PROVO -- A BYU women's volleyball record 4,050 fans came to the Smith Fieldhouse hoping to see the Cougars beat No. 4 Stanford. They got what they came for as No. 4 went down in four with BYU winning 17-30, 30-25, 30-25 and 30-16 Friday night to open the Molten Classic.

"Going into this game, we all knew we could take it because we have so much trust in our system," said outside hitter Chelsea Goodman.

After game one, it didn't appear as though BYU was playing with such confidence. The two teams battled to a 13-13 tie before Stanford closed out the game with a 17-4 run.

"We thought this match was going to go long," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "Even though the first game went the way it did, I thought we were playing well. We kept our composure, and that's something I don't think we would have done last year."

BYU did indeed bounce back in game two by jumping out to a 4-0 lead. The Cougars never trailed in the game and were only tied once at 22 apiece. Game two also featured the play of the game as sophomore setter Amy Schlauder jumped up for an apparent set before dumping the ball behind her back and over the net to put BYU up 25-23. From there, BYU finished off the game on a 5-2 run.

Game three was the most competitive of the night as the final margin of five points was the highest either team led throughout the game. Game four, however, was all BYU. Watson's squad soared to a 15-1 run and eventually won 30-16. The Cougars turned up the defensive intensity keeping Stanford from stringing no more than three consecutive points in the game.

"A key factor for us is we dug a lot of balls," Watson said. "We created all these opportunities for us to score points, and that sustained the pressure we established earlier in the game. It was fun."

The Cougars were led by juniors Goodman (14 kills) and Erica Lott (20 kills). Goodman also recorded 18 digs for her second double-double of the season. Orem native Kristin Richards (14 kills, 11 digs) was one of three Cardinal to score double-doubles along with Cynthia Barboza and Franci Girard.

The last time BYU beat an opponent as highly ranked as Stanford was the 2000 season when the Cougars defeated the nation's No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 teams, including No. 1 Stanford. The Molten Classic continues Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse with BYU taking on Texas A&M Corpus Christi at noon and then Virginia Commonwealth at 7 p.m.

VCU Defeats Texas A&M CC 3-0

PROVO -- Virginia Commonwealth University Rams (3-1) defeated the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders (1-4) 3-0 at the BYU Molten Classic Friday.

"I am really happy with today's results," said VCU head coach James Finley. "Our team followed their assignments, played aggressive and blocked well. I am really pleased."

VCU swept the match with scores of 30-19, 30-16 and 30-17. VCU had a match hitting percentage of .352. The Rams held the Islanders to a -.030 attack percentage. VCU also out blocked Texas A&M CC 9.5 to 2.0.

The Rams' Elisa Kuehnel had an impressive night with 11 kills and six blocks. Ana Luiza Bernardes de Borja also had 11 kills, four blocks and nine digs.

Lauren Paslay and Lynn Elsberry of Texas A&M CC each had seven kills. Laura North led the team with 13 digs.

