Cougars Top No. 20 Kansas State, Prepare for Mizuno Classic Thursday

PROVO -- Five Cougars recording double-digit kills as BYU's 17th-ranked women's volleyball team defeated No. 20 Kansas State, 15-9, 9-15, 15-10, 15-4, Tuesday in the Smith Fieldhouse.

With the match tied at one game apiece and the score even at 9-9 in the third game, BYU took command of the match scoring six of the next seven points, including a jump-serve ace by senior outside hitter Melissa Layton to close out the game. BYU didn't look back, scoring the first 11 points of game four on its way to a decisive 15-4 final tally. With the win the Cougars improve their record to 2-1 this year and an impressive 35-14 career mark against the Big 12 Conference. The Wildcats drop to 3-2.

"I think the potential of our team was evident," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "We are not as consistent as we need to be but we have the potential to be a very good team. We knew we would struggle some with a new setter, but I'm pleased with the team. Karina (Puikkonen) did a nice job distributing the ball tonight."

While tossing up a career-best 67 assists, redshirt freshman setter Karina Puikkonen got each of her teammates involved in an efficient BYU offensive attack as all five other starters had double-figures kills while mustering a .316 team hitting percentage. Layton and All-American middle blocker Nina Puikkonen had 17 kills apiece to lead BYU's effort. For Layton, who is playing a new position in 2000, the 17 kills set a new personal best.

"Tonight is the most comfortable I've felt on the outside," Layton said. "Karina set really well tonight."

Junior middle blocker Jackie Bundy added 16 kills while Sunny Tonga and Kalani Tonga contributed 14 and 12 kills, respectively. Layton had a team-best 13 digs while Nina Puikkonen led the strong BYU block with a match-high seven blocks. BYU out blocked the Wildcats 13.5 - 8.0.

The Cougars now prepare to face four opponents in this week's Mizuno Classic, which begins Thursday at the Smith Fieldhouse. The feature matches include BYU facing No. 1-ranked Stanford Friday and No. 2-rated Long Beach State Saturday.

Volleyball Box Score
       Kansas St. Wildcats vs BYU Cougars (Sep 05, 2000 at BYU PROVO UT)
    Kansas St. Wildcats    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  BRONNENBERG, Disney.  4|  3   2   8  .125| 64|  1   3|  0| 10| 0  2  0|  0
 2  BRANTING, Kelle.....  4| 15   2  23  .565|  0|  0   3|  1|  7| 0  4  0|  1
 3  GOEHRING, Lauren....  4|  6   5  17  .059|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 2  0  0|  0
 6  POLLARD, Jenny......  4| 12   6  42  .143|  2|  0   1|  1| 17| 1  1  0|  0
 11 JENSEN, Kari........  4| 20   5  43  .349|  1|  0   0|  5| 10| 0  1  0|  0
 12 WEGNER, Liz.........  4| 17   6  40  .275|  0|  3   4|  0|  3| 0  0  1|  1
 9  THOMAS, Julie.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   1|  1|  5| 1  0  1|  0
 10 JENSEN, Kris........  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 14 CHRISTEN, Jayne.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 73  27 174  .264| 70|  4  14|  8| 54| 4  8  2|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19 10  42  .214   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19  4  41  .366   Kansas St. Wildcats.  9 15 10  4  3 - 2
   3  22  8  61  .230   BYU Cougars......... 15  9 15 15  2 - 1
   4  13  5  30  .267
    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   2  11  .273| 67|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  3  1|  0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  4| 17   3  34  .412|  2|  1   2|  1|  6| 0  7  1|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  4| 16   6  33  .303|  1|  1   3|  1|  9| 3  3  1|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  4| 17   5  30  .400|  2|  6   6|  1| 13| 0  2  0|  0
 14 TONGA, Kalani.......  4| 12   6  34  .176|  1|  0   3|  0| 11| 0  2  0|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  4| 14   4  26  .385|  1|  0   1|  1|  8| 0  4  0|  0
 2  WHITTAKER, Natalie..  2|  0   1   3 -.333|  0|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 81  27 171  .316| 74|  8  16|  4| 56| 3 21  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  7  37  .297   Site: BYU PROVO UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  23  9  53  .264   Date: Sep 05, 2000   Attend: 496   Time: 2H 10M
   3  24  9  53  .283   Referees: Annete Cottle, Quinette Dunn, Karen Marshall
   4  16  2  28  .500