SAN -- No. 22 BYU clinched the Mountain West Conference Championship outright for the first time since 1999 Friday night by sweeping San Diego State 36-34, 30-26 and 30-26.

"Winning the title is something we haven't done in some time," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "We feel that the hard work our athletes have done and the direction they have chosen to take this program has been justified. Credit should go to our athletes because they're the ones who have the magic."

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BYU started the match facing a relentless effort from San Diego State in the first game. The hard-fought game went back and forth before the Cougars finally took it 36-34, staving off several game points to tie their highest score since the inception of rally-point scoring in 2000. The following two games were smoother for the Cougars as they cruised to their 12th sweep of the season. Erica Lott led the way in the first game with nine kills while Lauren Richards Evans had 21 assists. The key in the Cougars' sweep though was their .379 hitting percentage with 11 blocks compared to a .236 hitting percentage with four and a half blocks for San Diego State. BYU is currently 18th in the nation in hitting percentage.

"Offensively, we did a wonderful job," said Watson. "We pass-served well, which allowed us to exploit some things. This was a great win leading up to the Mountain West Conference Tournament next week."

On this night of celebration, several Cougar players had other reasons to celebrate. Chelsea Goodman recorded her 11th double-double of the season with 16 kills and 11 digs behind a career-high .452 hitting percentage. Erica Lott also tied a career high with 22 kills while hitting .356. Lauren Evans added 48 assists while Rachel Dyer had seven blocks.

The victory improved BYU to 22-2 overall and 13-2 in the MWC. The Cougars will close out the regular season Saturday night at UNLV in a 7 p.m. start.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU COUGARS
   #22 Brigham Young Univ. vs SDSU AZTECS (Nov 18, 2005 at San Diego, Calif.)
    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|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  3| 16   2  31  .452|  1|  0   2|  0| 11| 0  3  3|  0|  17.5
 5  EVANS, Lauren.......  3|  4   1   7  .429| 48|  2   3|  0|  5| 1  2  1|  2|   8.0
 9  PATTERSON, Lexi.....  3|  3   0   8  .375|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 22   6  45  .356|  0|  0   4|  0|  4| 0  1  2|  0|  22.5
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  3   1   9  .222|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  0|   5.0
 44 DYER, Rachel........  3|  9   3  16  .375|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  7  1|  0|  12.5
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   3|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  EVANS, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 KEMP, Annie.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  2|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 57  13 116  .379| 52|  2  15|  4| 34| 2 18  7|  2|  70.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  23  3  41  .488   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  7  37  .270   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 36 30 30  22-2, 13-2 MWC
   3  17  3  38  .368   SDSU AZTECS......... (0) 34 26 26  15-13, 7-8 MWC
    SDSU AZTECS            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6  CASTILLO, Kristen...  3|  2   0   3  .667| 24|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 8  MAHAN, Lindsey......  3|  4   3  13  .077|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 10 DENT, Audra.........  3| 11   3  21  .381|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0|  11.5
 11 GREENE, Melaine.....  3| 13   6  30  .233|  1|  0   2|  2|  8| 0  1  1|  0|  13.5
 12 NOLL, Lindsey.......  3|  5   3  16  .125|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 3  0  0|  0|   8.0
 23 MOLNAR, Brandice....  3| 13   5  30  .267|  0|  2   5|  0|  8| 0  0  1|  0|  15.0
 1  VERDENACCI, Angela..  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 2  LATHROP, Leah.......  3|  0   0   0  .000| 19|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  BOWKER, Ashley......  1|  0   0   3  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 5  CORDEIRO, Aime......  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  1|  2   4|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 9  STAPLEY, Melissa....  1|  3   1   5  .400|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   3.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 51  22 123  .236| 47|  4  14|  2| 37| 3  3  4|  0|  59.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  9  40  .300   Site: San Diego, Calif. (Peterson Gym)
   2  13  6  38  .184   Date: Nov 18, 2005   Attend: 382   Time: 1:38
   3  17  7  45  .222   Referees: Kim Pickering, Jesse Martinez

PROVO -- The Cougars will wrap up the regular season this weekend as they travel south to take on San Diego State Friday night and UNLV on Saturday night. At 21-2 overall and 12-2 in the Mountain West Conference, No. 22 BYU has already secured at least a share of the regular-season league title but needs one more win to take home the crown outright and earn the No. 1 seed in next week's MWC Tournament.

"Our last regular-season road trip is an important weekend for our volleyball program," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "This week every conference team is playing for seeding in the MWC Tournament, making each match all the more important. Our challenge will be to play well on the road against two very good volleyball programs."

Several teams will be jockeying for position this weekend, including the Rebels, who enter the weekend in a tie for second place with Utah at 10-4 in league play. The Utes and Rebels will meet on Friday night. Colorado State is also lurking in the shadows with a 9-4 league record after earning wins over BYU and Utah last weekend. San Diego State is currently in fifth place with a 7-7 MWC mark and needs to win at least one weekend match in order to maintain its hold on the No. 5 seed.

BYU defeated both the Aztecs and Rebels earlier this season, sweeping San Diego State and beating UNLV in four games in Provo. The Cougars own a 31-15 series advantage over SDSU and are 16-2 all-time against the Rebels.

Junior middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock leads the nation this year with a .460 hitting percentage. She is also sixth in the league in blocks, averaging 1.20 per game. Senior setter Lauren Richards Evans leads the conference and is 23rd in the nation in assists with 13.07 per game. The sophomore outside-hitting duo of Chelsea Goodman and Erica Lott adds a one-two punch as they are first and second in the conference, respectively, in kills per game.

Fans of the Cougars can catch all of the action of both matches via live stats available on the schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball homepage at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/. Both contests begin at 7 p.m. PST.