Perfection Ends at Utah

SALT LAKE -- No. 12 BYU's perfect season came to an end Friday night at the hands of instate rival Utah in front of a record crowd at Crimson Court. Despite having swept eight of their last ten matches, the Cougars found themselves on the other end of a three-game match with the 26-30, 28-30, 23-30 loss to the MWC's second-place team.

"It's been a good ride, but it wasn't going to go on forever," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "We just didn't do a lot of the things that got us to this point in the first place. The challenge now is to regroup. The character of this team is such that we've been able to respond when down. I hope we can do that now."

BYU was led by sophomore outside hitters Chelsea Goodman and Erica Lott, who tallied 17 and 11 kills respectively. Lott also recorded a career-high 13 digs for her sixth double-double of the year while libero Lindsey Evans added 10. Junior Lindsy Hartsock led the Cougars with six blocks. The Utes, who improve to 17-6 overall and 9-3 in the MWC, were paced by freshman Airial Salvo with 15 kills.

The Cougars began the match strong in game one, staying just ahead of the Utes through the first third of the game. With the score tied at 10, Utah put together a 6-1 run thanks in part to two BYU service errors. The Cougars managed to cut the five-point lead to three multiple times but found themselves down 27-23. A huge kill straight down the middle from freshman Rachel Dyer followed by a BYU block gave the Cougars life and cut the deficit to two at 27-25, but the Utes scored three of the next four points to win the game 30-26 while holding BYU, the nation's 14th-best hitting team, to just a .125 attack percentage.

Utah's early 6-4 lead in game two was short-lived as the Cougars tied the score at 6-6 and then traded points with the Utes from there. A block from Hartsock gave BYU its first lead at 15-14 but did not give the Cougars enough momentum to prevent a 5-0 Ute run as the Cougars quickly found themselves down 15-19.

That lead would hold until late in the game when three Utah errors gave BYU the chance to tie things up at 25-26. The Cougars could not capitalize but got another shot two points later. However, a long pass from Evans missed the mark, allowing the Utes to preserve the lead. Two more tying opportunities also proved unsuccessful for BYU as Utah responded under pressure to win the game 30-28 and take a commanding two-game lead.

With their backs against the wall, the Cougars came out fighting in game three, scoring three of the first four points, including two kills from Goodman. Down 2-4, the Utes heeded the calls from the raucous crowd and caught fire, going on a 7-2 run to take a 9-6 lead. Utah increased its lead to 20-13 by virtue of a 6-0 run until kills from Hartsock and Lott quieted the crowd. However, it was not enough to quiet the Utes, who earned a 29-19 match point. BYU fought hard to preserve the undefeated season, scoring four straight points but eventually fell 23-30.

At 20-1 overall and 11-1 in the MWC, the Cougars return home this week to face Colorado State and Wyoming on Friday and Saturday nights.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU COUGARS
     #12 Brigham Young Univ. vs Utah (Nov 04, 2005 at Salt Lake City, UTAH)
    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| 17   6  37  .297|  1|  0   1|  0|  5| 1  1  1|  0|  18.5
 5  EVANS, Lauren.......  3|  2   1   6  .167| 41|  1   3|  0|  6| 1  1  0|  1|   4.5
 9  PATTERSON, Lexi.....  3|  4   1  10  .300|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 11   9  42  .048|  0|  2   3|  0| 13| 0  2  1|  0|  14.0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  6   3  20  .150|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 1  5  1|  0|   9.5
 44 DYER, Rachel........  3|  8   5  16  .188|  2|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  EVANS, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   3  .000|  1|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 KEMP, Annie.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 48  25 134  .172| 46|  3  13|  0| 44| 3 10  3|  1|  59.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17 11  48  .125   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  5  50  .260   Brigham Young Univ.. (0) 26 28 23  20-1, 11-1 MWC
   3  13  9  36  .111   Utah................ (3) 30 30 30  17-6, 9-3 MWC
    Utah                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  SOMMERFELDT, Shelly.  3| 10   2  28  .286|  1|  0   1|  1|  7| 1  2  0|  0|  12.0
 5  BAIRD, Lori.........  3|  8   4  18  .222|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0|  10.5
 11 SALVO, Airial.......  3| 15   2  35  .371|  3|  0   0|  0|  9| 2  1  0|  0|  17.5
 12 KRUG, Shannon.......  3|  6   1   8  .625| 35|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  0|   7.5
 15 TOONE, Emillie......  3|  3   3  16  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
 17 WEBB, Whitney.......  3|  8   6  16  .125|  1|  0   2|  1|  4| 0  5  0|  0|  10.5
 8  LOVELL, Kathryn.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  LEICHLITER, Danielle  3|  0   0   1  .000|  3|  0   0|  1| 16| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 13 THEURER, Katie......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 ROBISON, Kate.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 50  18 122  .262| 44|  0   8|  3| 46| 3 19  1|  0|  62.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  6  35  .143   Site: Salt Lake City, UTAH (Crimson Court)
   2  21  7  47  .298   Date: Nov 04, 2005   Attend: 1591   Time: 1:41
   3  18  5  40  .325   Referees: Verna KLUBNIKIN, Teri JACKSON, Quinette DUNN