No. 10 BYU Loses 3-1 to No. 13 Arizona

PROVO -- The No. 10 BYU women's volleyball team lost to No. 13 Arizona 15-12, 15-9, 8-15, 15-5 Friday in the Smith Fieldhouse, marking the first home loss for the Cougars in seven tries dating to last season. The last home loss for the Cougars, who dropped to 6-3 overall, was Nov. 27, 1999, in the championship match of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

The Wildcats, who improved to 7-1 overall, finished the night with a .356 hitting percentage and 55 digs. They also outblocked the Cougars 11 to 9.5.

"That's really a very nice team," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "Their outside hitters are awfully big and they get awfully high. I don't think we played very good defense because of that. I think they're the best team we've played so far."

Arizona had a trio of outside hitters that each ended the night with double-digit kills. Leading the way was sophomore Lisa Rutledge, who finished with 21 kills and a .366 hitting percentage. Senior Allison Napier and junior Jill Talbot had 15 and 10 kills, respectively.

The Cougars were led by junior All-American Nina Puikkonen and senior Melissa Layton. They each ended the night with 15 kills and Puikkonen hit .370. Five Cougars finished with 10 or more kills with help from freshman setter Karina Puikkonen. The younger Puikkonen finished with 56 assists, five digs and four block assists. Junior Natalie Whittaker tied her career-high with 2 service aces and had a season-high nine digs in the loss.

BYU will host Temple Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
        ARIZONA Wildcats vs BYU Cougars (Sep 15, 2000 at BYU PROVO UTAH)
    ARIZONA Wildcats       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  NAPIER, Allison.....  4| 15   3  26  .462|  0|  2   2|  1|  3| 2  2  0|  0
 12 DALEE, Marisa.......  4| 16   4  26  .462|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 1  5  0|  0
 13 RUTLEDGE, Lisa......  4| 21   6  41  .366|  0|  1   3|  0|  7| 0  3  2|  0
 21 BURKHOLDER, Dana....  4|  5   4  15  .067| 65|  1   1|  0| 16| 0  1  0|  2
 32 TALBOT, Jill........  4| 10   2  22  .364|  5|  0   1|  1|  8| 0  2  1|  0
 33 FROST, Christina....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 2  SEBBAS, Erin........  4|  2   1   6  .167|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 3  CLARK, Elvina.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 10 SARAGOSA, Stefani...  4|  3   1   7  .286|  0|  1   2|  1|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 16 BENWARD, Lauren.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 18 TORREGROSA, Shannon.  1|  4   2   6  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 76  23 149  .356| 71|  5  10|  4| 55| 3 16  4|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  26  4  41  .537   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19  5  34  .412   ARIZONA Wildcats.... 15 15  8 15  7 - 1
   3  14 13  46  .022   BYU Cougars......... 12  9 15  5  6 - 3
   4  17  1  28  .571
    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   3  .333|  1|  2   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 5  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  4|  5   2  10  .300| 56|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  4  1|  1
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  4| 15   5  27  .370|  2|  1   3|  1|  2| 0  5  0|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  4| 12   9  25  .120|  2|  0   2|  2|  4| 0  3  0|  0
 14 TONGA, Kalani.......  4| 10   6  33  .121|  1|  0   1|  1| 10| 1  2  0|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  4| 11   3  33  .242|  2|  1   2|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  4| 15   5  36  .278|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 69  30 167  .234| 65|  4   9|  5| 37| 1 17  1|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  24  7  47  .362   Site: BYU PROVO UTAH (SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
   2  16 10  39  .154   Date: Sep 15, 2000   Attend: 1505   Time: 2H
   3  13  4  40  .225   Referees: ANNETTE COTTLE, BRUCE GRANT, KAREN MARSHALL
   4  16  9  41  .171