PROVO -- A record crowd of 4,455 was on hand Friday to watch in-state rivals and nationally ranked Mountain West Conference foes BYU and Utah do battle in the Smith Fieldhouse. Unfortunately for the home faithful, the No. 16 Cougars suffered the upset as the 18th-ranked Utes earned a 30-24, 30-28, 21-30, 30-18 victory.

"Losing tonight is disappointing of course," BYU coach Jason Watson said. "We've had some adversity this year, but we are battling and we are trying to find a way. A match like tonight provides an opportunity for us to become more seasoned and get better."

The Cougars fall to 12-2 overall and 4-1 in the MWC, while Utah improves to an identical 12-2 with a 5-0 conference mark. BYU now leads the all-time series 62-20.

Outside hitter Chelsea Goodman led the Cougars with 18 kills, while middle blockers Rachel Dyer and Lindsy Hartsock added 13 and 10, respectively. BYU played the match without the MWC's top hitter, Erica Lott, who was sidelined due to injury.

"BYU is a very good team," Utah coach Beth Launiere said. "It's unfortunate that Erica (Lott) was injured -- she's a competitor and I'm sure she wanted to be out there. With her on the right side, they are very difficult to defend. We knew less sets would be sent to that pin. It made a difference. But with or without her, they're a good team and we knew we needed to play pretty good volleyball."

Kathryn Lovell led the Utah attack with 18 kills, while Whitney Webb contributed 17, Airial Salvo 15 and Lori Baird 11.

Ranked seventh in the nation in hitting percentage entering the match at .308, BYU attacked the Utes at only a .195 clip Friday while Utah improved on its .290 attack average on the year with a .315 hitting percentage for the night.

"We made uncharacteristic errors," Watson said. "At times I thought we had our chances but we didn't do enough."

Despite leading for much of game one, BYU struggled offensively as Utah rallied for the win. With the Cougars leading 20-18, the Utes recorded five straight points during an 8-1 run that propelled them to the 30-24 victory. When Dyer helped BYU score its 23rd point by kicking the ball to keep the rally alive, the BYU crowd came to its feet trying to help turn the momentum, but Utah scored two of the next three points for the win.

BYU's attack could not get on track in the first game as the Cougars hit .027, recording only eight kills with seven hitting errors. Utah, meanwhile, scored 19 times on its attack with six errors for a .295 team hitting percentage.

The Cougars started to find more rhythm on offense in game two, doubling their kills from game one while hitting .190, but Utah kept up the pressure with a .302 attack. Trailing 28-23, BYU made a rally to get within one at 29-28 on a Kim Wilson Sorensen block, but Utah answered for the two-point triumph.

The one Cougar who had the most offensive success in the first two games made sure BYU would not lose game three. Dyer, who hit .500 with only one hitting error in games one and two, scored on four straight possessions for BYU to ignite an 8-2 run to end the game. With BYU leading 22-19, Dyer scored on back-to-back slide sets, finished off a Utah overpass and returned to the slide for another kill to give BYU a 26-19 advantage. During the game, Dyer put down six kills from the middle with only one error while Goodman recorded a game-best seven scores from the outside, including the game-winning crosscourt smash.

Utah played extremely well in game four, hitting a sizzling .594 to finish off the match by a 30-18 tally.

"This is one of the top volleyball environments in the country," Launiere said. "We've played in this environment before and we knew what to expect. We wanted to come here and maintain our composure and we were able to do that."

BYU got a solid effort out of setter Jenna Judkins, who tossed up 54 assists and recorded a career-high 14 digs despite being hobbled by an ankle injury suffered Thursday. Friday's loss is the first for BYU in the seven matches that Judkins has assumed the starting setting duties for injured regular Amy Schlauder. The defeat is also the first suffered in the Smith Fieldhouse by a Watson team. The Cougars are now 15-1 on Elaine Michaelis Court under Watson.

