BYU Earns First Mountain West Conference Volleyball Win

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY -- Sophomore Nina Puikkonen had match highs of 12 kills and seven blocks to lead 11th-ranked BYU to a 3-0 win over the Air Force Academy Friday in the Cougars' inaugural Mountain West Conference match.

Puikkonen, who leads the conference in both kills and blocks, received help from senior outside hitters Caroline Bower and Mari Carpenter, who each put down eight kills in the 16-14, 15-6, 15-5 win. After starting slow while only hitting .080 in a tough first-game win, BYU recovered to hit .286 in the second game to take away any momentum from the Falcons, who are off to their best-ever start with 11 wins. Despite another poor hitting effort in the third game (.083), the Cougars were able to hold the Falcons to only four kills in the decisive game.

"We played a good second game and had seven blocks alone in that game,"said BYU coach Elaine Michaelis, who played her bench for most of the third game. "Air Force served us tough and was scrappy on defense."

On defense, Bower and Natalie Whittaker had 10 digs apiece to shared team-high honors while All-American setter Anna-Lena Smith and middle blocker Jackie Bundy each came up with seven digs. The Cougars dominated the shorter Falcon team at the net, totalling 13 team blocks to Air Force's one. Smith had 31 assists for the Cougars to move within 300 assists of the all-time BYU record.

With the win, BYU improves to 8-2 and prepares to face New Mexico Saturday in Albuquerque. The Falcons fall to 11-3 with the loss.

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   0   1  .000|  0|  1   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 3  SMITH, Anna-Lena....  3|  2   2   6  .000| 31|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0
 5  RHEAD, Amy..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  4|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 7  BRINTON, Martha.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 8  BOWER, Caroline.....  3|  8   7  33  .030|  1|  3   0|  1| 10| 1  3  0|  0
 9  PUIKKONEN, Nina.....  3| 12   6  28  .214|  0|  1   2|  0|  4| 1  6  0|  0
 10 BUNDY, Jackie.......  2|  4   2  13  .154|  0|  0   0|  5|  7| 0  3  2|  0
 11 BARRUS, Alyssa......  1|  1   1   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 12 LAYTON, Melissa.....  1|  2   1   7  .143|  0|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  0  1|  0
 14 CARPENTER, Mari.....  3|  8   2  17  .353|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  2  0|  0
 15 TONGA, Sunny........  2|  4   2   9  .222|  2|  1   0|  1|  2| 0  2  1|  0
 18 O'REILLY, Lindsey...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 41  23 116  .155| 36|  6   4| 12| 49| 3 20  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 12  50  .080   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  4  42  .286   Brigham Young....... 16 15 15  8-2
   3   9  7  24  .083   Air Force Academy... 14  6  5  11-3
    Air Force Academy      |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Jennifer Engh.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  4| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 4  Shaylor Billings....  3|  6   8  30 -.067|  0|  2   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 5  Jamie Rempel........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  1
 6  Tracy Wilkerson.....  3|  3   4  11 -.091|  1|  0   0|  0| 14| 0  0  0|  0
 8  Brooke Effland......  3| 12   9  44  .068|  0|  4   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 14 Robyn Duncan........  3|  6   6  21  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 10 Tharommony In.......  3|  0   0   7  .000| 26|  1   3|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 13 Summer Koons........  3|  2   6  16 -.250|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  0  0|  1
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 29  33 129 -.031| 29|  8   6|  6| 48| 1  0  0|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 1.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13 13  57  .000   Site: Air Force Academy (East Gym)
   2  12 10  48  .042   Date: Oct 01, 1999   Attend: 478   Time: 1:05
   3   4 10  24 -.250   Referees: Ken Pickering, Donna Wigton