BYU Improves to 2-0 in Tight Match

UNIVERSITY PARK -- The Cougars narrowly escaped Rutgers Saturday at the Penn State Classic, winning a close 3-2 (30-27, 30-18, 22-30, 29-31, 15-10) contest in their final tune-up before facing No. 8 Penn State in the night cap.

"We had lots of good things going on and if we had done a better job serving and passing we would've won this match in three games," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "But I thought we did a nice job of keeping our composure and coming out strong in the fifth game."

BYU dominated the Scarlet Knights in the first two games of the match, hitting a combined .412 percent on 36 kills while holding Rutgers to just .072 hitting on 19 kills and 14 errors.

But Rutgers, 11-17 in 2003, stormed back in games three and four, reversing roles to bring BYU's offensive production down from .469 hitting in the second game to just .237 in the third game and earning the 30-22 win. BYU trailed almost the entire way through game four before rallying to tie the score at 29. Rutgers proved to be too resilient, however, picking up the last two points to take the game at 31-29.

The two squads waged war in game five, battling back and forth on every point until a kill by Lindsy Hartsock sparked a 7-0 BYU run to give the Cougars a 14-8 lead. Three points later, on a kill by Kim Wilson, BYU had the 15-10 victory.

Two Cougars recorded double-doubles in the match. Kim Wilson picked up 21 kills and 14 digs to mark the first time a BYU player has notched more than 20 kills in a match since Wilson did it against Penn State in the 10th match of the season last year. Senior April Varner added 16 kills and 13 digs and junior Lexi Brown also contributed 16 kills. Middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock, recovering from a sprained ankle, played in all five games and put up 6 blocks for the Cougars in a great defensive effort as well as leading the Cougars with a .667 hitting percentage that featured 8 kills and no errors.

Overall, the Cougars hit .354, including an incredible .786 in the fifth game, on 76 kills and only 19 errors while holding Rutgers to just .222 hitting on 65 kills. BYU also out-blocked the Scarlet Knights 14-10 and out-dug them 67-58.

A total of 11 Cougars saw action with redshirt freshmen Erica Lott and Catherine Parker making just their second collegiate starts and true freshman Chelsea Goodman making her second collegiate match appearance

BYU, now 2-0, will conclude the Classic by playing host Penn State, ranked No. 8, Saturday night. The two teams have played an even 4-4 series to this point, with BYU winning the most recent match-up 3-2 in last year's Mizuno Classic. Penn State also won its first two games of the season to move to a 2-0 record. Live stats are available by visiting the schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball home page at www.byucougars.com.

"We can do a lot of good things against Penn State," Lamb said. "We're looking forward to the opportunity to be in the game at the end and hopefully pull off the upset."

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
         Rutgers vs BYU Cougars (Sep 04, 2004 at University Park, Pa.)
    Rutgers                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Christjaener, Dawn..  5|  1   1   9  .000|  2|  1   1|  1| 18| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 7  Thiry, Addie........  5|  7   0  13  .538|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0|   8.5
 9  Young, Ashleigh.....  5|  7   5  18  .111|  0|  2   2|  0|  1| 0  5  0|  0|  11.5
 10 Travioli, Stephanie.  5| 18   3  41  .366|  3|  1   1|  2|  7| 2  3  1|  0|  22.5
 13 Yankauskas, Lora....  5| 14   6  34  .235|  1|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  2  1|  0|  15.0
 14 Martin, Abbey.......  5|  5   1  10  .400| 47|  3   1|  1|  6| 0  1  1|  0|   8.5
 1  Greenwald, Jocelyn..  5|  0   0   4  .000|  0|  1   3|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 5  Meyer, Amanda.......  1|  1   1   4  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 8  Stout, Courtney.....  5| 11   6  28  .179|  2|  3   5|  2| 15| 0  2  1|  1|  15.0
 15 Castillo, Casey.....  3|  1   4  10 -.300|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 65  27 171  .222| 56| 11  13|  8| 58| 2 16  4|  1|  86.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  6  32  .125   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2   9  8  37  .027   Rutgers............. 27 18 30 31 10  0-2
   3  21  3  43  .419   BYU Cougars......... 30 30 22 29 15  2-0
   4  17  7  42  .238
   5   8  3  17  .294
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VARNER, April.......  5| 16   6  43  .233|  1|  1   0|  4| 13| 0  1  0|  0|  17.5
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  5|  7   3  17  .235| 62|  1   4|  0|  6| 0  3  0|  2|   9.5
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  5| 21   4  41  .415|  1|  2   4|  3| 14| 0  4  0|  0|  25.0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  5| 16   3  26  .500|  0|  0   3|  1|  9| 0  2  2|  0|  17.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  5|  7   2  16  .312|  3|  2   3|  1|  3| 0  4  2|  0|  11.0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  5|  8   0  12  .667|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 2  8  0|  0|  14.0
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  2   1|  2| 18| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 12 PARKER, Catherine...  3|  1   1   6  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|   2.0
 16 EVANS, Lindsey......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 POWELL, Stacie......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 76  19 161  .354| 71|  8  17| 11| 67| 2 24  4|  2|  98.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  5  36  .361   Site: University Park, Pa. (Recreation Building)
   2  18  3  32  .469   Date: Sep 04, 2004   Attend:     Time: 2:14
   3  15  6  38  .237   Referees: Kurt Fulmer, Patty Salvatore
   4  14  5  41  .220
   5  11  0  14  .786