Cougars Advance With Eleventh Sweep

FORT COLLINS -- The third-seeded Cougars advanced to the Mountain West Conference Championship semifinals for the sixth straight year with a three-game victory over the sixth-seeded San Diego State Aztecs Thursday afternoon. The 30-18, 30-28, 30-15 win is the eleventh sweep of the year for BYU and sets the Cougars up for a possible showdown with second-seeded and nationally-ranked Colorado State in the semifinal matchup.

"It wasn't our best match," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "I thought they pushed us and did some things to make is harder for us but we stepped it up and got a solid win. We feel good and we're ready to win the tournament."

Redshirt freshman Erica Lott led the Cougars with 15 kills and a .500 hitting percentage despite not playing the first game. Senior April Varner finished with 13 kills and a team-high 13 digs for her fourth double-double on the year while junior Lexi Brown added 12 kills. All-conference honorees Lindsy Hartsock and Lauren Richards led the Cougar blocking effort with four blocks apiece.

As a team, BYU hit .341 on 56 kills and only 11 errors while holding the Aztecs to just .086 hitting on 37 kills and 26 errors. With 8.5 blocks to SDSU's three, the Cougars out-blocked their opponent for the 22nd time this season, showing why they are currently ranked 10th in the nation in the blocking category.

Beginning with a San Diego State service error, the Cougars reeled off six straight points to start the match and took an early 10-2 lead in game one. The Aztecs put up four straight points of their own to get back to 10-6 but would get no closer as BYU opened up a 17-7 lead and never looked back, winning 30-18 on .417 hitting.

The Aztecs stormed back in game two, quickly opening up a 7-3 lead and keeping their distance from the Cougars. BYU was able to ties the game at 16, 19 and again at 23 but could not take the lead until an SDSU error gave the Cougars a 24-23 advantage. With four game points at 29-25, BYU committed three errors to make things interesting at 29-28. But a tremendous kill from Hartsock sealed the Cougars' 30-28 victory. Lott gave BYU a big lift in game two with ten of her 15 kills.

With the game two scare over, the Cougars returned to dominance in game three, scoring the first five points and taking an early 12-4 lead. Lott was once again unstoppable, slamming kills from all over the court as BYU took game three 30-15.

At 18-10 overall, the Cougars still have a lot of work to do to assure themselves of a bid to their 22nd postseason appearance. BYU will face the winner of the Colorado State-New Mexico quarterfinal match at 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon in the tournament semifinals. Fans can watch the match live on BYUTV or CSTV at 3:30 or tape-delayed at 6 p.m. on KBYU. The Cougars are 56-7 all-time against the Lobos and won both regular-season matchups. Against the Rams, BYU is 44-17-1 all-time but lost both competitions this season, including a five-game heart-breaker last Friday night in Provo. History is on the Cougars' side, however, as they have beat Colorado State in the tournament both times the event has been held on the Rams' home court, once in 2002 to advance to the tournament finals and once in 2000 to win the title.

"We're here to win this tournament," Lamb said. "That's what we've been working for all year long. We control our own destiny and we're going to give it everything we have. We're focused on Colorado State and know that we can beat them."

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        Brigham Young University Cougars
    San Diego Aztecs vs Brigham Young (Nov 18, 2004 at Fort Collins, Colo.)
    San Diego Aztecs       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  MORIARTY, Kara......  3|  7   6  26  .038|  3|  0   0|  1| 13| 1  0  0|  0|   8.0
 3  BOWKER, Ashley......  3|  1   1   6  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  1|   1.5
 6  CASTILLO, Kristen...  3|  0   0   0  .000| 15|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  MAHAN, Lindsey......  3|  2   3  15 -.067|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 9  STAPLEY, Melissa....  3| 13   7  37  .162|  0|  0   1|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|  13.0
 10 DENT, Audra.........  3|  4   5  16 -.062|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   4.5
 5  CORDEIRO, Aime......  3|  2   0   4  .500|  9|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 11 GREENE, Melanie.....  3|  8   4  23  .174|  2|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 12 DYKEMA, Kari........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  2   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 37  26 128  .086| 31|  2   4|  2| 53| 1  4  1|  1|  42.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 3.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  9  46  .043   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  7  38  .263   San Diego Aztecs.... (0) 18 28 15  4-24
   3   9 10  44 -.023   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 30  18-10
    Brigham Young          |     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.......  3| 13   2  29  .379|  0|  0   0|  1| 13| 0  2  0|  0|  14.0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  3   1  11  .182| 47|  0   1|  0|  8| 1  3  0|  3|   5.5
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  3   0  10  .300|  4|  0   1|  0|  8| 0  1  2|  0|   3.5
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  2|  4   1   8  .375|  1|  1   0|  1|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   5.0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  3| 12   1  25  .440|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0|  13.5
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  6   3  16  .188|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0|   9.0
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  2|  0   1   7 -.143|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  2| 15   2  26  .500|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|  16.0
 16 EVANS, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 POWELL, Stacie......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  11 132  .341| 53|  2   7|  2| 56| 1 15  2|  3|  66.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  2  36  .417   Site: Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
   2  21  7  47  .298   Date: Nov 18, 2004   Attend:     Time: 1:34
   3  18  2  49  .327   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Glenn Sapp
                        ID-315311
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       0   5   0     5
                        Lead changes     1   2   1     4