BYU will play a nonconference match Tuesday at Utah Valley State. The match starts at 7 p.m. MT and will be broadcast on BYU Radio.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
    #18 Utah Utes vs #16 BYU Cougars (Sep 29, 2006 at Smith Fieldhouse BYU)
    Utah Utes              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  ANDERSON, Sydney....  4|  6   0   8  .750| 57|  0   3|  0| 13| 0  2  0|  1
 5  BAIRD, Lori.........  4| 11   6  28  .179|  0|  2   4|  0|  5| 0  6  0|  0
 8  LOVELL, Kathryn.....  4| 18   5  42  .310|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 11 SALVO, Airial.......  4| 15   3  38  .316|  1|  0   1|  0| 12| 0  3  0|  0
 15 TOONE, Emillie......  4|  4   1  12  .250|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 17 WEBB, Whitney.......  4| 17   4  34  .382|  8|  0   2|  0|  9| 0  5  0|  0
 14 DANGERFIELD, Connie.  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   4|  2| 20| 0  0  0|  0
 16 ROBISON, Kate.......  4|  1   1   3  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 72  20 165  .315| 69|  2  16|  2| 65| 0 21  0|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  6  44  .295   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19  6  43  .302   Utah Utes........... (3) 30 30 21 30  12-2; 5-0; MWC
   3  14  7  46  .152   BYU Cougars......... (1) 24 28 30 18  12-2; 4-1; MWC
   4  20  1  32  .594
    BYU Cougars            |     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....  4| 18   8  49  .204|  0|  0   2|  0| 15| 0  1  0|  0
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  4|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  4|  8   8  33  .000|  1|  1   2|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  4| 10   2  27  .296|  2|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  3  2|  0
 20 JUDKINS, Jenna......  4|  1   1   5  .000| 54|  1   1|  0| 14| 0  0  0|  3
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4| 13   4  23  .391|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  4|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  2| 13| 0  0  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  4|  9   4  25  .200|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  3  2|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 59  27 164  .195| 58|  2   6|  2| 67| 1 12  4|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   8  7  37  .027   Site: Smith Fieldhouse BYU (Elaine Michaelis)
   2  16  8  42  .190   Date: Sep 29, 2006   Attend: 4455   Time: 2h 1m
   3  20  6  46  .304   Referees: Marvin Hall, Teri Jackson, Karen Marshall
   4  15  6  39  .231

PROVO -- The No. 16 BYU women's volleyball team will face a tough test this weekend as No. 18 Utah comes to town for a matchup between the Mountain West Conference's top two teams on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

"Utah's ranking is very well-deserved," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "They are a confident team that has been tested early in nonconference play and has had success. This will be a great match between two very competitive volleyball programs. We hope that our fans will come out and support us."

At 12-1 overall so far this season and 4-0 in league action, the Cougars are once again on pace for another conference title. Despite losing starting setter Amy Schlauder to injury three weeks ago, BYU has been dominant throughout the early part of the season, recording nine sweeps and ranking in the top 10 nationally in hitting percentage (7th - .308) and win/loss percentage (10th - .923) in addition to ranking 28th in blocks per game. Senior middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock also ranks nationally in blocks and hitting percentage while sophomore middle blocker Rachel Dyer joins Hartsock among the nation's best in hitting efficiency.

The Smith Fieldhouse has been particularly kind to the Cougar squad as BYU is 5-0 at home this season and was 10-0 in the Fieldhouse last year. An average of 1,965 Cougar faithful have shown their support at each home match this season, which ranks 11th in the nation. A BYU women's volleyball record 4,050 fans saw the Cougars shock then-No. 4 Stanford in four games in BYU's first home match of the year.

The Utes are ranked No. 18 in the nation after beginning the 2006 season 11-2 overall and 4-0 in the Mountain West Conference. Their only two losses came against then-No. 5 Florida and then-No. 14 USC, both of which were on the road. Utah leads the nation in blocks per game behind junior middle blocker Emillie Toone, who also leads the country individually with 2.12 blocks per game. The Utes are also ranked in the top 25 nationally in hitting percentage (14th - .290), assists (19th - 15.10) and kills (24th - 16.33). Sophomore Airial Salvo, the 2005 MWC Freshman of the Year, is second in the league in kills per game (4.24) and points (5.11), behind BYU's Erica Lott in both categories. She is also tied with BYU's Chelsea Goodman for the league lead in aces per game with 0.50.

In last season's match in Provo, the Cougars defeated the Utes in four games, ending a 10-match Utah winning streak in the series. BYU owns a 62-19 overall advantage in the rivalry.

Fans of these two teams can catch all the action of Friday's match via live stats or a live Internet video stream available to all BYU Cougars All-Access and/or CSTV XXL subscribers. Links for both can be found by going to the Schedule page of the BYU women's volleyball homepage at www.byucougars.com.