No. 16 BYU Sweeps Rams To Stay Unbeaten

FORT COLLINS -- The No. 16 Cougars continued their winning ways on Friday, sweeping Colorado State in Moby Arena for the first time since 1988 by scores of 32-30, 32-30, 30-26. With the win, BYU improves to 12-0 on the season and is off to a first-place 5-0 start in Mountain West Conference play.

"I'm proud of the way our team competed and the way that they stayed composed, especially when we had to go extra in games one and two," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "What continues to amaze me about our team is how they've grown and matured; they're really becoming a very cohesive unit."

Sophomore Chelsea Goodman led the Cougars with 14 kills on the night while picking up 10 digs for her sixth double-double of the year and fourth in the last five matches. Fellow sophomore Erica Lott recorded 11 kills as did redshirt freshman Rachel Dyer, who also hit a team-high .391. Dyer and senior setter Lauren Richards Evans each picked up a team-best five blocks while sophomore libero Lindsey Evans led BYU with 12 digs.

"Rachel (Dyer) had one of the better nights that she's had this season," said Watson. "Her five blocks came at very key times for us, especially in games one and two when we had to make some key plays to close out those games."

After letting the Cougars take an early 12-10 lead in game one, the Ram offense got going, reeling off seven straight points to go up 17-12, a lead which they would extend to 22-15. BYU then put together a seven-point run of its own to tie the game at 22-22. The two teams traded points until a Cougar error gave Colorado State two game points at 29-27. But BYU was not about to give up, staving off the two points to tie the game again at 29-29. From there, the Cougars scored three of the next four points to win the game 32-30.

The roles were reversed in game two as BYU led most of the way, earning two game points at 29-27. But the Rams fought back to tie the game, first at 29-29 and then at 30-30. The Cougars were ready, though, playing well under pressure to pull out a second 32-30 win with kills from Goodman and Hartsock.

BYU started off game three with four hitting errors, letting the Rams jump out to a 6-1 lead. The Cougars fought back throughout the middle of the game, eventually taking the lead at 18-17 on a kill by Rachel Dyer. Two points later, BYU took the lead for good, cruising to the 30-26 game three win and snapping the Rams' eight-match winning streak.

Colorado State was led by seniors Tess Rogers, who had 13 kills, and Dre Downs, who had eight blocks. The Rams are now 9-4 on the season and 3-1 in the MWC.

BYU now heads north into Wyoming for a match-up with the Cowgirls Saturday night. The Cougars own a 55-4 series advantage over Wyoming with three of the four losses coming in Laramie, including a road loss last season. The Cowgirls are 5-8 overall and 0-4 in league play after losing to Utah Friday night. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. and fans of the Cougars can access live stats by going to the schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball homepage at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/.

"Wyoming is a challenge for us," said Watson. "We need to move on from our win against CSU and focus on taking care of Wyoming and the challenges that their systems pose for us."

                              Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
                   #16 Brigham Young Univ. vs Colorado State
                     (Oct 07, 2005 at Fort Collins, Colo.)
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  3| 14   5  33  .273|  1|  1   2|  1| 10| 0  2  1|  0|  16.0
 5  EVANS, Lauren.......  3|  2   0   7  .286| 39|  1   4|  0|  9| 2  3  0|  3|   6.5
 9  PATTERSON, Lexi.....  3|  6   7  29 -.034|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 11   6  25  .200|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 1  1  1|  0|  12.5
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  8   2  18  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0|  10.0
 44 DYER, Rachel........  3| 11   2  23  .391|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  5  0|  0|  13.5
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  EVANS, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 KEMP, Annie.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 52  22 135  .222| 42|  2  13|  1| 49| 4 14  2|  3|  65.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  7  47  .191   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  6  46  .239   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 32 32 30  12-0, 5-0 MWC
   3  19  9  42  .238   Colorado State...... (0) 30 30 26  9-4, 3-1 MWC
    Colorado State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  STRAUSS, Jaime......  3|  0   4   5 -.800|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 2  FORNSTROM, Ashley...  3|  3   0   6  .500| 34|  0   1|  0|  8| 1  5  0|  2|   6.5
 3  BARNES, Mekana......  3|  4   5  17 -.059|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   5.5
 7  MOKELKI, Tonya......  3|  9   5  17  .235|  1|  0   0|  0|  4| 1  1  0|  1|  10.5
 8  BAUER, Casey........  3| 10   5  34  .147|  2|  0   1|  1| 11| 2  3  0|  0|  13.5
 17 DOWNS, Dre..........  3|  6   2  19  .211|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 1  7  0|  0|  10.5
 4  ROGERS, Tess........  3| 13   5  38  .211|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|  13.5
 9  WHITNEY, Katherine..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   2|  0| 14| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 FAHNESTOCK, Amanda..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  1   3|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 45  26 136  .140| 41|  1  10|  2| 51| 5 20  0|  3|  61.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 11  46  .109   Site: Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
   2  17 11  49  .122   Date: Oct 07, 2005   Attend: 2512   Time: 1:41
   3  12  4  41  .195   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Ed Halik