Cougars Hand Waves Their First Loss

PROVO -- In the first of two battles between the top-ranked teams in the nation, No. 2 BYU handed No. 1 Pepperdine its first loss of the season, 3-1 (20-30, 30-28, 30-22, 30-21), Friday night in front of a sellout crowd in the Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars are now 8-1 overall and 6-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Waves fell to 5-1 overall and in the MPSF.

The match also featured the debut of Yosleyder Cala, a 6-8 outside hitter from Ciego Avila, Cuba. The freshman entered the match at the end of game two with the score tied at 28 and recorded back-to-back kills to give BYU the win and the momentum heading into game three.

"It just seemed like the time to put him in," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "He made some nice plays and his presence was definitely felt. This was his first competition in about two years so he still needs time to get back into a groove."

Peterson noted that while Cala subbed in for Taylor Evans, he expects Evans to continue to be a contributor.

"It just happened to be Taylor (Evans) that he came in for," Peterson said. "It was just at that point in the rotation. We now have four guys for three positions. That can be a major strength for us if we can work together as a team."

The four players Peterson referred to include Cala, Ivan Perez, Evans and Jonathan Charette. Cala finished the match with 10 kills and two aces. Perez led BYU with match-highs of 21 kills and 11 digs. Charette led BYU with a .429 hitting percentage while finishing second on the team with 13 kills. Russell Holmes added a team-high six blocks. The Cougars hit .305 (65-25-131) as a team and had 9.5 blocks and 39 digs.

John Parfitt led Pepperdine with 17 kills while Paul Carroll added 13. Andy Hein was also in double-digits with 10 kills while adding seven blocks. The Waves hit .229 (54-25-128) and had 15.5 blocks and 33 digs.

Game one belonged to the Waves as they jumped out to a 10-5 by hitting for a high percentage and taking advantage of BYU errors. The Cougars came right back, getting two kills apiece from Perez and Charette, and tied the game at 10. Pepperdine came right back though, outscoring BYU 20-10 to take the game 30-20. The Waves controlled the net both offensively and defensively, hitting .560 (14-0-25) and getting 7.0 blocks. Parfitt was the go-to guy for Pepperdine, recording seven kills on nine attempts. Hein and Jonathan Winder each had four blocks.

The second game was a back-and-forth battle but BYU came through in the end as Cala recorded back-to-back kills to break a 28-28 tie and clinch the game for the Cougars. BYU jumped out to a 7-4 lead on a kill by Perez but Pepperdine came right back, cutting the lead to one at 10-9. The Cougars maintained their lead until the Waves managed tie the score at 19 on a kill by Parfitt. Pepperdine then took control, scoring four of the next five points to take a 23-20 lead. An Evans kill stopped the run and Batista and Perez recorded a block on the next play to cut the lead to one at 23-22. The score would be tied six times from there, the last at 28-28. Cala then took control, forcing a Pepperdine tip by reaching high for a block and then getting a kill. Perez got a dig on the next play and Neilson went back to Cala, who put it away for the win.

Game three was close early but with the BYU leading 11-10, the Cougars took control. Cala recorded a kill to start an 8-4 run that gave BYU a 19-14 lead. The Waves cut the lead to two but Holmes recorded a kill and then back-to-back Parfitt errors gave BYU a 22-17 lead. The Cougars cruised the rest of the way, outscoring Pepperdine 8-5 to win 30-22. Despite hitting just .233 (15-8-30) for the game, BYU held the Waves to .000 (9-9-31) hitting. Perez led the Cougars with six kills and Charette added three blocks.

BYU carried the momentum it gained from the game three win to take game four, 30-21. With the score tied at 8-8, Perez registered a kill to give the Cougars the lead for good. Pepperdine kept it close but with the score 19-18 in favor of BYU, the Cougars outscored the Waves 11-3 to close out the game and the match.

"It was a good win for us but we can't relax," Peterson said. "We have to come back and do this again tomorrow. It's tough to beat a team on back-to-back nights so we'll have to play very well tomorrow."

The Cougars and Waves will play Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. The match can be seen live on CougarTV.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
        #1 PEP vs #2 BYU Cougars (Feb 03, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
    PEP                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Hein, Andy..........  4| 10   2  19  .421|  0|  0   6|  0|  2| 1  6  1|  0|  14.0
 11 Grobe, Jon..........  4|  8   8  25  .000|  3|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  4  0|  0|  10.0
 12 Carroll, Paul.......  4| 13   3  27  .370|  0|  1   5|  2|  5| 0  1  1|  0|  14.5
 14 Hulse, Tom..........  4|  3   1   9  .222|  2|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  8  0|  1|   7.0
 15 Winder, Jonathan....  4|  3   2   8  .125| 43|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  6  1|  0|   6.0
 16 Parfitt, John.......  4| 17   8  39  .231|  0|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  4  0|  0|  19.0
 9  Schleppenbach, J.D..  4|  0   1   1-1.000|  3|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  1|   0.0
 19 Stalzer, Aaron......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 54  25 128  .227| 51|  1  14|  4| 33| 1 29  3|  2|  70.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 15.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  0  25  .560   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  6  35  .343   PEP................. (1) 30 28 22 21  5-1; 5-1 MPSF
   3   9  9  31  .000   BYU Cougars......... (3) 20 30 30 30  8-1; 6-1 MPSF
   4  13 10  37  .081
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  4| 13   4  21  .429|  2|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  0|  14.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 21   8  38  .342|  0|  0   4|  0| 11| 0  4  1|  1|  23.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4|  8   3  19  .263|  0|  0   1|  0|  5| 1  5  0|  1|  11.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  1   1   2  .000| 60|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   1.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4|  7   3  15  .267|  2|  2   3|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|  10.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  5   2  15  .200|  0|  0   4|  1|  4| 0  0  1|  0|   5.0
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  3| 10   4  21  .286|  0|  2   3|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|  12.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 COX, Scott..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 65  25 131  .305| 64|  4  17|  1| 39| 1 17  3|  2|  78.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  9  33  .182   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELIS)
   2  20  6  41  .341   Date: Feb 03, 2006   Attend: 5395   Time: 2H 5M
   3  15  8  30  .233   Referees: MAILE JEWKES, LES CALLES, MAETANI
   4  15  2  27  .481