PROVO -- In a match of momentum swings, the No. 3 BYU men's volleyball team lost a closely contested 30-27, 24-30, 32-30, 27-30, 11-15 decision to No. 10 Penn State late Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse. The loss drops the Cougars to 13-4 overall, while the Nittany Lions improve to 14-4.

"Our serves were pitiful," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "It's just agonizing watching us miss in our own house. They out-served us and out-received us in our own place. Especially under pressure."

With the BYU men's basketball team playing its final home game of the season across campus, the men's volleyball team started at a later than usual 9 p.m. Despite the questioning of the officiating on both side throughout the night, the match proved to be hard fought and emotional for the players on the court.

While each team split the first two games in decisive manners, BYU held the upper hand in most of the third game, but Penn State fought back to tie the game at 21-21 on a service error by Luka Slabe. The game would see-saw from there and the Nittany Lions fought to earn game point at 30-29, but the Cougars would fight back to take the game.

The fourth game was also closely contested and BYU's Jonathan Alleman led the Cougar charge with nine kills in the game, but the Nittany Lions held on to force a fifth and deciding game.

Penn State took to early lead in the final game and despite an encouraging crowd, the Cougars could not overcome their numerous service errors and struggling service returns.

In the end Penn State had only five players register kills, but all five were in double-digits, led by the righty-lefty tandem of Carlos Guerra and Zeljko Koljesar had 16 and 18 kills, respectively.

BYU had four players with double-digit kills led by Alleman with 18. Rafael Paal had 16 kills and Michael Burke had 13 kills with a match-high seven blocks. David Hyte, filling in for an injured Chris Gorny, had a career night with a career-best 12 kills with no attack errors. Hyte hit a match-high .750, tying him for the second best single-match mark in team history.

The Cougars had 28 service errors in the match. Penn State out-hit the Cougars .387 to .378, while BYU out-blocked the Nittany Lions 13.5-10.

The Cougars will next be in action when they host No. 4 UC Irvine next Friday and Saturday. Both matches are scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be played in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
        No. 10 Penn State vs Brigham Young (Mar 08, 2003 at Provo, Utah)
    No. 10 Penn State      |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  O'DELL, Dan.........  5|  0   2   2-1.000| 69|  0   0|  0|  6| 1  3  0|  0
 8  SLENKER, Zach.......  5| 14   7  27  .259|  0|  0   5|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  0
 9  GUERRA, Carlos......  5| 18   4  38  .368|  0|  1   3|  1|  7| 2  1  0|  0
 12 KOLJESAR, Zeljko....  5| 16   4  25  .480|  0|  2   9|  0|  6| 1  0  0|  0
 13 KEIL, Norman........  5| 15   1  19  .737|  1|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 14 KOWAL, Keith........  5| 14   5  25  .360|  0|  0   1|  0|  7| 0  4  0|  0
 1  MATTEI, Ricky.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 3  SCHNEIDER, Richard..  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 5  ROJAS, Rhonee.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 6  MATTHEWS, Nate......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 11 MEERSTEIN, Nate.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 77  24 137  .387| 73|  4  20|  2| 40| 5 10  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  6  30  .400   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  6  30  .267   No. 10 Penn State... 27 30 30 30 15  14-4, 9-0 EIVA
   3  20  8  35  .343   Brigham Young....... 30 24 32 27 11  13-4, 11-3 MPSF
   4  17  3  31  .452
   5   8  1  11  .636
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  5| 13   2  30  .367|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 2  5  0|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  6   0  10  .600| 67|  0   6|  0|  5| 0  4  2|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  4|  8   2  16  .375|  0|  0   1|  2|  2| 0  1  0|  0
 8  HYTE, David.........  5| 12   0  16  .750|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  5| 16   5  30  .367|  1|  1   8|  1|  4| 1  0  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  5| 18   6  31  .387|  2|  1   7|  0|  3| 0  3  1|  0
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  4|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 13 LAYTON, Tim.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  5   6  13 -.077|  1|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 78  22 148  .378| 75|  2  28|  4| 30| 3 21  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  5  36  .361   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  11  7  28  .143   Date: Mar 08, 2003   Attend: 2310   Time: 2:30
   3  21  3  35  .514   Referees: LES CALLES, MAILE JEWKES, ERIN YAMASHITA
   4  20  6  38  .368
   5   8  1  11  .636

PROVO -- BYU men's volleyball head coach Tom Peterson will have his first matchup against one of his previous assistant coaches this weekend as the third-ranked Cougars host No. 11 Penn State for the first time in 12 years. To round off the week, the Cougars (11-3, 11-3 MPSF) will also be hosting Concordia on Wednesday. Both Concordia and Penn State (12-3, 8-0 EIVA) are members of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.

With Penn State coming to Provo on Friday and Saturday, Peterson is feeling a little extra pressure. The Nittany Lions made four NCAA Tournament appearances and won their only national championship in 1994 with Peterson as their head coach.

"Penn State is a good team," Peterson said. "I don't want to lose these matches, especially since their head coach (Mark Pavlik) was my assistant coach when I was there."

Pavlik took over as head coach when Peterson left, and Friday's match will mark the first meeting between the two coaches. The teams have only competed twice since the Nittany Lions beat the Cougars in 1994 with Peterson at the helm, but BYU won both of those matches on neutral turf. Overall, the Cougars are behind in the series 2-4 since 1990.

With Concordia, the Cougars hold a 2-0 lead in the series, having won a 3-0 contest last March in Provo.

"Concordia usually has some foreign players that have good experience, so they should be a pretty good team," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "And it will be nice to get back into the Smith Fieldhouse to play this week."

The Cougars played their previous two matches on the road at USC and came away with back-to-back 3-0 wins over the Trojans. Penn State is currently on a 7-0 road winning streak and holds a perfect 8-0 record in the EIVA Tait conference.

Wednesday's match against Concordia and Friday's match against Penn State will both be held at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. Saturday's match against Penn State will be held at 9 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.