IRVINE -- In its first competition on the road this month, the No. 4-ranked BYU men's volleyball picked up another win over ninth-ranked UC Irvine in a four-game series (30-23, 23-30, 30-24, 30-26), extending its winning streak to nine matches.
With the win, the Cougars improve to 10-3 overall on the season and 8-1 in MPSF play. The Anteaters dropped to 7-10 overall and 3-7 in league play.
"Even though we were moving our lineup around, the guys came in and did a good job for us," head coach Tom Peterson said. "We gave up some runs to UC Irvine, but made up for it in our hitting percentage. We can't relax on Saturday; we need to play better."
BYU hit .373 on the night, connecting on 58 kills out of 102 attempts. The Cougars started game one with a scorching .706 percentage, hitting 13 of 17 attempts with only one attack error.
Defense was a key for the team, racking up 31 digs and 11.5 total blocks compared with UCI's eight blocks and 22 digs. BYU made up some ground on defense when the team was struggling with serving. The Cougars missed 23 serves on the night with nine coming in the first game.
"We definitely need to be more consistent in our serving," Peterson said. "In some rotations, we couldn't see if we could win the point because we would miss our serve."
Giving the Cougars the lift they needed was freshman Aaron Ferre, who has rotated in Chris Gorny's spot when he sprained his ankle against Stanford. Ferre tied his career high with 10 kills out of 11 attempts, breaking his career hitting percentage with a blistering .909.
Leading in kills again was AVCA National Player of the Week Fernando Pessoa with 19 kills and four digs for the match. Senior Jon Alleman chipped in 11 kills, two aces and four digs in the match, recording BYU's second-best hitting percentage at .529.
In the second game, the team looked sluggish, hitting only .071 and recording 10 attack errors. Peterson said when the team breaks down on passing and serving, it makes a difference in hitting for the game. The Anteaters hit their best percentage in the second game at .310.
BYU picked up the heat in the last two games, eliminating mistakes and showing its offensive power with solid percentages, .429 and .414. Sophomore Victor Batista led the Cougars in blocking with six total blocks on the night and senior Joe Hillman added eight kills and five blocks.
BYU will face the Anteaters for another MPSF showdown on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Crawford Hall.
For detailed boxscore, click the pdf version link above.
Volleyball Box Score
2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
BRIGHAM YOUNG vs UC Irvine (Feb 26, 2004 at Irvine, CA)
BRIGHAM YOUNG | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
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5 MORENO, Carlos...... 4| 3 1 5 .400| 44| 1 5| 0| 1| 0 0 1| 2| 4.0
6 FERRE, Aaron........ 4| 10 0 11 .909| 1| 1 3| 0| 4| 0 4 0| 0| 13.0
11 HILLMAN, Joe........ 4| 8 4 17 .235| 1| 0 0| 0| 6| 0 5 0| 0| 10.5
12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan... 4| 11 2 17 .529| 1| 2 6| 3| 4| 1 2 0| 0| 15.0
17 PESSOA, Fernando.... 4| 19 12 37 .189| 1| 0 2| 0| 4| 0 3 3| 0| 20.5
18 BATISTA, Victor..... 4| 7 1 14 .429| 1| 0 6| 0| 2| 1 5 1| 1| 10.5
2 RANGEL, Steffin..... 1| 0 0 1 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
3 Burke,Michael....... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
8 HYTE, David......... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
14 NEILSON, Rob........ 4| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 1| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn..... 4| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 0| 1| 8| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
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Totals.............. 4| 58 20 102 .373| 52| 4 23| 4| 31| 2 19 5| 3| 73.5
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 13 1 17 .706 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 4 TEAM RECORDS
2 12 10 28 .071 BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 23 30 30 10-3,8-1
