Cougars Blank 12th-ranked Pacific

PROVO -- It took the fourth-ranked BYU men's volleyball team just one hour and 24 minutes to blank 12th-ranked Pacific on Friday, extending the Cougars win streak to five straight matches. BYU eliminated the Tigers, 30-25, 30-22, 30-23 to improve to 6-3 on the season and 4-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Pacific dropped to 3-8, 2-5 on the season.

After dropping three of their first four matches on the season, BYU has now won five of its last six.

"You have to be happy after starting 1-3," head coach Tom Peterson said. "To come back and win five in a row, including two big wins at Long Beach, you have to be happy about that. I'm a little less nervous now then I was a couple weeks ago."

Jonathan Alleman led the Cougars with 16 kills on 21 attempts (.667), while Fernando Pessoa, this week's MPSF Player of the Week, recorded his seventh straight double-digit performance with 12 kills. Alleman led all scorers with 18 points, followed by Pessoa with 15. Victor Batista had 10.5 points, including six kills, three assisted blocks and a team-leading three aces. Offensively the Cougars hit .433 on the night, including a match-high .519 in the final game of the match. BYU rang up 56 kills on 90 swings.

Defensively, Alleman paced BYU with four blocks on the night, followed by Chris Gorny, Joe Hillman and Batista all with three apiece. The Cougars' defense held the Tigers to a .282 percentage at the net, allowing just 32 kills on 78 attempts with 10 errors.

"I'm sure Pacific is not happy with the way they played tonight," Peterson said. "Tomorrow night, we have to watch out. They'll come out ready to play."

In game one, Pacific looked as if it would make easy work of the Cougars. The Tigers took a 5-0 lead behind the serving of Nils Dauburs who had two aces in his first five serves. BYU rallied behind Pessoa who picked up a team-high six kills in game one, including a shot that gave BYU its first lead at 24-23. Batista came up with back-to-back kills and Pessoa had another kill to complete the four-point run. Pacific's Mauricio Brizeula ended the BYU streak with his only block of the night, but it was only temporary as BYU scored the next two points to close out game one, 30-25.

"I was worried after Dauburs got off to such a great start," Peterson. "He had an ace down the line, then another ace cross court. We have to come out better than that."

In game two, the two teams traded points until the Cougars opened a 22-15 lead on a UOP service error. BYU extended its lead to eight after Pessoa led a three-man block giving the Cougars a 25-17 lead. A few plays later, BYU grabbed a game-high nine-point lead after Chris Gorny notched one of his nine kills on the night. Dauburs picked up another ace to cut BYU's lead to 29-22, but Dauburs' next serve sailed long to give BYU a 30-22 win in game two.

In the final game of the match, BYU took an early lead, but surrendered the momentum when the Tigers grabbed a 5-4 advantage. The Cougars caught up and eventually took a 23-15 lead after Alleman and Gorny tag-teamed to block a UOP attempt. After a few BYU substitutions, giving some fresh faces a chance to see some action, the Tigers cut in to the lead and got four points at 26-22. David Hyte picked the perfect time to record his only kill of the night, giving the Cougars a 30-23 victory in game three. All totaled, BYU recorded 19 kills on 27 attempts to hit a match-high .519 at the net.

Dauburs led the Tigers with nine kills on the night, while Brian Zodrow added seven.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse beginning at 7 p.m. (MT).

With tonight's victory, the Cougars have a 12-4 all-time advantage over Pacific, including a mark of 8-0 in the Smith Fieldhouse.

