Offensive Power Leads Cougars over Cowgirls

PROVO -- Clinging to a one-game lead over Wyoming in the Mountain West Conference standings, three Cougars had career matches as BYU started and ended strong in a five-game marathon win (30-25, 30-14, 28-30, 28-30, 12-15). The Cougars improve to 12-15 overall and 7-6 in the MWC, while the Cowgirls fall to 20-9, 5-8.

"That's a good Wyoming team that we faced tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "We played very well for two games, then Wyoming came out with fire in the next two, but we dug deep to win the match."

Senior rightside hitter Allison Larson led the BYU hit parade as she put down a career-high 20 kills while hitting .400. Freshman outside hitter Kimberly Wilson and sophomore outside hitter Lindsey Metcalf also set career-highs in kills with 18 and 17 kills, respectively. Laura Nielsen was the fourth Cougar with double-digit kills as she recorded 14 while hitting a match-high .632.

"I thought Allison had a really nice match tonight," Lamb said. "They couldn't seem to stop her. Kim and Lindsey also had some really big swings."

BYU and Wyoming struggled in the first game as the teams combined for 17 attack errors; 10 by the Cougars. The Cougars ran a balanced attack, though, in compiling 19 kills, as six players had three or more kills in the game.

The second game was close to start, but BYU slowly pulled away building a six-point lead at 14-8 and forcing Wyoming into a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Cougars slowly started to build on their lead eventually stretching it to 26-11, before cruising to the win. BYU hit a match-high .387 in the game while holding Wyoming to a match-low -.067 attack percentage.

Between the second and third games former BYU head volleyball coach Elaine Michaelis was honored in a surprise presentation by over 50 of her former players for her 40 years of coaching the volleyball program.

The Cowgirls came out with fire in the third and fourth games, edging the Cougars in each game to force a decisive fifth game.

BYU took a quick 1-0 lead in the final game and led throughout, building its lead to as many as four (11-7) before Wilson sealed the match with a kill.

Metcalf also put up a match-high 19 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Junior defensive specialist Uila Crabbe was also a defensive force with 18 digs. BYU outblocked Wyoming on the night 15.0-11.0 and junior middle blocker Carrie Bowers led BYU with a match-high seven blocks.

The Cougars will host MWC-leader Colorado State Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. The Rams are coming off a 3-1 win at No. 21 Utah tonight.

                              Volleyball Box Score
          Wyoming Cowgirls vs BYU Cougars (Nov 15, 2002 at Provo, UT)
    Wyoming Cowgirls       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  DOMAN, Amy..........  5|  2   0   7  .286| 52|  2   2|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  1
 2  RAUTER, Michele.....  5| 15   7  57  .140|  0|  0   3|  2| 12| 0  3  0|  0
 4  ROSLUND, Jill.......  5| 11   7  24  .167|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  1
 9  MAYTORENA, Sara.....  5| 12   9  33  .091|  3|  1   2|  0|  8| 0  5  0|  0
 10 PERLEE, Hana........  5|  0   0   5  .000|  0|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 13 POWERS, Leah........  5| 12   4  33  .242|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  7  0|  0
 6  MILLER, Amanda......  5|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  1
 7  ROEBKEN, Lindsey....  5|  7   5  22  .091|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 59  32 182  .148| 55|  3  11|  3| 44| 0 22  0|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  7  39  .103   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2   7  9  30 -.067   Wyoming Cowgirls.... 25 14 30 30 12  20-9, 5-8 MWC
   3  17  4  44  .295   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 28 28 15  12-15, 7-6 MWC
   4  16  8  43  .186
   5   8  4  26  .154
    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  14  .357| 66|  0   0|  0|  6| 1  2  0|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  5| 17   9  36  .222|  0|  0   2|  1| 19| 0  6  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  5|  5   6  21 -.048|  1|  0   3|  0|  5| 0  7  1|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  5| 18  10  54  .148|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 1  1  2|  1
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  5|  0   1   1-1.000|  2|  2   1|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  5| 14   2  19  .632|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  5  1|  0
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  5|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  1   4|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  1
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  5| 20   6  35  .400|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  1|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  5|  0   0   2  .000|  3|  0   0|  2| 18| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 82  36 185  .249| 74|  3  11|  3| 76| 3 24  4|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19 10  46  .196   Site: Provo, UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  16  4  31  .387   Date: Nov 15, 2002   Attend: 1034   Time: 2H 25M
   3  21 10  40  .275   Referees: KEN TAYLOR, BRUCE GRANT, KAREN MARSHAL
   4  17  8  49  .184
   5   9  4  19  .263