Goodman, Dyer Named to All-Tournament Team

PALO ALTO -- The No. 9-ranked BYU women's volleyball team opened strong with a first-game win over No. 2 Stanford Saturday night in Palo Alto, but the Cardinal protected their home floor by coming back for a 3-1 (30-28, 18-30, 22-30, 26-30) victory to earn the Stanford Invitational title.

"I'm very proud of this team, especially that we got better as the weekend went on," BYU coach Jason Watson said. "We have some very specific work to do, but our nonconference schedule has prepared us very well for the upcoming conference season. We're excited to get Mountain West Conference play going next week."

Senior outside hitter Chelsea Goodman led three Cougars in double-digit kills with 19, followed by junior middle blocker Rachel Dyer with 17 and senior rightside hitter Erica Lott with 14. Goodman, who joined Dyer representing BYU on the Stanford Invitational All-Tournament Team, recorded her 40th career double-double match by adding 18 digs, just one shy of Cougar libero Annie Pinegar's match-high 19 digs. Goodman now ranks second all-time among MWC players in career double-doubles.

Junior outside hitter Bryn Porter set a new career high with 15 digs while freshman setter Kiana Rogers added 11 digs with 59 assists for the third double-double performance of her young career. Cynthia Barboza and Foluke Akinradewo paced Stanford with 22 and 21 kills, respectively. Barboza also led the Cardinal with 16 digs on the night.

Trailing 13-6 in the first game, BYU roared back to take over the lead at 15-14 during an amazing 15-3 run that gave the Cougars a six-point advantage at 21-15. The Cardinal responded with a 7-2 run to cut the BYU lead to just one at 23-22 and eventually evened the tally at 27-27 on a kill by Barboza. But Goodman followed a Stanford service error by blocking Erin Waller's attack to give the Cougars a game-point opportunity at 29-27. A bad set from Rogers gave the Cardinal the serve again, but Rogers took advantage of her next opportunity, setting Goodman for the game-winner in the 30-28 victory.

Stanford scored seven of the first 10 points of game two and never looked back to even the match at one game apiece with a 30-18 win. The third game was a closer contest, but the Cardinal could not be overcome thanks to a .457 team attack percentage for the game. Stanford put down 19 kills with only three hitting errors in its 35 attempts during the 30-22 victory.

With Stanford up 13-12 in game four, the Cardinal scored six of the next eight points to force a BYU timeout with a 19-14 lead. The Cougars saw the deficit grow to seven at 24-17 before Dyer put down four kills during six straight Cougar points to come within one at 24-23. Goodman had a chance to even the score for BYU, but her attack landed beyond the end line to get Stanford back on the scoreboard. The Cardinal were able to hold on for the 30-26 win.

With the loss, BYU falls to 6-2 on the year while Stanford maintains a perfect mark at 7-0. The Cougars stay on the road to open MWC play on Thursday at UNLV. The match starts at 7 p.m. PST.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
          #9 BYU Cougars vs #2 Stanford (Sep 08, 2007 at Stanford, CA)
    BYU Cougars            |     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....  4| 19  16  55  .055|  0|  0   1|  1| 18| 1  1  0|  1|  20.5
 4  HANSEN, Ashton......  4|  7   0  15  .467|  2|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 9  ROGERS, Kiana.......  4|  0   0   2  .000| 59|  0   2|  0| 11| 1  3  0|  1|   2.5
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4| 14   4  35  .286|  0|  1   2|  1|  7| 0  1  2|  0|  15.5
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  4|  9   5  33  .121|  0|  1   1|  2| 15| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 44 DYER, Rachel........  4| 17   2  30  .500|  4|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  5  1|  0|  19.5
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  1| 19| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 66  27 170  .229| 65|  2  12|  5| 72| 2 12  3|  2|  76.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  4  46  .304   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  11 12  46 -.022   BYU Cougars......... (1) 30 18 22 26  6-2
   3  17  7  38  .263   Stanford............ (3) 28 30 30 30  7-0
   4  20  4  40  .400
    Stanford               |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Barboza, Cynthia....  4| 22   4  49  .367|  2|  1   1|  0| 16| 0  2  0|  0|  24.0
 4  Kehoe, Bryn.........  4|  3   0   7  .429| 61|  0   1|  0| 10| 1  4  1|  1|   6.0
 6  Girard, Franci......  4|  8   1  19  .368|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  3  1|  0|  10.5
 10 Klineman, Alix......  4| 14   8  43  .140|  0|  2   2|  1|  8| 1  2  2|  0|  18.0
 12 Waller, Erin........  4|  2   5  14 -.214|  1|  1   1|  0|  7| 1  4  0|  0|   6.0
 16 Akinradewo, Foluke..  4| 21   1  34  .588|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  8  1|  0|  25.0
 2  Okogbaa, Janet......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 5  Fisher, Alex........  3|  1   0   4  .250|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 8  Lichtman, Cassidy...  3|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  Ailes, Gabi.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  1   1|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 11 Fishburn, Jessica...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 71  19 171  .304| 67|  5   7|  2| 68| 4 23  5|  1|  91.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  7  48  .250   Site: Stanford, CA
   2  12  3  41  .220   Date: Sep 08, 2007   Attend: 1478   Time: 2:10
   3  19  3  35  .457   Referees: Bill Forrester, Michael Yoshikawa
   4  21  6  47  .319

