Errors Costly in BYU loss at No. 9 Pepperdine

MALIBU -- Even though the No. 16-ranked Cougars topped No. 9 Pepperdine in nearly every statistical category, BYU's unforced hitting errors were too much to overcome in a 10-15, 16-14, 12-15, 9-15 loss to the Waves Wednesday in Malibu, Calif. BYU is now 13-6 overall while Pepperdine improved to a 16-3 record.

"We actually had more kills than they did but we had too many unforced errors," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said, whose team had 80 kills and digs along with 14 blocks. "We out blocked and out dug them and at times I thought we played our best defense of the year. We held a very good top-10 team to a .200 hitting percentage."

Averaging 20 digs per game, BYU obliterated its previous high of 56 digs in a four game match and also easily topped its five-game high of 62 by totalling 80 digs in the four games. Four Cougars had double-digit digs, led by All-American Nina Puikkonen and previously little-used freshman Uila Crabbe. Jackie Bundy added 13 while Karina Puikkonen and Natalie Whittaker, who along with Crabbe figured into the rotation in all four games, each contributed 10. Bundy led BYU with eight blocks while Sunny Tonga was one off her career high with six.

While the Cougars were solid defensively, BYU struggled on the offensive side of the net, hitting just .153 while committing 48 hitting errors compared to 35 errors by Pepperdine. Led by senior Melissa Layton who had 19 kills, BYU had five players put down double-digit kills. Bundy had her second double-double of the year with 13 kills and 13 digs and was just two blocks shy of a rare triple-double night. Layton and Karina Puikkonen (nine kills) hit .267 and .294, respectively, but four other Cougars had nine or more hitting errors.

Lisa Borom (16 kills and 17 digs) and Stacy Rouwenhorst (15 kills and 12 digs) led Pepperdine while Melissa Plass and Jennifer Fopma adding 10 kill each and hit .474 and .409, respectively. Kate Taylor added 14 kills for the Waves. Pepperdine totalled 76 kills, 68 digs and 13 blocks.

BYU continues its three-match road trip with Mountain West Conference contests Thursday and Friday at UNLV and San Diego State.

Volleyball Box Score
          BYU Cougars vs Pepperdine Univ. (Oct 18, 2000 at Malibu, CA)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WHITTAKER, Natalie..  4|  1   0   2  .500|  1|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 3  CRABBE, Uila........  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   1|  0| 16| 0  0  0|  0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  4|  9   4  17  .294| 66|  0   1|  0| 10| 0  1  0|  0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  4| 14   9  31  .161|  1|  0   3|  2| 16| 0  3  0|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  4| 13   9  42  .095|  1|  0   4|  0| 13| 5  3  0|  0
 11 BARRUS, Alyssa......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  4| 19   7  45  .267|  0|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 14 TONGA, Kalani.......  4| 11   9  32  .062|  1|  2   0|  1|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  4| 12  10  39  .051|  2|  0   2|  0|  6| 2  4  0|  0
 17 OTTESON, Michelle...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 80  48 209  .153| 72|  2  12|  4| 80| 7 14  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 12  51  .078   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  25 12  59  .220   BYU Cougars......... 10 16 12  9  13-6
   3  24 15  62  .145   Pepperdine Univ..... 15 14 15 15  16-3
   4  15  9  38  .158
    Pepperdine Univ.       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  HACHE', Lyndsey.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 3  FOPMA, Jennifer.....  4| 10   1  22  .409|  2|  2   2|  0|  8| 3  3  0|  0
 5  ROTHMAN, Emily......  2|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 6  TAYLOR, Kate........  4| 14   8  31  .194|  0|  0   5|  2|  3| 1  3  0|  0
 8  ROUWENHORST, Stacy..  4| 15   6  42  .214|  2|  1   1|  0| 12| 0  1  0|  0
 9  SNOW, Melissa.......  4|  8   9  32 -.031|  0|  1   0|  0|  9| 1  0  0|  0
 11 PLASS, Melissa......  4| 10   1  19  .474| 55|  0   2|  0|  9| 0  2  0|  0
 13 RACKAUSKAS, Rima....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 14 WILKINS, Katie......  3|  3   2  18  .056|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 1  0  0|  0
 16 BOROM, Lisa.........  4| 16   8  40  .200|  3|  0   3|  0| 17| 1  3  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 76  35 205  .200| 63|  4  14|  2| 68| 7 12  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21 10  55  .200   Site: Malibu, CA (Firestone Fieldhouse)
   2  20 12  53  .151   Date: Oct 18, 2000   Attend: 213   Time: 2:15
   3  20  8  61  .197   Referees: Verna Klubkin, Bob Oshita
   4  16  5  37  .297