For a detailed box score, click the pdf link above.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
         Pacific vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (Feb 06, 2004 at Brigham Young Univ.)
    Pacific                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GAWLIK, Mike........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 3  BRIZUELA, Mauricio..  2|  2   3   9 -.111|  0|  0   2|  1|  4| 0  1  0|  0
 6  ZODROW, Brian.......  3|  7   3  15  .267|  1|  0   4|  1|  1| 1  1  0|  0
 8  EDWARDS, Brian......  3|  0   0   1  .000| 24|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  0  3|  1
 13 DAUBURS, Nils.......  3|  9   3  22  .273|  0|  2   5|  1|  6| 1  1  2|  0
 14 CANTANIA, Adam......  3|  2   0   7  .286|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  2  1|  0
 2  HAZELETT, Mitch.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  2|  0
 7  ALEXANDER, Brad.....  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  ADAMSON, Brian......  1|  5   1  10  .400|  1|  0   1|  0|  0| 2  0  0|  0
 10 HAMMER, Dan.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 METZ, Bryson........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 18 RODGERS, Sean.......  3|  6   0  13  .462|  1|  0   4|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 32  10  78  .282| 30|  2  17|  6| 13| 4  6  8|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  3  25  .280   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10  3  28  .250   Pacific............. 25 22 23  3-8, 2-5 MPSF
   3  12  4  25  .320   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 30 30  6-3, 4-1 MPSF
    BRIGHAM YOUNG          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  3   1   8  .250| 42|  1   4|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  2
 7  GORNY, Chris........  3|  9   1  12  .667|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  3|  7   4  13  .231|  4|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  3  0|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3| 16   2  21  .667|  3|  0   2|  1|  7| 1  2  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3| 12   5  20  .350|  1|  2   3|  1|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  6   2   9  .444|  1|  3   4|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0
 2  RANGEL, Steffin.....  1|  2   1   3  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 8  HYTE, David.........  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 10 CARPENTER, Cory.....  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 20 EVANS, TAYLOR.......  2|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  17  90  .433| 52|  6  16|  2| 29| 1 14  1|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  7  30  .333   Site: Brigham Young Univ. (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  20  5  33  .455   Date: Feb 06, 2004   Attend: 2838   Time: 1H 25M
   3  19  5  27  .519   Referees: TOM GIVEN, LES CALLES

PROVO -- After a successful road trip that moved the team up three rankings, the No. 4 BYU men's volleyball team (5-3, 3-1) returns home to face No. 12 Pacific (3-7, 2-2) in a conference match-up, starting at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse.

"Pacific is a good team," head coach Tom Peterson said. "We can't afford to think about last week's matches because we have to win these at home. We have seen what we can do on the road, and hopefully all of the guys are ready to contribute at any give moment."

The match up with Pacific will be the 16th meeting between the two teams, as BYU leads the series 11-4 overall, including 7-0 in Provo. Last season, the Cougars split 1-1 while playing at Pacific, taking both matches to five games. After the loss to the Tigers in 2003, BYU went on a six-match winning streak, the longest of the season.

Lasting almost three hours, BYU and LBSU battled through Friday's match until the end. Winning the first two games, the Cougars had the advantage going into the third game after finishing the second at 39-37. But LBSU didn't give up too easily, coming back from a 2-0 deficit and taking the match to five games.

Leading the BYU squad was senior Fernando Pessoa, breaking his career-high with 22 kills. Senior Jonathan Alleman posted another double-double performance with his highest kills for the season and 11 digs. Newcomer Victor Batista came up big for the Cougars again in the middle, tying his career-best 18 kills in 36 attempts and adding eight blocks.

With five players in double-digit kills during Wednesday's match, BYU outlasted the 49er lead on Wednesday with a power-charged comeback from a 2-0 deficit led by Pessoa at 20 kills and Batista at 18 kills.

Batista's performance marked a career-high in hitting percentage, .588. Pessoa also recorded a match-high nine digs. As senior Chris Gorny's first game back from injury, he immediately contributed for the team, hitting 12 kills and a team-high .588 percentage from the middle.

AVCA Player of the Week Brian Zodrow led all attackers in the loss to CS Northridge last week with a career-high 24 kills, while junior Mauricio Brizuela finished with 11 kills and junior Nils Dauburs had 10 kills for Pacific.

The Cougars continue its home stand in two weeks against Stanford, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Saturday's match will be broadcast on College Sports Television.