ALBUQUERQUE -- The No. 22 Cougars began Mountain West Conference play much like they began the season, winning a five-game nail-biter Friday night at New Mexico to improve to 8-0 on the season. The victory marks the fourth match this year in which BYU has been pushed to five games but emerged undefeated.

"Obviously, we struggled all evening, and a lot of that was due to New Mexico," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "Their serving pressured us all night and got us out of our system, and we were unable to stay composed. We were fortunate that we've had some experience going five games and those experiences helped us to come through and pull out another five-game win."

Junior middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock, who has already received MWC Player of the Week honors twice this season, led the Cougars with 19 kills on a season-high .720 hitting. Sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Goodman also had an excellent night, hitting .400 while contributing a double-double with 19 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore Lindsey Evans led BYU with 12 digs, and redshirt freshman middle blocker Rachel Dyer paced the Cougars with a career-high eight blocks while adding 11 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Erica Lott recorded 13 kills.

"Hartsock was pretty much the difference for us in the games that we won," said Watson. "When we're able to get her the ball, she's a presence people have to pay attention to. Goodman continues to perform extremely well and came up with some critical swings at some key points for us. We were able to score a lot of points with her swinging on the outside."

BYU began the match on fire in game one, quickly stifling any Lobo threat enroute to a 30-18 win. New Mexico had no offense in the game, hitting .000, while the Cougars hit .226. The Lobos put BYU on its heels in game two, jumping out to a commanding 17-7 lead. The Cougars rebounded to get within three at 21-18 but would come no further, falling 30-27.

Game three went BYU's way fairly easily by a score of 30-20, but the Lobos were not about to give up on their home court. New Mexico fought back in game four, scoring another 30-27 win to force a fifth and decisive game. However, as has been the case in the Cougars' previous five-game victories, it was all BYU in the fifth as the Cougars cruised to the 15-7 win while hitting an amazing .727 to seal the match.

The Cougars will continue MWC play Saturday night at Air Force in a 7 p.m. match. The Falcons are 5-9 on the season after being swept by Utah Friday night. Live stats are available by going to the schedule page of the BYU Women's Volleyball homepage at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
   #23 Brigham Young Univ. vs New Mexico (Sep 23, 2005 at Albuquerque, N.M.)
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  5| 19   5  35  .400|  2|  1   1|  1| 10| 0  2  0|  0
 5  EVANS, Lauren.......  5|  3   3   8  .000| 54|  2   3|  0|  4| 0  5  1|  3
 9  PATTERSON, Lexi.....  5|  5   3  12  .167|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  5| 13   7  35  .171|  0|  2   2|  2|  6| 0  2  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  5| 19   1  25  .720|  2|  3   1|  0|  0| 1  5  0|  0
 44 DYER, Rachel........  5| 11   4  20  .350|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  7  1|  0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 3  EVANS, Lindsey......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  1   2|  2| 12| 0  0  0|  0
 11 KEMP, Annie.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  3|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 70  23 135  .348| 61| 10  10|  9| 40| 2 24  2|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  5  31  .226   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  5  28  .393   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 30 27 30 27 15  8-0
   3  21  9  41  .293   New Mexico.......... (2) 18 30 20 30  7  8-3
   4  13  4  24  .375
   5   8  0  11  .727
    New Mexico             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  THERKELSEN, Kelly...  5|  8   7  26  .038|  1|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0
 4  KWASIGROCH, Sarah...  5|  4   3  10  .100| 51|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  1
 6  RYAN, Nicole........  5| 19   5  39  .359|  0|  0   2|  2|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 7  TRIPP, Gayle........  4|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  5   1|  3|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 8  SONDRUP, Chelsea....  5| 12   6  28  .214|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 9  WEBER, Samie........  5| 11   3  24  .333|  0|  1   4|  0|  2| 0  5  0|  0
 2  COX, Kim............  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  1   4|  4| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 12 MILLER, Michelle....  5|  6   9  23 -.130|  1|  2   1|  1|  8| 0  3  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 60  34 151  .172| 54|  9  14| 10| 34| 0 18  0|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9  9  31  .000   Site: Albuquerque, N.M. (Johnson Gym)
   2  19  5  36  .389   Date: Sep 23, 2005   Attend: 587   Time: 2:10
   3  10  3  30  .233   Referees: Tanna Martin, Cedric All Runner
   4  16 10  35  .171
   5   6  7  19 -.053

PROVO -- After an incredible 7-0 start to the 2005 season, the No. 22 Cougars are ready to open up Mountain West Conference play this weekend, traveling to New Mexico to take on the Lobos Friday night before facing the Air Force Falcons on Saturday night in Colorado Springs.

"This will be our second weekend on the road, but the beginning of a new season as we start Mountain West Conference play," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "Both New Mexico and Air Force have played a competitive schedule to date and are well prepared. Our team has played well during our non-conference schedule, but this weekend will bring with it a different set of challenges."

BYU owns a 56-7 record over the Lobos, who are currently second in the MWC at 8-2, and have swept 20 of the last 21 matches with the exception being last season's four-game win in Provo. The Cougars are 23-4 over New Mexico in Albuquerque. The Falcons are 4-9 in 2005 and 1-14 overall against BYU. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. Live stats are available for the Air Force match on the schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball homepage at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/.

The Cougars are coming off of two big wins as they brought home the Buckeye Classic title in dramatic fashion last week, beating Duke and then-No. 14 Ohio State in five-game matches in Columbus. The win over the Buckeyes for the championship was BYU's first win over a ranked opponent since Sept. 13, 2003 (8th-ranked Penn State). The successful weekend also propelled the Cougars into the national rankings after a three-year absence.

Three Cougars were named to the all-tournament team with junior middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock garnering MVP honors after following up her 12-kill outing against Duke with 20 kills on .500 hitting against the Buckeyes. Sophomores Erica Lott and Lindsey Evans were also named all-tournament as Lott put down a career-high 22 kills against Duke and totaled 41 over the two matches and Evans picked up 27 digs against Duke while totaling 49 for the weekend.