3 17 5 28 .429 UC Irvine........... 23 30 24 26 7-10,3-7
4 16 4 29 .414
UC Irvine | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
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1 Bemus, Spencer...... 4| 5 3 14 .143| 0| 2 4| 0| 4| 1 3 3| 0| 9.5
2 Pelzel, Jimmy....... 4| 19 6 35 .371| 0| 0 4| 1| 6| 0 0 0| 1| 19.0
8 Reid, Brett......... 4| 0 1 1-1.000| 41| 1 3| 0| 2| 1 1 0| 1| 2.5
14 Webber, Matt........ 4| 12 8 26 .154| 1| 0 9| 0| 2| 0 2 0| 0| 13.0
15 Smith, David........ 4| 6 3 15 .200| 0| 1 4| 0| 1| 0 3 0| 0| 8.5
16 Weichert, Kyle...... 4| 8 2 18 .333| 0| 0 1| 0| 2| 0 2 0| 0| 9.0
6 Ford, Greg.......... 4| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 3| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
9 Spittle, Paul....... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
18 Vincent, Eric....... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0| 0.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 4| 50 23 109 .248| 42| 4 25| 4| 22| 2 12 3| 2| 62.0
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 10 5 17 .294 Site: Irvine, CA (Crawford Court)
2 13 4 29 .310 Date: Feb 26, 2004 Attend: 306 Time: 1:50
3 15 8 34 .206 Referees: Larry Schwartz, Kim Pickering
4 12 6 29 .207
PROVO -- Coming off a two-match sweep over Stanford, the No.4 ranked BYU men's volleyball team will test its eight-match winning streak on the road against ninth-ranked UC Irvine, on Feb. 26 and 28.
"UC Irvine is very well-coached team," head coach Tom Peterson said. "When they play well, they can cause some problems. They have senior Jimmy Pelzel, who is a high caliber player and caused problems for us last year."
This will be the 29th meeting between the two teams, as the Cougars lead with a 23-5 all-time record and 11-3 at the Anteaters' gym. Last season BYU swept UC Irvine at home on Mar. 14-15, 2003.
The team climbed into a tie with league-leading Hawaii on Saturday after sweeping No. 11 Stanford for the second straight night (38-36, 30-28, 30-25). The Cougars hit .484 on the night, connecting on a three game season-high 74 kills on 124 attempts. BYU started the match on a blistering pace, racking up 31 kills on 43 attempts (.605) with just five errors.
Hitting his career-best .700 percentage, senior outside hitter Fernando Pessoa racked up 16 kills to lead the BYU 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 30-25) over the Cardinal on Friday.
The Cougars hit a .520 percentage in the third game, powered by senior opposite Joe Hillman with 10 kills for the match and a season-best .471 hitting percentage. Transfer sophomore Victor Batista led the front row in blocking, recording six blocks on the night. Batista also gave the team seven kills and two aces.
With the wins, the Cougars, who have not lost a single game over a four-match period, improve to 9-3 overall on the season and 7-1 in MPSF action. The Cardinal dropped to 5-11 overall and 3-9 in league play.
Junior middle blocker Mike Burke will be rejoining BYU for its road trip after coming back from a shoulder injury, although it's unlikely Chris Gorny will be traveling due to an ankle injury suffered in Friday's match against Stanford.
"It's nice we have guys coming back from injury like Mike Burke," Peterson said. "But it will be hard to have any continuity. When Gorny went out, it disrupts the flow of our lineup, but it's nice that we have a deep team so guys can come in and do a good job. It will take all of us to play well against Irvine, not just a few."
Leading the Cougars in kills is All-America candidate Fernando Pessoa with 168 kills, averaging 4.10 per game. Following behind are seniors Joe Hillman and All-American Jonathan Alleman with 3.58 and 3.56 kills per game, respectively.
All-American setter Carlos Moreno has tallied 555 assists for the season, including 13.88 assists per game and senior libero Shawn Olmstead leads the team with 1.79 digs per game.
The matches begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday and 4 p.m. on Saturday at Crawford Court.
