Mayol Hot in Cougar Win

PROVO -- The BYU Cougars overcame their second-night performance woes to blank fourth-ranked Long Beach State 30-26, 30-22, 30-22 in their final home match of the regular season. The third-ranked Cougars hit a team season-high .494 attack percent and out-blocked the 49ers 13.0 to 5.0 to improve their record to 18-5 (16-4 MPSF) on the year, while Long Beach fell to 15-10 (9-9 MPSF) on the season.

Senior Jaime Mayol led the Cougars with 16 kills, hitting .478, and added one ace and four blocks. Jonathan Alleman was back in form tonight, hitting .545 with 14 kills, two aces and five digs. Michael Burked added a match-high eight blocks while hitting .625 (-0-8).

"Our guys hit very well," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "That's one of our best efforts. It was a good time for Jonathan Alleman to find his game. Last night he hit negative and tonight he hit .545, with 22 swings mostly from the back row--I thought that was huge. We hit .494 as a team against Long Beach; I've never seen that."

In the first game Mayol was on fire, recording eight of the Cougars' 21 kills and rallying the team with his enthusiasm. The 49ers kept it close through much of the game, but BYU out-blocked 4.0 to 2.0 and its momentum was unstoppable.

Game two was owned by the Cougars as they hit a blistering .700 as a team and Long Beach struggled defensively with digs and blocks. BYU took a sizable lead early on and never gave Long Beach a chance to catch up. With the score close at 11-9, BYU went on a 10-4 run to earn an eight-point lead which they would never relinquish, winning the game 30-22.

In game four the Cougars out-hit the 49ers .522 to .182 and out-blocked them 6.5 to 1.0 for a quick 30-22 win and the match.

Scott Touzinsky led the 49ers with a match-high 18 kills while hitting .375. Jeff Wootton chipped in 11 kills on a .471 attack percent and setter Tyler Hildebrand added 46 assists for Long Beach.

BYU had one of its best nights of the season, and it came at a crucial time against a highly ranked team when conference titles and National Tournament berths are on the line.

"You've got to be great at the end," Peterson said. "Tonight we were, and I hope we will be two weekends from now (against Pepperdine)."

BYU will have next weekend off, but will travel to Malibu to face top-ranked Pepperdine on April 11 and 12 in two matches that will decide the MPSF regular-season title. Both matches will begin at 7:00 p.m. (PST) and live audio will be available through the byucougars.com Web site.

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                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2003 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
    No.4 Long Beach St vs Brigham Young (Mar 29, 2003 at Brigham Young Univ)
    No.4 Long Beach St     |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  WOOTTON, Jeff.......  3| 11   3  17  .471|  0|  0   1|  2|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 5  HILDEBRAND, Tyler...  3|  0   1   1-1.000| 46|  0   1|  0|  4| 1  0  1|  0
 9  TOUZINSKY, Scott....  3| 18   6  32  .375|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0
 14 SLITI, Yassir.......  2|  2   3   8 -.125|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 21 LEE, David..........  3|  7   1  10  .600|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  1  1|  0
 24 TARR, Robert........  2|  3   2   7  .143|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 4  COE, Clint..........  1|  4   0   5  .800|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 KIJEWSKI, Robert....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 16 MEINE, Matt.........  3|  1   4   5 -.600|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 17 BUDINGER, Duncan....  2|  2   2   4  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0
 20 MUNOZ, Paul.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 48  22  89  .292| 46|  1  13|  3| 13| 1  8  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  7  32  .281   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  4  24  .458   No.4 Long Beach St.. 26 22 22  15-10,9-9 MPSF
   3  17 11  33  .182   Brigham Young....... 30 30 30  18-5, 16-4 MPSF
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  3|  5   0   8  .625|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 2  6  1|  0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  3|  2   0   4  .500| 47|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0
 6  GORNY, Chris........  3|  7   1  11  .545|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  4  0|  0
 7  MAYOL, Jaime........  3| 16   5  23  .478|  0|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  4  1|  0
 9  PAAL, Rafael........  3|  7   3  11  .364|  2|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  1  2|  0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  3| 14   2  22  .545|  1|  2   1|  1|  5| 0  2  0|  0
 1  PATTERSON, Casey....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 4  HILLMAN, Joe........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 18 SLABE, Luka.........  3|  1   1   2  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 52  12  81  .494| 51|  3   9|  1| 18| 2 22  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  7  38  .368   Site: Brigham Young Univ (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  17  3  20  .700   Date: Mar 29, 2003   Attend: 2289   Time: 1:30
   3  14  2  23  .522   Referees: TOM GIVEN, LES CALLES, TRENT MANO