   7 -.429|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
 14 TONGA, Kalani.......  4|  9   4  19  .263|  3|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  5  1|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  4| 20   1  28  .679|  2|  2   2|  2|  9| 0  3  0|  0
 2  WHITTAKER, Natalie..  4|  5   1  10  .400|  0|  2   0|  0| 11| 0  2  0|  0
 3  CRABBE, Uila........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 66  23 131  .328| 59|  4  12|  6| 45| 1 28  2|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20 11  42  .214   Site: BYU  PROVO UTAH (SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
   2   9  1  19  .421   Date: Oct 27, 2000   Attend: 1096   Time: 1H 45M
   3  21  4  34  .500   Referees: KEN TAYLOR, BRUCE GRANT, KAREN MARSHALL
   4  16  7  36  .250