Cougars Carry Play to Sweep Aztecs

SAN -- The Mountain West Conference women's volleyball regular season came to a close Saturday night, and BYU sprinted through the finish line with a 3-0 (30-25, 30-21, 30-26) win over San Diego State at Peterson Gym. The win gives the Cougars their 29th 20-win season in the past 30 years with a 20-7 overall record, and they finish with a 10-4 mark in MWC play. The Aztecs fell to 17-13, 7-7.

BYU was again led by its team blocking effort, out-blocking SDSU 14-9. Offensively, the Cougars were led by sophomore middle blocker Lexi Brown who recorded match highs of 16 kills and a .419 attack percentage.

"We played well in all phases of the game tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "Our defense in particular was outstanding."

The Cougars edged the Aztecs in every statistical category on the night -- both offensively and defensively.

No Cougar hit under .200, and collectively the team hit .348, against the No. 4 blocking team in the nation. BYU, the No. 11 blocking team nationally entering the week, held the Aztecs to .151 hitting.

Other than Brown, two other sophomores set the tone in the match for BYU. Outside hitter Kim Wilson balanced the Cougar attack with 10 kills, but it was setter Lauren Richards who catalyzed the attack. Richards dished out a match-best 40 assists, while also adding six digs, six kills and five blocks for another sterling all-around effort.

"Lauren had one of the best blocking nights of her career," Lamb said. "She was all over the place and had a solid all-around match."

In two wins this week against UNLV and SDSU, Richards, herself, proved to be a threat. She posted eight kills on 12 attempts with no attack errors.

Senior libero Uila Crabbe collected a match-high 13 digs, and is now nine digs shy of breaking Caroline Bower's career mark of 1,052 for fifth all-time at BYU.

With their blocking effort, the Cougars have now out-blocked their opponents in six of their last seven matches, including five double-digit blocking efforts.

Megan Schauermann was the lone Aztec with double-digit kills, as she collected 11.

The MWC Tournament will begin Thursday, and will conclude with the championship match Saturday. It will be held on the campus of SDSU and all matches will be played at Peterson Gym.

BYU will enter the tournament as the third seed and will play its first match Thursday, against No. 6 seed Air Force. Match time has yet to be announced.

"I feel great about where we are at this point in the season," Lamb said. "The team is feeling confident, and all the things that we've been working on are coming together."

                              Volleyball Box Score
                       2003 BYU Women's Volleyball Stats
       BYU Cougars vs San Diego State (Nov 15, 2003 at San Diego, Calif.)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  TOGO, Melanie.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  6   0   9  .667| 40|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  5  0|  3
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  8   3  24  .208|  1|  2   1|  0| 12| 3  1  1|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3|  7   3  14  .286|  3|  1   0|  1|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  3| 16   3  31  .419|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 1  4  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  5   1   6  .667|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  3| 10   4  26  .231|  2|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 11 KEARL, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  1   1|  2|  3| 0  0  0|  1
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  1|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 53  14 112  .348| 50|  5   6|  4| 47| 4 20  2|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  6  29  .241   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  23  4  37  .514   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 30  20-7 (10-4)
   3  17  4  46  .283   San Diego State..... 25 21 26  17-13 (7-7)
    San Diego State        |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  MORIARTY, Kara......  3|  5   9  22 -.182|  0|  0   0|  2| 11| 0  2  2|  0
 6  CANSDALE, Melissa...  3|  5   2  15  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 7  ENGSTROM, Sara......  3|  4   2   9  .222| 35|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0
 11 SCHAUERMANN, Megan..  3| 11   4  22  .318|  1|  0   0|  1|  1| 2  3  1|  0
 15 ANGUELOVA, Zlatina..  3|  8   1  26  .269|  0|  0   1|  1|  8| 0  2  0|  0
 16 MCPARTLAND, Aspen...  3|  8   5  21  .143|  2|  0   2|  0|  8| 0  4  1|  0
 5  SANDE, Natalie......  3|  1   0   2  .500|  1|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 8  GREGG, Robyn........  3|  0   1   2 -.500|  1|  3   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 12 DYKEMA, Kari........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  24 119  .151| 40|  4   6|  5| 38| 2 14  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 10  36  .167   Site: San Diego, Calif. (Peterson Gym)
   2  13  5  31  .258   Date: Nov 15, 2003   Attend: 301   Time: 1:24
   3  13  9  52  .077   Referees: Tana Martin, Jesse Martinez