Balanced Effort Leads to Win For No. 16 BYU

SAN -- The No. 16 BYU women's volleyball team overcame a tough challenge from the San Diego State Aztecs Thursday night in San Diego to record their fifth straight win, 30-28, 20-30, 30-18, 30-27. The victory improves the Cougars to 11-1 on the season and 3-0 in Mountain West Conference play.

"We continue to find a way to win, and we show great character and resolve under pressure," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "SDSU played a wonderful match, but we were able to at times get on a run behind the play of Rachel Dyer and Chelsea Goodman. Both of them played an outstanding match and carried us at times."

The win showcased a very balanced BYU attack as four Cougars recorded double-digit kills and four Cougars posted double-digit digs. Junior rightside hitter Erica Lott led the BYU offense with 20 kills, marking the third time she has recorded 20 or more kills this season, while adding 13 digs for her third double-double of the year. Junior outside hitter Chelsea Goodman also notched a double-double, her seventh of the season, with 15 kills and 16 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Rachel Dyer tied her career-high with 17 kills on .609 hitting, and senior middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock added 10 kills and four blocks on the night. Sophomore libero Janvier Beaumont posted 15 digs while junior setter Jenna Judkins tallied a career-high 10.

"We have to rely on everyone," said Watson. "It was most definitely a team effort. Everybody had to contribute. I'm glad that our team has progressed to a point where we can spread the responsibility of performance out over the whole team and not rely on the same people night in and night out to get the job done. It's a sign of us maturing and progressing thoughout the course of the season."

The Aztecs took control early in game one, scoring five straight points to jump out to a 9-4 lead. BYU struggled to come back from there until Goodman took control, pounding out three straight kills to get her team to within one at 19-18. The Aztecs regained their composure and put together a 7-3 run to push the lead back up at 26-21. But the Cougars had some magic of their own, scoring nine of the last 11 points to take game one, 30-28.

Game two began as a battle with both teams playing to an 8-8 tie until SDSU rattled off seven straight points. BYU's Hartsock finally ended the Cougar scoring drought with an emphatic kill straight down the middle, but the Cougars again found themselves trying to claw out of a seemingly bottomless hole. And this time there was no magic to be had for BYU as SDSU kept the pressure on and took game two, 30-20.

The third game saw a complete role reversal as the Cougars dominated early and jumped out to a huge 18-8 lead by virtue of a 14-2 run. BYU never looked back from there, racking up the 30-18 win. Game four saw a much more balanced score throughout, but the Cougars showed why they are ranked No. 16 in the nation in keeping their composure and putting away the match with a 30-27 game-four win.

San Diego State was led by freshman outside hitter Stephanie Darnall with 17 kills. Darnall also posted 14 digs on the night while Aime Cordeiro, who entered the match leading the MWC in digs, recorded 15 for the Aztecs. SDSU is now 6-8 on the season and 0-2 in league action.

BYU will continue its southern road swing with a match at UNLV on Saturday night. The Rebels are 9-4 on the season and 1-1 in MWC action after falling in four games to Utah on Thursday night. Game time is set for 7 p.m. PST and can be followed via live stats or an live Internet video-stream. Links for both can be found by going to the Schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball homepage at www.byucougars.com.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
     #16 BYU Cougars vs San Diego State (Sep 21, 2006 at San Diego, Calif.)
    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....  4| 15   2  36  .361|  0|  1   2|  1| 16| 0  0  2|  1
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4| 20   9  46  .239|  1|  1   2|  2| 13| 0  4  1|  0
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  4| 10   4  21  .286|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  4  2|  0
 20 JUDKINS, Jenna......  4|  1   0   4  .250| 61|  3   0|  0| 10| 1  1  0|  2
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4| 17   3  23  .609|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  1|  0   0|  0| 15| 0  0  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  2|  3   2  16  .062|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  2|  3   1  14  .143|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 70  21 161  .304| 63|  6   7|  5| 61| 1 12  5|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  6  43  .349   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  6  33  .182   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 20 30 30  11-1 (3-0 MWC)
   3  18  3  39  .385   San Diego State..... (1) 28 30 18 27  6-8 (0-2 MWC)
   4  19  6  46  .283
    San Diego State        |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  DARNALL, Stephanie..  4| 17   8  50  .180|  0|  0   1|  2| 14| 0  0  0|  0
 2  LATHROP, Leah.......  4|  0   0   0  .000| 31|  3   1|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  2
 7  WAHLIN, Kelley......  4|  8   1  11  .636|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 2  3  1|  0
 9  HELLWIG, Bailee.....  4|  4   2  10  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  1
 10 DENT, Audra.........  4| 15   5  35  .286|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 11 GREENE, Melanie.....  4| 14   4  36  .278|  2|  1   0|  3|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 5  CORDEIRO, Aime......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0| 15| 0  0  0|  0
 6  CASTILLO, Kristen...  4|  0   0   1  .000| 22|  1   0|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 8  MAHAN, Lindsey......  4|  7   1  13  .462|  2|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0
 18 FERRER, Michelle....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 19 BOWMAN, Brianna.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 65  21 156  .282| 57|  5   5|  6| 61| 2  8  2|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  4  39  .359   Site: San Diego, Calif. (Peterson Gym)
   2  18  4  36  .389   Date: Sep 21, 2006   Attend: 502   Time: 2:02
   3  13  8  41  .122   Referees: Michael Blalock, Jesse Martinez
   4  16  5  40  .275