Cougar Offense Clicks in Win Over Stanford

PROVO -- Coming off a bye week, No. 1 BYU showed no signs of rust, hitting .537 to earn a sweep (30-16, 30-23, 30-23) of Stanford Friday at the Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars improved to 13-2 overall and 11-2 in the MPSF while the Cardinal fell to 4-15 overall and 2-11 in league play.

"Anytime you can beat Stanford its nice," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "It was nice to have the week off to heal up. We still have some guys that are a little hurt but we're fighting through it."

Yosleyder Cala had 12 kills in two games and hit .857 to lead BYU. Ivan Perez and Russell Holmes added 10 kills each and Victor Batista hit a match-high .889 (8-0-9). Holmes and Cala had match highs of four blocks and five digs. As a team, BYU hit .537 (55-11-82) and had 28 digs and 5.0 blocks.

Ben Reddy led all players 13 kills while Nick Manov added seven for Stanford. The Cardinal hit .165 (28-15-79) and had 12 digs and 2.0 blocks.

Despite coming off a bye week, the Cougars came out strong in game one, playing their best offensive game of the season and one of the best in school history. BYU had 20 kills on 25 attempts for an .800 hitting percentage, the highest in school history in a game when the Cougars had at least 20 attempts.

Stanford jumped out to a 2-0 lead but BYU quickly tied the score and took the lead for good at 6-5. The Cardinal hung close but when trailing 10-9, the Cougars went on a 10-2 run to take an insurmountable lead at 20-11. BYU went on to win the game 30-16 and were led by Cala's six kills on seven attempts and Perez and Evans added four kills each.

Stanford again jumped out to a 2-0 lead in game two but the Cougars quickly got back in control, tying the score at two and then taking the lead for good at 11-10 on a kill by Jonathan Charette. BYU increased its lead little by little on its way to a 30-23 win. Cala was again almost perfect, getting six kills on seven swings. Holmes was also near perfect, recording four kills on five attempts. As a team, the Cougars hit .467 (19-5-30).

Game three was more of the same as BYU got out to a 10-4 lead and went on to win 30-23. Peterson emptied his bench as several players got into the action. Shaun Muaina, Rodrigo Gomes and Trent Sorensen all recorded two kills to help lead BYU to a game-three win. The Cougars hit .370 during the game and limited Stanford to .087 hitting.

"We were able to get guys in that deserved some time," Peterson said. "They play hard in practice and its nice to see them be successful in the match."

The Cougars and Cardinal will be back in action Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Fieldhouse. The match will be broadcast live on BYUTV and CougarTV.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
   Stanford Cardinal vs #1 BYU Cougars (Mar 03, 2006 at SMITHFIELDHOUSE BYU)
    Stanford Cardinal      |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Ahlfeldt, Chris.....  3|  1   2   9 -.111|  1|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  1|  0|   1.0
 5  Manov, Nick.........  3|  7   2  20  .250|  1|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 8  Clayton, William....  3|  2   3   8 -.125|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 13 Jacobs, Jeremy......  3|  1   0   1 1.000| 24|  0   4|  0|  3| 1  0  1|  0|   2.0
 14 Ceran, Matt.........  2|  3   1   4  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 15 Reddy, Ben..........  3| 13   7  33  .182|  1|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|  13.0
 7  Williams, Brandon...  1|  1   0   4  .250|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 11 Lindberg, Brian.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  5|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 Keller, Jarod.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 28  15  79  .165| 27|  1  13|  7| 12| 1  2  3|  0|  31.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 2.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  5  21  .238   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10  4  35  .171   Stanford Cardinal... (0) 16 23 23  4-15; 2-11; MPSF
   3   8  6  23  .087   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 30 30  13-2; 11-2; MPSF
    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  CALA, Yosleyder.....  2| 12   0  14  .857|  2|  1   4|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  13.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 10   3  15  .467|  1|  1   4|  1|  4| 0  3  0|  0|  12.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3| 10   1  15  .600|  1|  2   4|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  14.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  2   1   5  .200| 38|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  8   0   9  .889|  0|  1   4|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   9.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  5   1   9  .444|  0|  1   1|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  1|  2   2   5  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  2|  0   0   0  .000|  7|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  MAUINA, Shaun.......  1|  2   1   3  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 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......  1|  2   2   4  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  2|  2   0   3  .667|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 55  11  82  .537| 49|  7  20|  1| 28| 0 10  0|  0|  67.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  0  25  .800   Site: SMITHFIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELIS)
   2  19  5  30  .467   Date: Mar 03, 2006   Attend: 3728   Time: 1:29
   3  16  6  27  .370   Referees: DAPHNE NELSON, MAILE JEWKES, MAETANI, AJ,