Brett Pyne | Posted: 15 Oct 1999 | Updated: 15 Oct 1999

BYU Stays Unbeaten in MWC Play with 3-0 Win at Utah

SALT LAKE -- BYU's eighth-ranked women's volleyball team defeated rival Utah Friday on the Utes home court, 15-7, 15-4, 15-12, to extended the Cougars' win streak to seven matches and remain unbeaten in Mountain West Conference play.

"I thought our team played extremely well tonight," BYU coach Elaine Michaelis said. "We were very focused and maintained our concentration. The key was our passing. This was one of the best matches we've had up here. It is usually very difficult to pass well in this gym."

The Cougars took the early momentum despite playing in front of 1,453 fans at Crimson Court, getting out to an 8-2 lead in the first game. Hitting .400 for the game, the Cougars were able to maintain their advantage and claim a 15-7 win. Middle blocker Nina Puikkonen and outside hitter Mari Carpenter led the way with six and five kills, respectively, in the first game.

After trading the first several points in game two, BYU turned a 5-4 advantage into a 15-4 win while hitting .353 for the game. The Cougars put the game away behind the strong jump serving of junior rightside hitter Melissa Layton, who led the team with two service aces.

The Mountain West's top blocking team had only seven team blocks on the night, well under its average, but did get its block going when needed to help overcome a big Utah lead in the third game. Trailing the Utes, 8-1 and then 10-4, BYU went on a run that saw them overtake Utah and claim an 11-10 advantage. With the game tied at 12-12, BYU got three consecutive blocks from Nina Puikkonen, Anna-Lena Smith and Mari Carpenter to put back Utah's attack and earn the final 15-12 score for the match.

"We served well in the third game and that helped set up our block," Michaelis said. "Utah's offense was very good and McKelle (Stilson) was really hard to stop. We finally started to get our block going at the end of the third game."

Puikkonen had 13 kills and five blocks to lead BYU. Carpenter added 11 kills and Jackie Bundy nine. Caroline Bower had a match-high 16 digs for the Cougars while All-American setter Anna-Lena Smith tossed up 39 assists to go with seven digs and three blocks. Smith now needs 90 assists to break BYU's all-time assist record.

"They play good volleyball against us," Utah coach Beth Launiere said. "The bottom line is we had to win the pass/serve game because that is were we can match up with them, but we didn't."

Utah was led by Stilson and Alisa Geddes with 11 kills apiece. The Utes hit .139 as a team. BYU, which leads the conference in hitting, mustered a .309 attack percentage for the match.

With the win, BYU improves to 13-2 and 5-0 in the MWC. Utah falls to 13-5 and 4-1. The Cougars next match is Tuesday in the Smith Fieldhouse against Notre Dame.

Volleyball Box Score

Brigham Young vs Utah (Oct 15, 1999 at Salt Lake City, Utah)

Brigham Young | 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.. 3| 0 1 1-1.000| 1| 1 1| 0| 5| 0 0 0| 1

3 SMITH, Anna-Lena.... 3| 5 1 11 .364| 39| 0 0| 0| 7| 1 2 2| 0

8 BOWER, Caroline..... 3| 7 3 21 .190| 1| 0 0| 1| 16| 0 0 1| 0

9 PUIKKONEN, Nina..... 3| 13 2 24 .458| 0| 0 3| 2| 7| 1 4 1| 0

10 BUNDY, Jackie....... 3| 9 1 17 .471| 0| 0 1| 0| 7| 0 0 0| 0

12 LAYTON, Melissa..... 3| 4 3 10 .100| 2| 2 3| 0| 9| 0 0 0| 0

14 CARPENTER, Mari..... 3| 11 5 25 .240| 0| 0 0| 0| 3| 1 2 0| 0

15 TONGA, Sunny........ 1| 1 0 1 1.000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Totals.............. 3| 50 16 110 .309| 43| 3 8| 3| 55| 3 8 4| 1

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0

Game K E TA Pct

1 18 4 35 .400 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS

2 16 4 34 .353 Brigham Young....... 15 15 15 13-2, 5-0

3 16 8 41 .195 Utah................ 7 4 12 13-5, 4-1

Utah | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN

## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 TORRES-LOPEZ, G..... 3| 4 0 7 .571| 34| 1 2| 0| 9| 0 1 1| 3

5 BEAL, Brenda........ 2| 3 2 9 .111| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0

8 TURKOVA, Lucie...... 3| 1 0 1 1.000| 0| 0 1| 1| 5| 0 0 0| 0

13 GEDDES, Alisa....... 3| 11 4 33 .212| 0| 0 0| 0| 5| 0 1 0| 0

14 BARTON, Brooke...... 3| 5 4 26 .038| 0| 1 4| 0| 4| 0 1 0| 0

16 BRADLEY, Adrianne... 3| 3 3 10 .000| 1| 0 1| 2| 3| 0 0 0| 1

3 STILSON, McKelle.... 3| 11 5 28 .214| 1| 0 1| 0| 2| 0 2 0| 0

4 SNOW-RICHARDS, Jen.. 1| 2 2 5 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0

7 ANDERSON, Megan..... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 1 2| 0| 5| 0 0 0| 0

9 URBANOVA, Lenka..... 2| 6 6 20 .000| 2| 0 2| 0| 4| 0 1 0| 0

12 ELLETT, Katrena..... 2| 0 0 5 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Totals.............. 3| 46 26 144 .139| 39| 3 13| 3| 38| 0 8 1| 4

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.0

Game K E TA Pct

1 15 7 47 .170 Site: Salt Lake City, Utah (Crimson Court)

2 13 8 39 .128 Date: Oct 15, 1999 Attend: 1453 Time: 1:13

3 18 11 58 .121 Referees: Joan Powell, Kim Norman, Gina Acker

Brigham Young Overall Team Statistics (as of Oct 16, 1999)

All matches

Overall record: 13-2 Conf: 5-0 Home: 4-0 Away: 6-1 Neutral: 3-1

TEAM STATISTICS BYU OPP

--------------------------------------------------------

ATTACK........................

