BYU Cruises to Win over New Mexico

PROVO -- BYU mixed a potent offensive attack with one of its best defensive efforts of the year to sweep New Mexico 15-6, 15-1, 15-0 Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse. The 17th-ranked Cougars improved to 13-5 overall and 5-2 in the Mountain West Conference while the Lobos fell to 7-10 and 3-4.

Led by sophomore Sunny Tonga, who equaled a personal season-high .600 attack percentage, BYU hit better than .400 as a team for the second consecutive match while setting a new season-high attack percentage of .442 against the Lobos. BYU's starters played the entire match and each hit .250 or better as junior Jackie Bundy led the team with 14 kills (.500 attack percentage), followed by Tonga with 13 and Nina Puikkonen with 11 (.421 attack percentage).

While the offense was in high gear, it was the Cougars' defense that won the praises of BYU coach Elaine Michaelis. "We were all over the place getting digs," Michaelis said of her team that entered the week rated last among Mountain West Conference teams in that category. "Defense is an attitude and we've really been stressing that part of our game. We played very good defense tonight and I thought Melissa (Layton) played extremely well. There were very few balls that we didn't get."

Layton led the Cougars with 10 digs, just missing a double-double with nine kills. Overall, BYU came up with 43 digs, one off its season-best for three games, while the Lobos managed just 19 digs. Sunny Tonga added nine digs and Nina Puikkonen eight as no Cougar had less than five digs. At the net, Bundy had a match-high six blocks while Puikkonen added five, including three block solos.

"We've really worked on not ever letting down," said Tonga of the team's recent rededication. "We are making every ball count."

BYU held the Lobos to a .084 attack percentage for the match and didn't allow a point in a game for the first time this year with its 15-0 tally in the third game. BYU's two wins this weekend give the Cougars some momentum heading back on the road to play three matches next week, including a date with No. 5 Pepperdine.

"Pepperdine is tall and passes well," Michaelis said. "There setter is left-handed and likes to dump a lot so we will have a lot of things to contend with."

The Cougars play at Pepperdine Wednesday, followed by matches at UNLV Thursday and at San Diego State Friday.

Volleyball Box Score
           UNM Lobos vs BYU Cougars (Oct 14, 2000 at BYU PROVO UTAH)
    UNM Lobos              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  CONLEY, Micaela.....  3| 11   3  24  .333|  0|  0   1|  1|  6| 0  1  1|  1
 4  GOFFARD, Jessie.....  3|  4   5  24 -.042|  0|  0   1|  2|  3| 0  3  1|  0
 7  SANSONI, Erika......  3|  3   3  12  .000|  1|  1   1|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 8  HAYES, Lynzie.......  3|  2   2   7  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  GRIFFIN, Kelly......  3|  0   2   5 -.400| 23|  0   3|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  1
 12 AMUNDSON, Amy.......  3|  5   2  19  .158|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 1  SHELTON, Deanna.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 10 BURNS, Blaire.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  3|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 11 MASTEN, Staci.......  2|  1   1   4  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 26  18  95  .084| 24|  1  10|  6| 19| 0  8  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   7  4  28  .107   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10  7  35  .086   UNM Lobos...........  6  1  0   7 - 10  3 - 4 MWC
   3   9  7  32  .062   BYU Cougars......... 15 15 15  13 - 5   5 - 2 MWC
    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|  3   1   6  .333| 42|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3| 11   3  19  .421|  1|  0   2|  1|  8| 3  2  0|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  3| 14   3  22  .500|  0|  1   3|  0|  5| 1  5  0|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  3|  9   3  16  .375|  3|  3   1|  0| 10| 0  3  0|  0
 14 TONGA, Kalani.......  3|  5   2  12  .250|  2|  1   0|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  3| 13   1  20  .600|  1|  1   4|  0|  9| 0  2  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 55  13  95  .442| 49|  6  12|  1| 43| 4 13  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  22  7  36  .417   Site: BYU PROVO UTAH (SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
   2  18  4  33  .424   Date: Oct 14, 2000   Attend: 701   Time: 1H 10M
   3  15  2  26  .500   Referees: GARY HOUGHTON, ANNETTE COTTLE, KAREN MARSHALL