Win Streak Alive, Cougars Blank Gauchos

PROVO -- Keeping the 12-match win streak alive, the No. 3-ranked BYU men's volleyball team blanked No. 6-ranked UC Santa Barbara in a three-game series (30-26, 30-24, 30-2). With the win, the Cougars (13-3 overall, 11-1 MPSF) currently hold the longest streak in the nation.

This winning streak also ties the third longest streak in BYU history, just one less than the 13-straight wins from 1997. The Gauchos fall to 10-8 overall, 6-7 in the MPSF.

"I thought we played fairly well tonight," head coach Tom Peterson said. "These home matches are critical to us, especially Pepperdine next week. We really have a good opportunity to play well at home since we will be playing Hawai`i and UCLA on the road."

Saturday's win marks the sixth straight 3-0 victory for the Cougars at home. BYU has not lost a single game in the Smith Fieldhouse since Jan. 17 against Cal State Northridge.

"The Fieldhouse is one of the hardest places to play, when we get a big crowd here," Peterson said. "The atmosphere is pretty exciting, and it's hard for teams to come in and play."

Leading BYU was seniors Joe Hillman and Fernando Pessoa with 14 kills, marking the 13th double-digit total of the season for both players.

The Cougar middles Victor Batista and Michael Burke gave the team a lift with only two hitting errors between the two. Batista paced the BYU offense with nine kills on 11 attempts and a career-high .727 hitting percentage. Playing in his third match, Burke added eight kills and a match-high eight blocks after an injury sidelined him for 11 matches.

Junior setter Carlos Moreno racked up 51 assists on 87 attempts and led the Cougars to a .327 hitting percentage for the match.

"Right now we're real tough to figure out because Carlos is seeing very well," Peterson said. "If they are keying on our middles or even jumping to block, it's good for us offensively and a nightmare for other teams."

In game one, the Cougars started early with kills in the middle to give the team a 7-4 lead. UCSB tied the game at 11 with a kill by Michael Kennedy, answered with two kills by Pessoa and Burke. To give BYU a 17-15 lead Hillman posted back-to-back kills before Jake Wiens registered one of his five kills on the night. After a Gaucho service error, the Cougars ended the first game at 30-26.

Much like the first, BYU began with a short 7-4 lead, while UCSB tied the game at 11 after a Cougar service error. After a 3-0 run BYU didn't look back, keeping a 22-17 on a kill by Jonathan Alleman. Senior Cory Carpenter recorded his only kill for the game to finish game two at 30-24,

A Gaucho service error tied game three at four, but Pessoa helped the Cougars to a 12-8 lead. A BYU attack error helped UCSB come back to tie the game four different times late in game three. The Cougars capitalized on two hitting errors by the Gauchos and Burke added a solo block to lead at 29-25. A service error helped BYU to its 12th straight win in the last game at 30-27.

