Cougars Begin With a Win

ORLANDO -- BYU began the season in fine form Friday afternoon with a sweep of Florida International in the opening match of the Central Florida Fall Invitational. With scores of 30-28, 30-26 and 30-24, the Cougars stuck to their motto of finishing better than they start and extended their win streak in season-opening matches to seven.

"I think we got gradually better as the match went on," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "We have a lot of work to do, but it was a great opportunity to see what we can do and what we still need to upgrade."

Junior outside hitter Chelsea Goodman led the way for BYU with 14 kills and seven digs. She also recorded three aces for the Cougars, who tallied eight aces as a team in the three-game match. Erica Lott also recorded double-digit kills with 12 while adding five digs and two blocks in her first match as a rightside hitter. BYU senior and reigning Mountain West Conference Player of the Year Lindsy Hartsock led the team with seven blocks while adding seven kills on .500 hitting. Hartsock was second in the nation last season hitting .444.

As a team, the Cougars hit .296 and recorded 44 kills, 26 digs and 12 blocks while holding the Golden Panthers to .275 hitting, including a .097 mark in the third game. True freshman Yarimar Rosa, who spent the summer starring on the Puerto Rican Junior National team, led the way for the Panthers with 14 kills.

The Cougars jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in game one but saw the advantage disappear soon after as the Panthers used a 6-0 run to take an 8-6 lead. It was a battle from there until Goodman put down a tremendous cross-court kill to spark a 5-0 BYU spurt complimented by two more Goodman kills. The Cougars were in control for the next several points, but FIU proved feisty, coming back to tie the game at 19-19 and then again at 23-23. BYU regrouped to go up 27-25, but three more Panther points found BYU trailing 28-27 late in the game. From there, the Cougars put up three straight points of their own to pull out the 30-28 victory.

Game two was all Panthers to start as they built a 13-10 lead, their largest of the match to that point. BYU came back to tie things up at 13-13 but FIU scored four straight points to take a 17-13 advantage. However, never ones to go down easily, the Cougars clawed their way back with the help of Goodman and Hartsock and a 6-1 run to take the game 30-26.

The see-saw battle continued into game three as neither team could gain more than a three-point advantage. The Cougars went up 10-7 only to see FIU come back to tie it at 10-10. The Panthers then went up 13-11 only to see BYU come back with a chance to tie it up at 14-14. On that point, the Cougars had a questionable call go the Panthers' way and could've let the game slip through their fingers. But a 7-1 BYU run showcased the true spirit of Cougar volleyball as BYU rolled to the 30-24 win from there, scoring the last six points of the match.

BYU will face tournament-host Central Florida Saturday at 10 a.m. ET (8 a.m. MDT) and then take on Stetson at 4 p.m. ET (2 p.m. MDT). Both matches will be broadcast live on BYU Radio. Access to the live audio stream can be found by going to the schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball homepage at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/.

                              Volleyball Box Score
               FIU vs BYU Cougars (Aug 25, 2006 at Orlando, Fla.)
    FIU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Szymanska, Anita....  3|  6   4  19  .105|  1|  1   2|  0|  0| 1  0  1|  0
 2  Vergun, Olga........  3| 10   5  20  .250|  0|  0   3|  2|  7| 0  1  0|  0
 3  Rosa, Yarimar.......  3| 14   2  27  .444|  0|  3   2|  1|  7| 1  1  1|  0
 4  Oliveira, Keila.....  3|  3   2   7  .143| 41|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  7
 10 Drumeva, Mariana....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  2|  5| 0  0  0|  0
 14 Spasojevic, Mina....  3|  7   1  11  .545|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  1
 6  Santisi, Alyse......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  3|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 8  Rhodes, Brandy......  3|  8   6  18  .111|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  1
 12 Rasby, Andra........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 48  20 102  .275| 42|  6  10|  8| 31| 2  8  2|  9
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  5  29  .448   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  6  42  .286   FIU................. (0) 28 26 24  0-1
   3  12  9  31  .097   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  1-0
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  3| 14   3  24  .458|  0|  3   1|  0|  7| 1  5  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  3|  6   2  24  .167|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 12   6  29  .207|  1|  1   1|  2|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  7   1  12  .500|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 1  6  1|  0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  3|  0   0   0  .000| 39|  1   0|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  3
 44 DYER, Rachel........  3|  5   3   9  .222|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  3  2|  0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  2|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  2   1|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  15  98  .296| 40|  8   5|  6| 26| 3 18  4|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  6  32  .312   Site: Orlando, Fla. (UCF Arena)
   2  17  5  37  .324   Date: Aug 25, 2006   Attend: 85   Time: 1:40 pm
   3  11  4  29  .241   Referees: Leisa Jordan, Michael Gale