PROVO -- The No. 9 BYU women's volleyball team (5-0) will attempt to become just the fourth program in NCAA volleyball history to record 1,000 wins this week as the Cougars head to the Stanford Invitational. BYU, just two wins away from 1,000, will face No. 17 Cal Poly on Thursday before taking on Saint Mary's on Friday and the No. 2 Cardinal on Saturday in the three-day event.

"This is another exciting week for us," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "The challenge that our program faces will be to play with the same type of intensity and personality on the road that we had at home last weekend."

With a 998-274-5 all-time record in the 39-year recorded history of BYU women's volleyball, the Cougars are on the verge of joining UCLA, Nebraska and Missouri State as the only programs in the nation to notch at least 1,000 all-time collegiate volleyball victories. Former BYU head coach Elaine Michaelis led BYU to 886 wins in her 33 recorded seasons, retiring second all-time in collegiate volleyball. Karen Lamb added 57 victories to the BYU total in her three seasons while current Cougar head coach Watson has gone 55-10 in just over two seasons. In the 38 years of recorded history prior to 2007, BYU has suffered only one losing season and has won 20 or more matches in 31 of the past 33 years.

"The tradition of volleyball at BYU is one of the best in the nation," said Watson. "We are all very honored to have the opportunity to be a part of this milestone and continue building on the legacy that has been established here."

BYU is also celebrating another achievement as the Cougars' No. 9 ranking in this week's AVCA Coaches' Poll is their highest since Nov. 22, 1999. BYU moved up from No. 15 after winning the BYU Molten Classic last weekend with an incredible five-game win over No. 10 Wisconsin and sweeps of American and Northern Iowa to improve to 5-0 on the year. The Cougars' victory over the Badgers was witnessed by 3,880 fans, the fourth-largest crowd in BYU women's volleyball history. Senior outside hitter Chelsea Goodman was named the tournament MVP for the second straight week while senior rightside hitter Erica Lott and junior middle blocker were named to the All-Tournament team.

The Cougars will face a tough test in getting to 1,000 wins as they face two more ranked opponents this week on the road. The No. 17 Mustangs are 3-3 in 2007 with two of those losses coming against No. 3 Penn State and top-ranked Nebraska. Saint Mary's is undefeated this year at 5-0 while the second-ranked Cardinal has gone 4-0 this season with all four victories coming against ranked opponents.

Action will kick off for the Cougars at 4:30 p.m. PST on Thursday against Cal Poly and will continue Friday at 4:30 p.m. against Saint Mary's and Saturday at 7 p.m. against Stanford. All three BYU matches can be heard on BYU Radio with the Stanford match being joined in progress following the BYU-UCLA football game beginning at 3:30 p.m. PST on Saturday. Live stats will also be available for all three contests, and the Cougar-Cardinal face-off will be streamed on the Internet for CSTV All-Access subscribers.