Falcons Grounded by Cougar Sweep

PROVO -- The BYU women's volleyball team finished off the home portion of its Mountain West Conference schedule in style with a resounding 3-0 (30-23, 30-11, 30-21) sweep of Air Force Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse. The win improves the Cougars to 18-6 overall and 8-3 in the MWC, while the loss drops the Falcons to 13-11, 3-7.

Combined with its sweep over New Mexico Friday night, BYU hit over .300 in all six games in the two matches. BYU, the No. 18 blocking team in the nation with a 2.98 blocks per game average entering the week put up 15 blocks in the match, a season-high in a three-game affair.

"We got off to a rough start in the first game," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "They're a strong serving team -- the second-best serving team in the conference. But we got our defensive specialists in there to stabilize things."

After BYU took a quick 1-0 lead on a Lindsey Metcalf kill in game one, Air Force proceeded to reel off a 4-0 run on the strength of two Kristin Hamlett service aces. The Cougars would fight back to tie it the game at 4-4 and again at 5-5, but then the Falcons pulled off a 5-0 run aided by blocks on three straight BYU attacks. BYU would fall behind by as many as seven points, and found itself in a 8-15 deficit. The Cougars stormed back with an 8-1 run on the serving of Lindsy Hartsock. The run was spurred by a bevy of points scored in a variety of ways, including kills from four different players. Air Force slowly lost control of the game from there, and the Cougars used three power kills from sophomore outside hitter Kim Wilson to take the game.

"Lindsy Hartsock did a great job of serving in the first game," Lamb said. "We needed to make a big run to get back in it and she provided what we needed."

The second game started off closely until the Cougars broke away from a 7-7 tie with the Falcons. BYU went on to score 23 of the next 26 points to dominate the game. The Cougars hit .440 in the game and held Air Force to a -.182 attack percentage. Wilson paced BYU with four kills in the game, including a resounding kill to end the game, but the Cougars had a balanced attack, combined with a strong service game and strong blocking to take the game. The 19-point win in the game was BYU's widest single-game margin of victory this season.

"I try not to let the score affect how I play," Hartsock said. "I just want to focus on going hard on each play."

Hartsock tied a career-high with five aces in the match.

Game three also started off closely, but the Cougars pulled away, forcing Air Force into making numerous attack errors, and capitalizing on its own opportunities. Eventually the match ended on a Delavane Diaz service error.

BYU was led by sophomore middle blocker Lexi Brown for the second time in as many nights with 11 kills. She also hit a season-high .556 and matched a season-high with seven blocks.

Sophomore setter Lauren Richards distributed the ball evenly as all players had double-digit attack attempts, except for Hartsock who had nine.

Defensively, Metcalf matched Brown's match-high seven blocks, which including a career-high tying four solo blocks. Uila Crabbe had a match-high nine digs.

Air Force was led by Diaz who posted 10 kills.

BYU's lone match next week is an instate match-up with rival Utah. The Cougars currently trail the second-place Utes by one game in the MWC standings. The match is slated to be held on Crimson Court on the campus of the University of Utah at 7 p.m.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                       2003 BYU Women's Volleyball Stats
             Air Force vs BYU Cougars (Nov 01, 2003 at Provo, Utah)
    Air Force              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  BURKE, Jenalee......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 3  HUITT, Kristin......  3|  1   1   5  .000| 27|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  0  1|  0
 4  SIEFKEN, Carly......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 10 DIAZ, Delavane......  3| 10   5  31  .161|  0|  1   2|  4|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 11 EDMONDS, Brittany...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 19 BRYANT, Trier.......  2|  3   1   8  .250|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  1
 7  JEFFERSON, Lamecca..  3|  4  10  25 -.240|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 1  2  0|  0
 13 GALLEGOS, Rebecca...  3|  2   0   2 1.000|  0|  0   0|  2|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 16 WHITE, Molly........  3|  4   3  13  .077|  1|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 23 HAMLETT, Kristin....  3|  7   6  22  .045|  0|  3   2|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 31  26 106  .047| 29|  5  10|  8| 30| 1 10  1|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  6  36  .167   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2   6 12  33 -.182   Air Force........... 23 11 21  13-11,3-7
   3  13  8  37  .135   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 30  18-6,8-3
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  6   2  14  .286| 34|  0   2|  1|  4| 0  3  0|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  7   3  19  .211|  0|  1   0|  0|  8| 4  3  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  3|  9   3  17  .353|  1|  0   1|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3|  7   2  14  .357|  4|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  4  1|  0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  3| 11   1  18  .556|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  6  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  4   1   9  .333|  0|  5   1|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0
 4  TOGO, Melanie.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  2   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 11 KEARL, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 15 CASTILLO, Sahara....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  12  91  .352| 40|  8   6|  5| 45| 6 18  1|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  6  37  .324   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Field House)
   2  13  2  25  .440   Date: Nov 01, 2003   Attend: 1025   Time: 1h 30m
   3  13  4  29  .310   Referees: GLEN SAPP, TERRI JACKSON, KAREN MARSHALL