VCU will prepare to face the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal Saturday at 10 a.m. MST. The Texas A&M CC Islanders will face BYU Saturday at noon MST. Both matches will be held at the Elaine Michaelis Court as part of the BYU Molten Classic.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                 8-26 Combined
  #4 Stanford Cardinals vs BYU Cougars (Sep 01, 2006 at Smith Fieldhouse BYU)
    Stanford Cardinals     |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Barboza, Cynthia....  4| 10   9  50  .020|  1|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 4  Kehoe, Bryn.........  4|  4   1   8  .375| 45|  1   1|  0| 15| 0  3  0|  2
 5  Nnamani, Nji........  4|  5   4  17  .059|  4|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  0
 6  Girard, Franci......  4| 14   4  26  .385|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 1  4  0|  0
 10 Richards, Kristin...  4| 14  11  42  .071|  0|  0   3|  0| 11| 1  1  0|  0
 16 Akinradewo, Foluke..  4| 12   1  29  .379|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 1  4  0|  0
 2  Okogbaa, Janet......  1|  0   2   2-1.000|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 11 Fishburn, Jessica...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  1   3|  2| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 12 Waller, Erin........  2|  1   1   5  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 15 Mellard, Michelle...  1|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 60  33 180  .150| 53|  5  14|  2| 53| 3 20  0|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  2  39  .436   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15 10  48  .104   Stanford Cardinals.. (1) 30 25 25 16  1-1; 0-0; PAC 10
   3  18  9  51  .176   BYU Cougars......... (3) 17 30 30 30  4-0; 0-0; MWC
   4   8 12  42 -.095
    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| 14   7  37  .189|  0|  1   1|  0| 18| 1  4  1|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  4|  5   3  27  .074|  0|  0   1|  1|  1| 1  1  1|  0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4| 20   8  41  .293|  1|  0   3|  2|  6| 0  6  1|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  4|  7   1  16  .375|  3|  0   2|  0|  3| 1  8  0|  0
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  4|  3   0   3 1.000| 45|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  2  0|  1
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4|  7   1  10  .600|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0
 2  BEAUMONT, Janvier...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  1   1|  2| 20| 0  0  0|  0
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0| 15| 0  0  0|  0
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  1|  0   1   3 -.333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 56  21 137  .255| 52|  2   8|  5| 73| 3 24  3|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  7  40  .125   Site: Smith Fieldhouse BYU (Elaine Michaelils)
   2  16  6  37  .270   Date: Sep 01, 2006   Attend: 4050   Time: 2 h 08 m
   3  16  2  33  .424   Referees: Tom Given, Maile Jewkes, Karen Marshall
   4  12  6  27  .222

PROVO -- The BYU women's volleyball team will host the BYU Molten Classic this Friday and Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse, marking the Cougars' home debut. With matches against preseason No. 4 Stanford (1-0), Virginia Commonwealth (2-1) and Texas A&M Corpus Christi (2-1), the Cougars (3-0) will look to continue their solid start to the season and make some noise on the national scene.

"We're looking forward to our home tournament," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "Last weekend enabled us to identify some areas we need to upgrade. This weekend will provide us an opportunity to measure our improvement in a competitive tournament."

The event will kickoff on Friday at 4 p.m. with Virginia Commonwealth facing Texas A&M Corpus Christi. BYU will take on the Stanford Cardinal, ranked No. 4 in the nation in preseason polls, on Friday night at 7 p.m., a match that will be broadcast on BYU-TV. Saturday's matches begin at 10 a.m. with VCU vs. Stanford and then continue with BYU vs. Texas A&M CC at 12 p.m., Stanford vs. Texas A&M CC at 5 p.m. and then BYU vs. VCU at 7 p.m. to end the tournament.

Preseason tournaments hosted by BYU have been a tradition since 1977. With the exception of two years, 1993 and 1999, the Cougars have hosted at least one tournament each year. Although the name of the marquee event has evolved over the years from the BYU Preview to the BYU Invitational to the BYU Mizuno Classic to the current BYU Molten Classic, the premise has always been the same -- to gather top teams from around the country for intense competition. BYU has now hosted 33 tournaments in 27 years, winning 18 titles along the way. A total of 36 players have won 44 all-tournament awards including 13 MVP selections.

There have been many Cougar highlights, but one of the top moments in BYU tournament history was when BYU upended No. 1 Stanford before defeating No. 2 Long Beach State to take the 2000 tournament title.

BYU began the 2006 season in fine form at the UCF Fall Invitational hosted by the University of Central Florida last weekend. The Cougars brought home the tournament title with three straight sweeps of Florida International (30-28, 30-26, 30-24), UCF (30-25, 30-16, 30-18) and Stetson (30-13, 30-20, 30-25). BYU hit .348 for the week while holding opponents to a .158 percentage.

Junior rightside hitter Erica Lott took MVP honors as she led the team with 15 kills against UCF and 18 against Stetson on .556 hitting. Senior Lindsy Hartsock joined Lott on the All-Tournament team as she hit .593 for the weekend and averaged 1.62 blocks per game.