Cougars Fall in Five to Aggies

LOGAN -- In a season fraught with misfortune, the BYU women's volleyball team almost overcame another injury, but its valiant effort was thwarted by Utah State as the Cougars were downed 14-30, 30-21, 30-28, 28-30, 11-15 Tuesday night. The loss drops the Cougars to 7-11 overall while the Aggies improve to 7-8.

"I was really proud of our team tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "We could've given up when Lindsey (Metcalf) went down, but we fought hard and we gave a great effort to try to win the match."

Metcalf, a converted middle blocker after Lexi Brown and Laura Nielsen went down with injuries, sprained an ankle early in the first game. BYU struggled without her in the lineup and only managed five kills in the first game as USU overwhelmed the Cougars.

The Cougars stormed back in the second and third games, however, as they hit .423 and .310, respectively.

Offensively, BYU was led by the outside hitting tandem of April Varner and Kim Wilson. Varner recorded her team-leading seventh double-double of the season as she racked up a team-high 17 kills and 12 digs. Wilson, BYU's only active true freshman, was the only other Cougar with double-digit kills in recording 11.

On the defensive side of the ball, BYU outblocked Utah State 18.0 to 10.5. The block party was led by career performances from Carrie Bowers who had 12 blocks and Karina Puikkonen who had 10 blocks. Puikkonen also dished out 40 assists for her second double-double of the season and she also managed to hit a team-high .455 (seven kills).

Junior transfer (Ricks College) Sahara Castillo saw her first extended playing time of her BYU career and she set numerous career-highs, including six kills (.308), three service aces, six digs and one block. Uila Crabbe was her usual steady self in providing 12 digs.

In a move typifying the Cougars' season and displaying the lineup's versatility, outside hitter Erin Webb slid over to the middle blocker position in place of Metcalf, and contributed four kills and six blocks.

Despite many positive aspects of the team's performance, BYU lost the last two games in close fashion, as the Aggies extended their winning streak over the Cougars to three matches. BYU now holds a 45-12 all-time record versus USU.

USU was led by a dominant performance from Zuzana Cernianska who had 19 kills, 39 assists, five aces, nine digs and four blocks. Erin Cartwright had match-highs with 20 kills and a .457 attack percentage.

"We did a lot of good things in tonight's match," Lamb said. "It's a really tough loss, but we have to move forward and keep working hard. We'll go back at it against Utah on Friday."

The Cougars will return to conference play Friday in another instate showdown. BYU will visit No. 20 Utah in the first meeting of the year between the two teams on Crimson Court at 7 p.m.

                              Volleyball Box Score
            BYU Cougars vs Utah State (Oct 08, 2002 at Logan, Utah)
    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  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  5|  7   2  11  .455| 40|  1   0|  0|  8| 0 10  0|  0
 3  VARNER, April.......  5| 17   6  45  .244|  2|  0   1|  0| 12| 0  1  0|  1
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  5|  8   8  29  .000|  4|  2   2|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  5|  8   7  28  .036|  0|  1   1|  1|  1| 2 10  3|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  5| 11   3  25  .320|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  5|  6   2  13  .308|  0|  3   3|  2|  6| 0  1  0|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  5|  4   3  11  .091|  2|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  6  1|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  5|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  0   0|  1| 12| 0  0  0|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  5|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 61  32 164  .177| 52|  8   9|  9| 49| 2 32  5|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   5 10  29 -.172   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  3  26  .423   BYU Cougars......... 14 30 30 28 11  7-11
   3  20  7  42  .310   Utah State.......... 30 21 28 30 15  7-8
   4  16 10  48  .125
   5   6  2  19  .211
    Utah State             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Fluckiger, Shauni...  3|  1   3   9 -.222|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 4  Cernianska, Tereza..  5|  7   9  39 -.051|  0|  1   1|  4|  6| 1  4  0|  0
 11 Seedall, Hailey.....  5| 13   6  26  .269|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 12 Kennedy, Emily......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 16 Cernianska, Zuzana..  5| 19   9  40  .250| 39|  5   2|  0|  9| 0  4  0|  3
 18 Cartwright, Erin....  5| 20   4  35  .457|  1|  1   0|  3|  6| 0  4  0|  0
 1  Jordan, Jenna.......  3|  6   3  16  .188|  0|  0   0|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 7  Roth, Ingrid........  5|  6   2  11  .364|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  0
 8  Delsigne, Andrea....  5|  0   0   0  .000| 23|  1   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  1
 10 Neves, Taubi........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 72  36 176  .205| 65|  9   3|  8| 49| 1 19  0|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  7  35  .171   Site: Logan, Utah (Spectrum)
   2  14  9  29  .172   Date: Oct 08, 2002   Attend: 707   Time: 2:20
   3  18  8  43  .233   Referees: Daphne Nelson, Terri Jackson
   4  16  9  40  .175
   5  11  3  29  .276