Team Effort Leads to Comeback Win

PROVO -- After dropping games one and two, the No. 2 Cougars dominated No. 13 USC in games three, four and five to record a 3-2 (25-30, 26-30, 30-20, 30-22, 15-11) comeback win over the Trojans Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU is now 10-2 overall and 8-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while USC is 7-6 overall and 4-4 in the MPSF.

"It was a great comeback," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "The biggest positive was that we showed we could win by committee. We were a team and we were helping each other. Everyone did what was needed to get the momentum on our side. Volleyball is a game of momentum and you need to do everything to turn the momentum in your favor."

Yosleyder Cala came off the bench to record a BYU season-high 26 kills and hit .622 (26-3-37) and Taylor Evans, who struggled early, recovered to register 17 kills and hit .345 (17-7-29). Brian Rowley tied the BYU-rally scoring record with 16 digs, giving him 30 for the weekend. Rodrigo Gomes came off the bench in game two and played the rest of the way, getting four kills and four digs. The Cougars hit .385 (73-23-130) as a team and had 35 digs and 12.0 blocks.

Joao Grangeiro had 17 kills to lead USC and Juan Figueroa added 15. Matt Mosko added seven kills and eight blocks and Andrew Vernon recorded eight kills and hit .400 (8-2-15). The Trojans hit .213 (58-29-136) and had 18.0 blocks.

After winning games three and four in dominant fashion, the Cougars got off to a quick start in game five, getting a kill from Rob Neilson for the 1-0 lead and with the score 2-1 in favor of BYU, Evans recorded a solo block, just his second of the season, to give the Cougars the 3-1 edge. USC never got closer than one and with BYU leading 14-11 Russell Holmes recorded the match winning point with a kill in the middle. The Cougars hit .909 (10-0-11) for the game as Cala and Evans were both perfect, each hitting 4-4.

BYU fell behind early in game one and never recovered, as both teams struggled offensively but USC took advantage of Cougar errors to win 30-25. The Trojans took a six-point lead at 14-8 on back-to-back blocks by Mosko and Grangeiro and maintained at least a four-point advantage the rest of the way. Figueroa led USC with five kills while Ivan Perez and Jonathan Charette each had three for BYU. The Cougars hit .032 (11-10-31) while the Trojans hit .080 (11-9-25).

Both teams came out strong offensively in game two and the score was tied at 18 before USC went on a 6-1 run to go ahead 24-19. Down 29-24, BYU scored two points to make a run but Grangeiro came through on the next play and got a kill to end the game at 30-26. After a hot start, the Cougars cooled to a .314 (17-6-35) hitting percentage while USC hit .424 (17-3-33). C.J. Schellenberg and Grangeiro both had four kills and no errors for the Trojans while Cala had eight kills and Rowley six digs for BYU.

The tides turned in game three as the Cougars took a five-point lead and went on a big run at the end to win 30-20. Leading 21-16, Evans and Cala recorded back-to-back kills to push the lead to seven. After the teams traded points, BYU recorded four-consecutive points on a kill by Batista, two by Evans and an attack error by Figueroa, increasing the lead to 10 at 28-18. The teams traded points from there and the Cougars earned their first win of the match. Cala had six kills to lead BYU and Evans added five on six error-less attempts. The Cougars hit .483 (19-5-29) and held the Trojans to a .036 (9-8-28) percentage.

Game four was more of the same as BYU went on to win 30-22. Cala and Evans each recorded three kills to help the Cougars establish an 11-4 lead. From there BYU coasted, hitting .583 (16-2-24) as Cala led the way with six kills on eight swings. Evans added six kills and Gomes had two kills on two swings.

The Cougars will hit the road for only the second time this season and play two matches against UC San Diego, Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 16 and 18.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
    #13 USC Trojans vs #2 BYU Cougars (Feb 11, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
    USC Trojans            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  C.J. Schellenberg...  4|  5   7  18 -.111|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|   6.5
 8  Andrew Vernon.......  5|  8   2  15  .400|  0|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  6  2|  0|  12.0
 13 Juan Figueroa.......  5| 15   9  40  .150|  0|  0   0|  3|  3| 2  4  2|  0|  19.0
 14 Joao Grangeiro......  5| 17   5  32  .375|  3|  2   3|  0|  5| 0  4  1|  0|  21.0
 17 Matt Mosko..........  5|  7   3  17  .235|  1|  1   5|  0|  1| 0  8  0|  0|  12.0
 18 Jimmy Killian.......  5|  3   1   6  .333| 45|  0   4|  0|  4| 1  5  0|  1|   6.5
 6  Matt Pavlovich......  3|  3   2   8  .125|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   3.0
 7  Luke Morris.........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 Gio Altamura........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 15 Chris Jones.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 58  29 136  .213| 51|  5  18|  4| 22| 3 30  6|  1|  81.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  9  25  .080   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  3  33  .424   USC Trojans......... (2) 30 30 20 22 11  7-6; 4-4; MPSF
   3   9  8  28  .036   BYU Cougars......... (3) 25 26 30 30 15  10-2; 8-2; MPSF
   4  13  8  35  .143
   5   8  1  15  .467
    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..  2|  4   4  11  .000|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   5.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  4   5  12 -.083|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5|  8   1  15  .467|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  0|  10.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  4   0   4 1.000| 56|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|   5.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  5|  6   1  14  .357|  3|  0   7|  0|  1| 0  5  5|  0|   8.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  5| 17   7  29  .345|  0|  0   1|  1|  5| 1  3  0|  0|  19.5
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  5| 26   3  37  .622|  0|  3   2|  1|  5| 0  2  2|  0|  30.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  7|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  3  1|  0|   1.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  1| 16| 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......  4|  4   2   8  .250|  2|  0   3|  2|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 73  23 130  .385| 71|  4  23|  5| 35| 1 22  8|  0|  89.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11 10  31  .032   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELES)
   2  17  6  35  .314   Date: Feb 11, 2006   Attend: 2718   Time: 2H 38M
   3  19  5  29  .483   Referees: LES CALLES, DAPHNE NELSON, MAETANI, JA, ??
   4  16  2  24  .583
   5  10  0  11  .909