Utes Top Cougars in Hard Fought Match

SALT LAKE -- An injury riddled BYU women's volleyball team fought hard, but lost to instate and Mountain West Conference rival No. 19 Utah 24-30, 28-30, 24-30 Friday night at Crimson Court. The loss drops the Cougars to 7-12, 1-2 MWC, while the Utes improve to 14-4, 4-1.

"I thought we did a lot of good things tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "We competed extremely hard and kept improving as a team."

Both teams came out ready to attack in the first game as Kim Turner and Kim Wilson traded kills to tie the game at 1-1. BYU struggled with its serve early on, though, as Erin Webb and Allison Larson missed serves to put the Cougars down 2-4. Sahara Castillo came in to serve with BYU trailing 3-5, and promptly led the Cougars on a 4-0 run to give BYU its largest lead of the game. BYU's lead was short-lived, however, and both team traded points to 10-10. Utah then went on a decisive 6-0 run on the strength of staunch team blocking. Down the stretch, BYU's serving was its Achilles heel as it missed six in the game to Utah's two. The Utes extended their lead to as many as nine at 23-14 on a backside kill by Lyndsey Phillips as it cruised in taking the first game on a kill by Phillips.

In game two, the Utes jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before the Cougars regained their composure to make the score 5-6 on a block by Karina Puikkonen and Erin Webb, BYU's first block of the match. The game belonged to Utah's Sylva Strzinkova and Sabine Schulz, however, as Strzinkova led the Utes in game two with 20 attempts and Schulz contributed a game-high eight kills on 11 attempts. Utah reeled off a 7-0 run to go up 17-10, but BYU chipped away and Allison Larson capped a 4-0 Cougar run with a kill to put BYU within one at 23-24, but that is as close as the Cougars would get as Strzinkova put the game away with a kill.

In game three, BYU took a 3-2 lead and led by as many as three as Puikkonen and Carrie Bowers blocked Phillips to put the Cougars up 13-10. Utah then went on a 5-0 run to take a 15-13 lead and the Utes would not look back. Utah stretched its lead to as many as five at 28-23 on a Strzinkova kill before taking the match.

"We are a little outmatched right now," Lamb said. "We don't make any excuses, though. We have injuries and we are inexperienced, but that's just the way it is and we can't do anything about it. What we can do is go out, compete, and play hard, which we did tonight."

April Varner continues her consistent play of late, as she again led BYU in kills with 13. Varner also had seven digs, three blocks and one service ace while hitting .235.

"April is really starting to play well," Lamb said. "She's gaining confidence and playing consistently."

Carrie Bowers had 10 kills to go with a team-high five blocks. Overall, BYU was outhit .241 to .098 and was outblocked 17.0-7.0 on the night.

Utah was led by Sylva Strzinkova who had a match-high 15 kills. Sabine Schulz had a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs and a match-high .632 attack percentage.

BYU will continue MWC play and conclude its four-match road trip as it travels to play Colorado State, Oct. 18, and Wyoming, Oct. 19.

                              Volleyball Box Score
           BYU Cougars vs Utah (Oct 11, 2002 at Salt Lake City, 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...  3|  4   4  13  .000| 34|  2   0|  0|  6| 0  3  1|  0
 3  VARNER, April.......  3| 13   5  34  .235|  0|  1   1|  1|  7| 0  3  1|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  3|  6   5  18  .056|  0|  0   4|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3| 10   5  24  .208|  2|  1   2|  0|  1| 1  4  0|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  3|  3   1  10  .200|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  3|  6   8  29 -.069|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  3|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  1   3|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  3|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  1   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  29 132  .098| 39|  6  12|  3| 35| 1 12  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  7  41  .171   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15 10  51  .098   BYU Cougars......... 24 28 24  7-12, 1-2 MWC
   3  13 12  40  .025   Utah................ 30 30 30  14-4, 4-1 MWC
    Utah                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  BEAL, Brenda........  3|  2   4  12 -.167|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 1  7  2|  0
 6  KARTCHNER, Kelsie...  3|  0   0   4  .000| 40|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  2|  1
 10 STRZINKOVA, Sylva...  3| 15   7  39  .205|  0|  3   0|  1|  7| 1  4  0|  0
 14 SCHULZ, Sabine......  3| 12   0  19  .632|  0|  0   0|  2| 12| 0  2  0|  0
 15 TURNER, Kim.........  3|  9   4  18  .278|  0|  0   2|  3|  8| 0  5  0|  0
 16 PHILLIPS, Lyndsey...  3|  7   4  13  .231|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  5  1|  0
 2  MORRILL, Jackie.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  0
 4  HUNDLEY, Shelly.....  1|  1   1   3  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  1|  0
 8  NEUMEIER, Tracy.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 HORNER, Taryn.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  20 108  .241| 43|  3   7|  6| 48| 3 28  6|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 17.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  7  35  .257   Site: Salt Lake City, Utah (Crimson Court)
   2  18  8  46  .217   Date: Oct 11, 2002   Attend: 1382   Time: 1:29
   3  12  5  27  .259   Referees: Ken Taylor, Tom Given, Quinnette Dunn