No. 22 Utes Down Cougars

PROVO -- Locked in a defensive battle the entire match in front of a season-high crowd of 2194, the BYU women's volleyball team was edged by instate rival No. 22 Utah 31-33, 30-23, 28-30, 30-26 Friday night in the Smith Fieldhouse. The loss drops the Cougars to 11-15 overall and 6-6 in the Mountain West Conference, while the Utes improve to 20-6, 9-3.

"We did a nice job serving tonight that got them out of their offense," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "We needed some spark from some people who had been playing well. We didn't have a good offensive match with the exception of Carrie (Bowers) and Karina (Puikkonen)."

One bright spot for the Cougars was the play of junior middle blocker Carrie Bowers who has been suffering from two stress fractures in her feet. Bowers elevated her game with a .429 hitting percentage in putting down 10 kills to go with a career-high nine digs and four blocks.

"Carrie Bowers played one of her best games this year especially with her stress fractures," Lamb said. "It's even more impressive because she hasn't been able to practice the past several weeks."

The first game set the tone for the night as neither team could sustain an attack. Bowers came out strong and recorded three kills in the Cougars' first five points. BYU and Utah each held leads as large as three points. The Utes went up 25-22 to force the Cougars into a timeout. BYU stormed back to tie the game at 26-26 on the strength of two kills by freshman outside hitter Kim Wilson. BYU held a game point advantage at 29-28 when senior rightside hitter Allison Larson knocked Ute libero Jackie Morrill backwards with a kill down the line. However, the Utes eventually battled back to take the game.

In game two, BYU fell behind 1-2, but proceeded to reel off a 7-1 run aided by three Larson kills to take control. The Utes got to within three points on four occasions, but could not get any closer. The Cougars ended the game on a 6-2 run when Kim Turner put a backside set into the net.

Game three was close again, but Utah held the slight advantage in the early going. After sophomore outside hitter Lindsey Metcalf committed an attacking error, Utah took its largest lead at 18-14 to force BYU into a timeout. Out of the timeout, BYU regained the serve and on a block by Laura Nielsen and Metcalf, and Neilsen's serve then carried the Cougars on a 7-1 run as BYU took a 22-20 lead. The game would go back and forth until hitting errors by Nielsen and Wilson.

The Cougars fell behind early in the last game, 2-7, but battled back to tie the game at 11-11. Utah had control of the game, however, and every time the Cougars would climb close, the Utes would answer as they took the match.

Wilson led four Cougars in double-digit kills as she had a match-high 16. Larson had 14 kills and five blocks, Metcalf had her fifth double-double of the season with 11 kills and 10 digs and Bowers had 10 kills.

Last week's MWC Player of the Week Karina Puikkonen continues her stellar play with her fifth double-double of the season with 46 assists and 12 digs. Puikkonen also hit a match-high .500 with eights kills and five blocks.

Utah was led by the double-double duo of Sylva Strzinkova with 15 kills and 11 digs and Kim Turner with 14 kills and 16 digs.

The Utes improved to 11-61 all-time against the Cougars and with the win swept the season series between the two teams for the first time in history.

BYU will play its final conference matches when it hosts Wyoming and Colorado State, Nov. 15 and 16, respectively.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                Utah vs BYU Cougars (Nov 08, 2002 at Provo, UT)
    Utah                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  HUNDLEY, Shelly.....  2|  4   1  15  .200|  1|  1   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  1
 6  KARTCHNER, Kelsie...  4|  7   2  17  .294| 51|  2   6|  0|  5| 0  3  1|  3
 10 STRZINKOVA, Sylva...  4| 15   6  47  .191|  2|  0   0|  0| 11| 1  4  1|  0
 14 SCHULZ, Sabine......  4|  5   5  20  .000|  1|  0   2|  2|  7| 1  3  0|  0
 15 TURNER, Kim.........  4| 14   4  32  .312|  2|  4   0|  0| 16| 0  8  0|  0
 16 PHILLIPS, Lyndsey...  4|  7   6  22  .045|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  6  0|  0
 2  MORRILL, Jackie.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2| 18| 0  0  0|  0
 5  BEAL, Brenda........  3|  4   1  11  .273|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  4  1|  0
 7  WHITING, Britt......  2|  2   1   4  .250|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 9  LEICHLITER, Danielle  2|  5   3  13  .154|  0|  2   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  1
 17 HORNER, Taryn.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 63  29 181  .188| 59|  9  11|  4| 64| 2 31  3|  5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 17.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  8  50  .160   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  5  46  .239   Utah................ 33 23 30 30  20-6, 9-3 MWC
   3  12  8  41  .098   BYU Cougars......... 31 30 28 26  11-15, 6-6 MWC
   4  19  8  44  .250
    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...  4|  8   1  14  .500| 46|  0   1|  0| 12| 1  4  0|  1
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  4| 11   6  37  .135|  3|  0   0|  7| 10| 0  3  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  4| 10   1  21  .429|  0|  1   1|  0|  9| 0  4  1|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  4| 16   9  45  .156|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  1|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  4|  7   7  26  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  7  0|  0
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  4|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  2   4|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  4| 14  11  33  .091|  3|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  4|  0   0   1  .000|  4|  0   0|  1| 14| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 66  35 178  .174| 61|  4   7|  9| 75| 1 23  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 11  47  .106   Site: Provo, UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  21  2  42  .452   Date: Nov 08, 2002   Attend: 2194   Time: 2h 20m
   3  17 15  52  .038   Referees: JOHN MARTIN, MYLIE JEWKES, KAREN MARSHAL
   4  12  7  37  .135