3-1 MWC Cougars Back at Home Thursday, Saturday

PROVO -- After winning two-straight matches, BYU (8-7, 3-1) will return to its home court to take on MWC conference opponents, New Mexico and TCU this week.

"I believe this is a very crucial week for us in terms of the Mountain West Conference Championship,” BYU head coach Shay Goulding said Tuesday. “We will play our matches this week one ball at a time and one match at time, but certainly it is pertinent that we get two wins in order to keep us in a good position for our goals in the conference.”

They will first face New Mexico Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. New Mexico State has an 11-5 overall record with a 3-2 conference record thus far this season. In the history of the matchup with New Mexico, BYU leads 62-11.

“New Mexico lost some significant players from last year,” Goulding said. “But they are a well-coached team and a very competitive program so I expect them to be very good.”

Saturday the Cougars will look to defend their home court once again as they take on TCU at 6 p.m. TCU has a 15-4 overall record this season and is currently 4-1 in conference play. In the all-time series record against TCU, BYU leads 12-1.

“TCU is similar in strength only they are returning more players from last year and so they will also be strong,” Goulding said. “We are prepared and committed to bringing our best out to meet both these teams this week in order to defend the Smith Fieldhouse and to continue to pursue our 2009 goals.”

In the Cougars' last outing they defeated the UNLV Rebels 3-0 (25-17,20-17, 25-21). Senior rightside hitter Kayla Walker led the Cougars with 14 kills, nine digs and seven blocks – including two solo blocks. Christina Measom, Christie Carpenter and Camilla Phillips also contributed six kills each while Nicole Warner had five. Setter Kiana Rogers had 30 assists and nine digs while Morgan Lloyd Sorensen had 10 digs.

Both games will be shown on BYUTV and BYU LIVE video. BYU LIVE video can be viewed online by visiting the schedule page HERE.

The BYU Women's Volleyball team is promoting Breast Cancer Awareness the whole month of October and encourages fans to wear pink with your Cougar blue all month.