Cala and Holmes Lead BYU Past Stanford

PROVO -- BYU extended its win streak to six with a 3-0 (30-15, 33-31, 32-30) win over Stanford Saturday in the Fieldhouse. The Cougars are now 14-2 overall and 12-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Cardinal are 4-16 overall and 2-12 in the MPSF.

"It was nice to win but we made too many mistakes that kept games two and three close," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "Stanford worked hard and was able to take the momentum at times. You have to give them a lot of credit."

Russell Holmes led BYU with 13 kills and three blocks while hitting a match and season-high .800. Yosleyder Cala also had 13 kills and hit .579 while Brian Rowley added a match-high nine digs. The Cougars hit .537 (54-10-82) for the match, eclipsing the .500 mark for the second-straight night, and had 26 digs and 6.0 blocks.

Stanford was led by Ben Reddy and Jesse Meredith, who each had 12 kills. Meredith hit a team-high .733. As a team, the Cardinal hit .253 (42-19-91) and had 14 digs and 6.0 blocks.

BYU was in control in game one from the very beginning, taking an 11-4 lead on six kills without an error. The Cougars continued to dominate, winning the game 30-15. Rodrigo Gomes put the game away, serving four-consecutive points to increase BYU's lead from 24-12 to 28-12. The Cougars hit .762 (17-1-21) and were led by Holmes' four kills on four swings. Victor Batista, Taylor Evans, Ivan Perez and Cala added three kills apiece. BYU limited Stanford to .034 (9-8-29) during the game.

Game two started where game one ended with the Cougars in control. BYU led 15-11 before the Cardinal reeled off five points to take its first lead of the match. Following a Cougar timeout, BYU quickly got back in control scoring four of the five next points to go ahead 19-16. Stanford came back again, tying the score at 21 and eventually had two chances to put the game away, leading 29-28 and 30-29. The Cougars came through on each point as Cala and Trent Sorensen each recorded kills. With the score tied at 31, Holmes recorded back-to-back kills to give the game to BYU at 33-31. The Cougars hit .424 (20-6-33) and were led by Holmes, who had five kills on five attempts, and Sorensen, who had four kills on five swings.

BYU trailed most of game three but stayed close and made a late run to take the game, 32-30. Trailing 22-23, the Cougar tied the game and then took a 24-23 lead on an ace by Rodrigo Gomes. BYU then took the lead at 25-24 on a kill by Cala. The Cougars had a match point at 29-28 but hit it out of bounds. With the score tied at 30, Holmes pounded two kills to claim the game and the match.

The Cougars will face one of their biggest tests of the season next weekend when they travel to play two matches against No. 2 UC Irvine, March 10 and 11.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
   Stanford Cardinal vs #1 BYU Cougars (Mar 04, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE 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|  5   2  12  .250|  0|  0   1|  2|  4| 0  4  0|  0|   7.0
 5  Manov, Nick.........  1|  1   0   4  .250|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 7  Williams, Brandon...  1|  0   0   2  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   0.0
 8  Clayton, William....  1|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 13 Jacobs, Jeremy......  1|  1   0   2  .500|  6|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   1.0
 15 Reddy, Ben..........  3| 12  11  31  .032|  0|  1   4|  0|  1| 1  2  0|  0|  15.0
 1  Meredith, Jesse.....  2| 12   1  15  .733|  0|  1   4|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|  13.5
 3  Groppi, Miki........  2|  1   0   1 1.000| 31|  2   6|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0|   4.0
 6  Ekins, John.........  3|  6   4  14  .143|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   6.0
 11 Lindberg, Brian.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Ceran, Matt.........  2|  2   0   5  .400|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  1  1|  0|   2.5
 16 Keller, Jarod.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  19  91  .253| 39|  4  19|  2| 14| 1 10  4|  0|  52.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9  8  29  .034   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  6  33  .273   Stanford Cardinal... (0) 15 31 30  4-16; 2-12; MPSF
   3  18  5  29  .448   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 33 32  14-2;  13-2; 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.....  3| 13   2  19  .579|  0|  0   4|  1|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  14.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  6   4  11  .182|  1|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  0  1|  0|   6.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3| 13   1  15  .800|  1|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  3  0|  0|  14.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  1|  1   0   1 1.000| 12|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  3   0   4  .750|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0|   3.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  5   2  12  .250|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0|   5.0
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  1|  4   0   5  .800|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   5.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  3|  3   0   5  .600| 28|  1   1|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  2|   4.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  3|  1   0   2  .500|  1|  1   4|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  5   1   8  .500|  0|  0   0|  1|  1| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 54  10  82  .537| 48|  2  17|  4| 26| 0 12  3|  2|  62.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  1  21  .762   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELIS)
   2  20  6  33  .424   Date: Mar 04, 2006   Attend: 1757   Time: 1:42
   3  17  3  28  .500   Referees: MAILE JEWKES, DAPHNE NELSON, MAETANI, JA, SH