Kills....................... 852 664

Errors...................... 307 410

Total Attacks............... 1859 1949

Attack Pct.................. .293 .130

Kills/Game.................. 16.7 13.0

SET...........................

Assists..................... 759 591

Assists/Game................ 14.9 11.6

SERVE.........................

Aces........................ 90 99

Errors...................... 184 144

Aces/Game................... 1.8 1.9

SERVE RECEPTIONS..............

Errors...................... 103 90

Errors/Game................. 2.0 1.8

DEFENSE.......................

Digs........................ 713 581

Digs/Game................... 14.0 11.4

BLOCKING......................

Block Solo.................. 39 19

Block Assist................ 276 142

Total Blocks................ 177.0 90.0

Blocks Per Game............. 3.5 1.8

Block Errors................ 38 24

BALL HANDLING ERRORS.......... 17 18

ATTENDANCE....................

Total....................... 6631 7114

Dates/Avg Per Date.......... 4/1658 7/1016

Neutral site #/Avg.......... 4/236

MATCH WINS BY #GAMES 1 2 3 4 5 Total

-----------------------------------------------

Brigham Young....... 0 0 9 2 2 - 13

Opponents........... 0 0 2 0 0 - 2

GAMES WON BY GAME 1 2 3 4 5 Total

-----------------------------------------------

Brigham Young....... 12 11 10 4 2 - 39

Opponents........... 3 4 5 0 0 - 12

POINTS BY GAME 1 2 3 4 5 Total

-----------------------------------------------

Brigham Young....... 214 203 214 60 34 - 725

Opponents........... 144 133 176 28 26 - 507

Brigham Young Overall Individual Statistics (as of Oct 16, 1999)

All matches

Overall record: 13-2 Conf: 5-0 Home: 4-0 Away: 6-1 Neutral: 3-1

|-----------ATTACK---------| |---SET---| |-----SERVE----|

## Name GP-MP-MS K K/Game E TA Pct A A/Game SA SA/Gm SE

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

14 CARPENTER, Mari 42 14- 161 3.83 38 314 .392 1 0.02 1 0.02 2

9 PUIKKONEN, Nina 51 15- 215 4.22 65 408 .368 6 0.12 14 0.27 39

3 SMITH, Anna-Lena 51 15- 58 1.14 14 120 .367 682 13.37 6 0.12 13

15 TONGA, Sunny 19 11- 47 2.47 13 106 .321 5 0.26 1 0.05 3

8 BOWER, Caroline 51 15- 169 3.31 60 423 .258 18 0.35 19 0.37 15

10 BUNDY, Jackie 46 15- 99 2.15 50 224 .219 8 0.17 15 0.33 27

11 BARRUS, Alyssa 11 8- 8 0.73 3 24 .208 0 0.00 0 0.00 0

12 LAYTON, Melissa 46 15- 92 2.00 50 211 .199 24 0.52 19 0.41 59

7 BRINTON, Martha 5 4- 0 0.00 0 1 .000 10 2.00 0 0.00 0

6 KENNEDY, Emily 4 3- 0 0.00 0 0 .000 1 0.25 1 0.25 0

5 RHEAD, Amy 12 9- 2 0.17 3 5 -.200 0 0.00 1 0.08 5

2 WHITTAKER, Natalie 51 15- 0 0.00 6 17 -.353 3 0.06 12 0.24 21

18 O'REILLY, Lindsey 2 2- 1 0.50 3 4 -.500 1 0.50 1 0.50 0

17 OTTESON, Michelle 2 2- 0 0.00 2 2 -1.000 0 0.00 0 0.00 0

BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 51 15- 852 16.71 307 1859 .293 759 14.88 90 1.76 184

Opponents........... 51 15- 664 13.02 410 1949 .130 591 11.59 99 1.94 144

|---DIG---| |--------BLOCKING---------|

## Name G RE DIG Dig/G BS BA Total B/Game BE BHE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

14 CARPENTER, Mari 42 3 30 0.71 7 21 28 0.67 6 0

9 PUIKKONEN, Nina 51 11 98 1.92 15 69 84 1.65 8 0

3 SMITH, Anna-Lena 51 0 95 1.86 2 36 38 0.75 4 11

15 TONGA, Sunny 19 2 13 0.68 2 9 11 0.58 1 0

8 BOWER, Caroline 51 27 160 3.14 4 33 37 0.73 3 1

10 BUNDY, Jackie 46 26 87 1.89 5 58 63 1.37 10 0

11 BARRUS, Alyssa 11 0 3 0.27 0 10 10 0.91 1 0

12 LAYTON, Melissa 46 11 112 2.43 3 38 41 0.89 5 2

6 KENNEDY, Emily 4 0 4 1.00 0 0 0 0.00 0 0

7 BRINTON, Martha 5 0 0 0.00 1 2 3 0.60 0 2

5 RHEAD, Amy 12 5 12 1.00 0 0 0 0.00 0 0

2 WHITTAKER, Natalie 51 17 95 1.86 0 0 0 0.00 0 1

18 O'REILLY, Lindsey 2 0 2 1.00 0 0 0 0.00 0 0

17 OTTESON, Michelle 2 0 2 1.00 0 0 0 0.00 0 0

TEAM 1

BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 51 103 713 13.98 39 276 177.0 3.47 38 17

Opponents........... 51 90 581 11.39 19 142 90.0 1.76 24 18

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