Final Weekend Promises Tough Competition

PROVO -- With a five-match win streak on the line, the Cougars are set to take on No. 10 Colorado State Friday night and Wyoming Saturday night as their last tune-up before next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse with Friday's matchup with the Rams broadcast live on KBYU and BYUTV.

"Both of these matches are important to us," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "We feel pretty good about ourselves right now. We had two nice matches this weekend and we're doing some really nice things. We're ready to go after Colorado State on Friday."

At 16-9 overall and 8-4 in league action, BYU has a firm grasp on the third seed. A solid showing this weekend will give the Cougars some much-needed momentum heading into the league tournament, being hosted by Colorado State on Nov. 18-20 in Fort Collins, Colo. However, the Cougars will have to get past two tough opponents in the Rams and the Cowgirls. BYU dropped earlier 2004 matches to both teams on the road.

BYU currently ranks in the top three in six of seven statistical categories on the season, including hitting percentage (.279), assists (14.16), blocks (3.26), opponent hitting percentage (.158), kills (15.71) and service aces (1.71). The Cougars lead the league in blocks per game in Conference matches (3.55). Cougar Lauren Richards leads the MWC in aces per game with 0.51 while Lindsy Hartsock is first in blocks per game (1.77) and second in hitting percentage (.387).

In last weekend's matches, the Cougars went 2-0 on the road against MWC opponents UNLV and San Diego State to take over third place in the league. BYU went five games with the Rebels Friday night and then recorded their fifth straight win with a 36-34, 30-15, 30-22 victory over the Aztecs.

Senior Lindsey Metcalf posted the first triple-double of her career against UNLV with 13 kills, 18 digs and 10 blocks while redshirt freshman Lindsey Evans recorded a career-high 33 digs, placing her second all-time at BYU for single-match digs. Lexi Brown also notched a career-high Saturday night with a .733 hitting percentage against SDSU.