Tough Loss For BYU

PROVO -- The No. 23 BYU women's volleyball team ran into a buzzsaw Saturday night, falling 30-22, 26-30, 24-30, 25-30 to New Mexico in the Smith Fieldhouse. The loss drops the Cougars to 11-5 overall and 4-3 in the Mountain West Conference while New Mexico improved to 13-5 overall and 4-2 in league play.

"We just weren't as prepared and focused on some very specific details that we needed to take care of," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "New Mexico played a very competitive match."

Cougar middle blocker Rachel Dyer led the way for BYU offensively with 17 kills on .448 hitting and was one of three Cougars with four blocks, including Erica Lott and Ashton Hansen. Senior Chelsea Goodman was right behind Dyer with 16 kills to go along with 12 digs, her 11th double-double of the season and 45th of her career. Lott also posted a double-double with 12 kills and a team-best 13 digs.

New Mexico started the match hot with a 6-4 lead until a kill down the line from Erica Lott sparked a 4-0 Cougar run. BYU extended the advantage to as many as five points at 17-12 but saw the Lobos come back with three straight scores of their own. A solo block from Bryn Porter ended the UNM run and swung the momentum back in the Cougars' favor as they again led by five at 23-18. From there, it was all BYU as the Cougars cruised to the 30-22 win.

Game two was a battle early on as neither team was able to go up by more than one point. BYU finally did it with three straight points to take an 11-9 advantage but UNM came right back to go up 13-12. Back-to-back kills from Goodman and Dyer put the Cougars on top 16-14, but moments later it was 26-21 in favor of the Lobos as the BYU offense sputtered. Watson tried a new setter, putting Kiana Rogers into the match, but it wasn't enough as UNM posted the 30-26 win.

After the Lobos scored three of the first four points of game three, BYU responded with a 4-1 run and managed to stay one step ahead of UNM to a 10-8 lead. However, the Lobos scored the next five points to build a 13-10 advantage and put the Cougars on their heels. BYU battled back to tie the game at 14-14 on a tremendous block by Porter and Dyer and were soon back in front, 20-16, after two high-flying kills from Goodman. But the Lobos pushed back with everything they could, putting together a 9-1 run to take a commanding 26-21 lead from which the Cougars could not recover, falling 30-24.

UNM again came out of the gate strong to start game four, building a 5-1 lead. The Cougars fought back to get within one at 7-6, but the Lobos kept their composure and increased their advantage to 13-10. Porter finally tied the game for BYU at 14-14, but four straight UNM points had the Cougars staring defeat in the face. Still trailing 21-18, BYU found some momentum, scoring three straight points capped by an ace from Goodman to tie the game at 21-21. However, New Mexico refused to let the victory slip away, scoring nine of the last 13 points to seal the 30-25 win.

BYU will face two in-state rivals next week as the Cougars take on Utah Valley Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse before heading up the road to play at Utah on Friday. The UVU match will be aired live on BYUTV while the Utah match will be available via BYU Radio, BYU All-Access and GameTracker.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
          New Mexico vs #23 BYU Cougars (Oct 06, 2007 at Provo, Utah)
    New Mexico             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  MEETER, Lisa........  4| 14   6  42  .190|  4|  1   2|  2| 15| 0  3  0|  0|  16.5
 4  KWASIGROCH, Sarah...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  1   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
 7  MICHAELSEN, Jade....  4|  7   3  16  .250| 38|  0   0|  0| 11| 1  3  1|  3|   9.5
 10 FAIRCHILD, Jeanne...  4| 13   8  31  .161|  2|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  0|  15.5
 14 LEHNE, Anna.........  4| 11   0  16  .688|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  6  1|  0|  14.0
 15 BECK, Kerri.........  4|  2   1  10  .100|  1|  2   3|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0|   6.0
 1  TRIPP, Gayle........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  2   2|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 9  SUITER, Allie.......  2|  2   0   4  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 12 HADFIELD, Taylor....  4|  6   2  16  .250|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   6.5
 13 PHILLIPS, Kelsi.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 55  20 135  .259| 52|  6   8|  5| 52| 1 24  3|  4|  74.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  4  29  .241   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15 10  40  .125   New Mexico.......... (3) 22 30 30 30  13-5, 4-2 MWC
   3  11  3  28  .286   BYU Cougars......... (1) 30 26 24 25  11-5, 4-3 MWC
   4  18  3  38  .395
    BYU Cougars            |     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....  4| 16   4  42  .286|  0|  2   2|  0| 12| 0  1  0|  0|  18.5
 4  HANSEN, Ashton......  4|  7   6  17  .059|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  4  0|  1|   9.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4| 12  13  32 -.031|  1|  0   4|  3| 13| 0  4  2|  0|  14.0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  4|  9   4  28  .179|  2|  1   3|  1|  6| 1  2  0|  0|  12.0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  2|  0   0   2  .000| 25|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  1|   0.5
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4| 17   4  29  .448|  2|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  4  1|  0|  20.0
 9  ROGERS, Kiana.......  3|  3   0   6  .500| 31|  1   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  3|   4.5
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   2|  1| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 64  31 156  .212| 62|  5  14|  6| 49| 1 17  3|  5|  78.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  7  40  .325   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  11  8  38  .079   Date: Oct 06, 2007   Attend: 1211   Time: 2H 9M
   3  16 10  40  .150   Referees: JOHN MARTIN, MAILE JEWKES, Karen Marshall/AU/SN
   4  17  6  38  .289