Wall Sets Kills Record in 3-1 Win over Pacific
PROVO -- Behind All-American Mike Wall's record 30 kills, the BYU men's volleyball team improved to 3-1 on the season with a 3-1 win over No. 15 Pacific on Saturday, 30-27, 37-35, 30-28, 30-27. The win completed a two-match sweep over the Tigers, extending the Cougars' home-court win streak over Pacific to a perfect 7-0.
Wall turned in a single-match, four-game BYU record with 30 kills on 54 swings to hit a blistering .407 on the night. Wall has recorded 96 kills on the season, averaging 5.6 kills per game.
"Mike had a sweet night," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "If an opposite-side hitter can hit .350 with that many swings, he's having a good night. Mike was terrific."
After holding off the Tigers in game one, 30-27, the Cougars found themselves in a good-old-fashioned grudge match in game two. Pacific took a five-point lead with a 16-11 advantage before the Cougars managed to tie things up at 23-23 on a Tim Gerlach hitting error. The two teams would tie five times before the Tigers stepped to the line to serve for game point. Again, BYU battled back and took a 31-30 lead on a Wall kill, but after serving four different times for game point, the Tigers forced a Joaquin Acosta hitting error to win the 37-35 decision.
Game three was no different. The two teams battled through 15 ties in the game before Pacific took a 28-26 lead. Acosta chalked up one of his 19 kills on the night to cut the lead to one before Aaron Wachtfogel allowed the Cougars to notch things up when his attack sailed into the antenna. BYU took advantage of the miscue when Wall and Rafael Paal posted back-to-back blocks to wrap things up, 30-28.
In the final game of the match, BYU cruised to a 21-17 lead and looked to have things wrapped up when Martin Bernsten and the Tigers came roaring back. Bernsten tied things up at 26-26 with his 14th kill of the night, but two late miscues put the Cougars up 29-27. With the Smith Fieldhouse crowd of 2,620 on its feet, Wall recorded his record-setting 30th kill to end the match, 30-27.
"My guess is Pacific will end up a top-10 team," McGown said. "There is no way we could have won back-to-back matches if we were playing at their place. I think they're a very good team."
On the night, the Cougars out-hit the Tigers .362 to .267 and came up big at the net, posting 14 blocks to Pacific's 8.5.
"This was just one of those grind-it-out nights," McGown added. "Both teams played consistent and it was simply a tough match. I'm just pleased that we could grind it out and somehow stick in there and win."
Freshman Carlos Moreno, who arrived in Provo for the first time last Saturday, paced the BYU effort with 54 assists, six digs and one ace.
"He's only been in our gym a total of four days," McGown said. "We have a long way to go with him, but he has been around the game for a long time, he knows what he's doing and it will just take him a little time to learn our system. Once he does that, maybe in a month or two, he will be a very good setter for us."
Wachtfogel led Pacific with 18 kills and nine digs on the night, while Mike Gawlik played standout defense with 12 digs.
After recording 24 kills on Friday, Acosta added 19 on the night. Jaime Mayol connected on 9-of-14 to hit .571, while middle blocker Chris Gorny collected seven kills on 12 attempts (.500).
The defending National Champions will next play host to 12th-ranked USC on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25-26, in the Smith Fieldhouse. Both matches are scheduled to being at 7 p.m. (MST).
Pacific vs Brigham Young (Jan. 19, 2002 at Provo, Utah)Pacific | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
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4 WACHTFOGEL, Aarom... 4| 18 7 37 .297| 0| 1 6| 3| 9| 0 3 1| 0
5 BERNSTEN, Martin.... 4| 15 8 35 .200| 2| 0 2| 0| 8| 0 3 0| 1
9 HOEFER, Dan......... 4| 14 2 25 .480| 2| 0 2| 0| 1| 0 4 0| 0
13 GERLACH, Tim........ 4| 11 7 25 .160| 1| 2 1| 0| 6| 0 3 0| 0
17 TAMAS, Chris........ 4| 2 2 5 .000| 62| 1 3| 0| 3| 0 1 1| 0
18 RODGERS, Sean....... 4| 11 5 23 .261| 1| 0 2| 0| 1| 0 3 0| 0
1 GAWLIK, Mike........ 4| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 1| 12| 0 0 0| 0
2 JENSON, Tim......... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0
15 YEOMAN, Sly......... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 1 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0
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Totals.............. 4| 71 31 150 .267| 68| 5 16| 4| 40| 0 17 2| 1
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 11 8 29 .103 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 4 TEAM RECORDS
2 24 6 44 .409 #15 Pacific......... 27 37 28 27 1-4; 0-3 MPSF
3 18 8 39 .256 #6 Brigham Young.... 30 35 30 30 3-1; 3-1 MPSF
4 18 9 38 .237
Brigham Young | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
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2 WALL, Mike.......... 4| 30 8 54 .407| 0| 0 0| 1| 4| 1 5 0| 0
4 ACOSTA, Joaquin..... 4| 19 7 41 .293| 1| 0 3| 1| 7| 0 3 2| 0
6 GORNY, Chris........ 4| 7 1 12 .500| 0| 0 4| 0| 0| 1 4 0| 0
7 MAYOL, Jaime........ 4| 9 1 14 .571| 1| 0 1| 1| 7| 0 1 1| 0
9 PAAL, Rafael........ 4| 6 3 14 .214| 3| 2 3| 1| 6| 1 5 2| 0
11 MORENO, Carlos...... 4| 1 2 5 -.200| 54| 1 6| 1| 6| 0 3 0| 1
10 LARSEN, Jeremiah.... 2| 1 0 1 1.000| 10| 0 1| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0
12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 1 1| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0
17 PESSOA, Fernando.... 4| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 4| 0 0 0| 0
18 SLABE, Luka......... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0
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Totals.............. 4| 73 22 141 .362| 70| 4 20| 5| 35| 3 22 5| 1
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 17 6 31 .355 Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
2 22 7 43 .349 Date: Jan. 19 2002 Attend: 2620 Time: 2:20
3 18 4 36 .389 Referees: Tom Given, Les Calles
4 16 5 31 .355 Mike Wall set a BYU single-match, four-game record
with 30 kills.