The team will host No. 5-ranked Pepperdine next Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. Saturday's match will be broadcast on KBYU and BYUTV.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
    UC Santa Barbara vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (Mar 06, 2004 at Brigham Young Univ.)
    UC Santa Barbara       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  BERMAN, Bryan.......  2|  0   1   1-1.000| 14|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   1.0
 5  NELSON, Mike........  3|  8   3  16  .312|  0|  1   5|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0|  10.5
 13 WACK, Nate..........  3| 10   3  25  .280|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
 15 WIENS, Jake.........  3|  5   4  15  .067|  0|  0   1|  1|  5| 0  4  0|  0|   7.0
 25 KENNEDY, Michael....  3|  4   3  10  .100|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  4  1|  0|   7.0
 33 ADAMS, Justin.......  2|  1   2   5 -.200|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   2.0
 1  KOWALSKI, Bart......  2|  0   0   0  .000| 20|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  1  0|  1|   0.5
 10 ULFERS, Adam........  1|  3   0   7  .429|  1|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 14 PARRA, Alejandro....  3|  5   3  10  .200|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0|   6.5
 19 MANSFIELD, Aaron....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 36  19  89  .191| 36|  1  11|  2| 19| 1 21  3|  1|  48.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  5  30  .233   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12  7  30  .167   UC Santa Barbara.... 26 24 27  10-8, 6-7
   3  12  7  29  .172   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 30 30  13-3, 11-1
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  3|  8   1  19  .368|  0|  0   1|  0|  4| 2  6  0|  0|  13.0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  1   4   7 -.429| 51|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  2|   2.5
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  3| 14   4  23  .435|  0|  1   3|  0|  6| 0  5  0|  0|  17.5
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3|  9   6  19  .158|  1|  1   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  1|  10.0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3| 14   6  24  .333|  1|  0   3|  1|  6| 0  2  2|  0|  15.0
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  9   1  11  .727|  0|  0   4|  0|  1| 0  3  2|  0|  10.5
 10 CARPENTER, Cory.....  2|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  22 104  .327| 54|  2  15|  1| 29| 2 19  4|  3|  69.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  8  38  .316   Site: Brigham Young Univ. (Smith Fieldhouse])
   2  19  8  34  .324   Date: Mar 06, 2004   Attend: 2590   Time: 1H30M
   3  17  6  32  .344   Referees: LES CALLES, MAILE JEWKES

PROVO -- After sweeping UC Irvine both nights for a ten-match winning streak, the No. 3-ranked BYU men's volleyball team will take on No. 6-ranked UC Santa Barbara at home on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Cougar Club members will receive half-priced discounts with membership cards for Friday's Western Night.

Securing the top spot in conference, the Cougars move ahead Hawai`i with the best record in the league, 9-1. BYU (11-3 overall) also moved up from fourth place to third place in the USA Today/AVCA Top 15 Coaches' Poll.

"We have to put together a whole game against Santa Barbara," head coach Tom Peterson said. "They beat No. 3 Long Beach State, so they can get on fire quickly and surprise people."

The match up this weekend will be the 28th meeting between the two teams, as BYU leads the series 15-13 overall, including 9-5 in Provo. Last season, the Cougars split with the Gauchos, winning the first match 3-0 on Valentine's Day but falling in three games the day after.

During last week, BYU traveled to UC Irvine and came back with two wins, both in four games. After losing the first game, the Cougars came back to dominate ninth-ranked UC Irvine 3-1, extending its winning streak to ten matches. The game scores for the match were 26-30, 30-24, 30-21, 30-26.

Since the NCAA adopted rally scoring, this ten-match winning streak ties the longest streak from 2001 when the Cougars won the National Championship. The Anteaters dropped to 7-11 overall, 3-8 in league play.

Coming back from a preseason shoulder injury, junior Mike Burke picked up where he left off in his first match, claiming 15 kills in 19 attempts and a career-high .737 percentage. He also added a match-high six blocks to help BYU to 11.5 total team blocks. Last season Burke earned All-MPSF Honorable Mention honors and led the Cougars with 155 total blocks and 1.41 blocks per game.

"Mike played a great match and blocked the ball at the right times," Peterson said. "To have him come back sooner than expected and to play a whole match is great for us since Chris is out for a couple of weeks."

BYU picked up the first win over the UCI on Wednesday of last week, 3-1 (30-23, 23-30, 30-24, 30-26). 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 having been struggling on serving but we are capable of serving well," Peterson said. "We just can't dwell on previous bad serves."

Friday's match will feature Western Night, where fans can wear their western garb and receive a free prize from BYU Athletics. In addition, all Cougar Club members and their immediate family will receive half-priced discounts with a membership card. Chamber of Commerce members can contact Emily Deans or Jeff Davis in Marketing to receive special group rates also on Friday night.

Next week the Cougars will complete their four-match home stand against Pepperdine, Mar. 12-13 at 7 p.m. Saturday's match will be broadcast on KBYU and BYUTV.