Cougars Lose to Rams 3-0

PROVO -- Mountain West Conference leader Colorado State clinched the top seed for the MWC Tournament, Nov. 21-23, with a 3-0 win over the BYU women's volleyball team. The loss drops the Cougars to 12-16 overall and 7-7 in the MWC, while the Rams improve to 20-8, 12-2.

"I think we were flat tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "I think the five-game match last night took a little bit out of us. We haven't had very many matches like tonight's."

The story of the match was BYU's inability to sustain a consistent attack and its inability to effectively contain the CSU attacking game.

"Our serving allowed them to be in their offensive system more frequently than we would've liked, and our passing prevented us from being in our offensive system as we would've liked," Lamb said.

For the match BYU recorded 33 kills to CSU's 60, while being outhit .259 to .118.

After Andreya Downs put down a kill to give the Rams a quick 4-1 lead in the first game, the Cougars fought back with an 8-4 run and took the lead at 9-8 on an Allison Larson kill. CSU retook the lead and built a five-point lead (23-18) behind a relentless attack to force BYU into a timeout. Out of the timeout the Rams extended their lead and held a game-point advantage at 29-22, but BYU rallied with 4-0 run to narrow the lead to 29-26 before taking the game on a Tess Rogers kill.

In game two, BYU took the early lead and continued to build on it as it led by as many as seven points with a 17-10 lead. The Rams began to chip away at the lead, however, and Katie Jo Shirley led the Ram charge as she put down seven kills in CSU's last 20 points. The Rams tied the game at 23-23 and took the lead at 25-24 before winning the game on a Michelle Knox kill.

BYU never had the lead in the third game, as CSU continued to add to its lead throughout the game. The Cougars hit a match-low .024 in the game and Rogers sealed the match with a kill off a Cougar block.

The Cougars lone player with double-digit kills was Larson who led BYU for the second straight night with 11 kills on a match-high .526 hitting. She also put up four blocks on the night.

The Rams had three players with double-digit kills led by Shirley with 19. Rogers had 13 kills and Downs had 12 kills.

BYU will now prepare for the MWC Tournament, which will be held in Fort Collins, Colo.

"I feel that if we play well and put three good matches together that we can win the tournament," Lamb said. "Hopefully by next week we'll be healthier and ready to win."

                              Volleyball Box Score
       Colorado State vs BYU Cougars (Nov 16, 2002 at Brigham Young Univ)
    Colorado State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  ROGERS, Tess........  3| 13   8  34  .147|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  COURTNEY, Melissa...  3|  1   1   3  .000| 47|  2   2|  0|  9| 1  1  0|  4
 10 SARAUER, Becky......  3|  3   6  14 -.214|  2|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  1  1|  0
 11 SHIRLEY, Katie Jo...  3| 19   4  31  .484|  0|  0   1|  0|  6| 2  3  0|  0
 13 KNOX, Michelle......  3|  8   1  16  .438|  0|  1   2|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 17 DOWNS, Andreya......  3| 12   4  29  .276|  1|  1   2|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 6  DENNETT, Melissa....  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BAUER, Casey........  3|  3   0   5  .600|  0|  1   1|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 14 KERR, Lindsey.......  3|  1   1   2  .000|  3|  0   0|  1| 14| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 60  25 135  .259| 53|  5   8|  3| 45| 3 10  1|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  7  42  .333   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  21 12  46  .196   Colorado State...... 30 30 30  20-8,12-2 MWC
   3  18  6  47  .255   BYU Cougars......... 26 28 19  12-16,7-7 MWC
    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|  3   2   8  .125| 26|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  2  2|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  4   5  21 -.048|  1|  1   0|  2|  7| 0  3  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3|  2   3  14 -.071|  0|  1   0|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  3|  7   6  29  .034|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   1|  2|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  3|  6   3  16  .188|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  5  0|  0
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  3| 11   1  19  .526|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  4  1|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  1|  0   0   3  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 33  20 110  .118| 30|  3   4|  5| 27| 0 17  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  5  36  .278   Site: Brigham Young Univ (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2   8  6  32  .062   Date: Nov 16, 2002   Attend: 826   Time: 1h 40m
   3  10  9  42  .024   Referees: JOHN MARTIN, KIM NORMAN, KAREN MARSHAL