Seniors Lead BYU to Win

PROVO -- BYU sent its seniors out with a victory as the Cougars defeated Pacific 3-1 (30-26, 28-30, 30-23, 30-27) in their regular season home finale Saturday at the Smith Fieldhouse. With the win, BYU is now 18-4 overall and 14-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while Pacific is 7-17 overall and 5-13 in league play.

"This was a great way to honor the seniors and Grayson (DuBose)," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "It was a great all-around team effort. All of the seniors were able to contribute."

Assistant coach Grayson DuBose was recently hired by Utah State to coach its women's team.

The seniors came through in their final match. Victor Batista had 12 kills, eight blocks and five digs and Rob Neilson set the Cougars to a .430 hitting percentage. Brian Rowley had five digs, Taylor Evans had nine kills and five digs and Josh Brecheisen had the first two kills of his career, including the match winner.

Russell Holmes, Jonathan Charette and Yosleyder Cala tied for the team lead with 15 kills apiece. Holmes hit .700 and added seven blocks while Charette hit .417 and Cala had five blocks.

Brian Adamson led Pacific with 20 kills while Matt Cornell and Joe Forbes added 10 kills apiece. Pacific hit .220 as a team and had 27 digs and 6.5 blocks.

The match was highlighted by a back-and-forth game four that BYU eventually won 30-27. With the game tied at 18, the Cougars pulled ahead at 26-20 with an 8-2 run but Pacific cut into the lead and got within two at 28-26. After the teams traded points, Neilson set fellow senior Brecheisen, who pounded out his second career kill for the win.

Game one went to the Cougars, but strong hitting by both teams kept the game close. However, BYU slowly pulled away after the last of 16 ties at 20-20, winning the game 30-26. Leading the Cougars with six kills and a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage was Holmes. BYU showed powerful hitting with three players, Holmes, Neilson and Batista, hitting a perfect game, adding to a team average of .621. Cala and Holmes played well defensively as well with four and three blocks, respectively, contributing to the 5.0 team blocks for the game.

The Tigers fought back in game two, winning it 30-28. BYU led early at 3-1 but Pacific fought back, breaking open a close game with a 5-1 run to take a five-point lead at 21-16. The Cougars did not go down easy, however, coming back and cutting the lead to one at 23-22 with a 6-2 run. Pacific stayed ahead and led 28-25. BYU again made a run, scoring three-straight on two Pacific errors and a Cala kill to tie the game. The Cougars had a chance to get ahead but a Charette attempt sailed out of bound and the Tigers sealed the deal with a Forbes ace. Batista and Holmes combined for seven kills on nine attempts but the rest of the team struggled as BYU hit just .265.

The Cougars stole the momentum back in game three in a hurry, jumping out to a 10-5 lead. Pacific made a run in to get back within one but the game belonged to BYU as the Cougars won 30-23. BYU put the game away with a 12-4 run that extended the lead to 10 from 14-12 to 26-16. Holmes and Charette had four kills apiece while Cala added three on three attempts.

The Cougar will hit the road to play two matches against the Long Beach State 49ers, April 6 and 7. BYU is currently in third in the MPSF and is playing for a high seed in the MPSF postseason tournament.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
    #15 Pacific Tigers vs #2 BYU Cougars (Apr 01, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE)
    Pacific Tigers         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Hazelett, Mitch.....  4|  1   0   2  .500| 52|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
 3  Forbes, Joe.........  4| 10   4  16  .375|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 1  2  0|  0|  13.0
 9  Adamson, Brian......  4| 20   9  41  .268|  2|  1   3|  1|  2| 0  2  1|  0|  22.0
 13 Seppanen, Pekka.....  2|  4   1   9  .333|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 14 Chen-Byerley, Simon.  4|  7   4  16  .188|  0|  1   0|  0|  3| 0  2  1|  0|   9.0
 16 Cornell, Matt.......  4| 10   7  23  .130|  1|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 1  Morales, Garrett....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 4  Gentry, Blake.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  0  0|  0|   1.0
 5  Cunningham, Drew....  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 11 Baboulidis, Andreas.  4|  8   6  19  .105|  0|  1   1|  0|  9| 0  0  1|  0|   9.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 60  32 127  .220| 55|  4  13|  1| 27| 2  9  3|  1|  70.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  6  30  .333   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  7  35  .257   Pacific Tigers...... (1) 26 30 23 27  7-17; 5-13 MPSF
   3  13  9  29  .138   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 28 30 30  18-4; 14-4 MPSF
   4  15 10  33  .152
    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.....  4| 15   5  28  .357|  1|  0   6|  1|  3| 0  5  0|  1|  17.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  4| 15   5  24  .417|  0|  1   3|  0|  4| 0  2  1|  0|  17.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4| 15   1  20  .700|  1|  0   3|  0|  0| 1  6  1|  0|  19.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  3   0   4  .750| 63|  0   3|  0|  7| 1  3  0|  1|   5.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 12   2  17  .588|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 2  6  1|  0|  17.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4|  9   4  24  .208|  3|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  3|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  BRECHEISEN, Josh....  1|  2   1   3  .333|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 71  19 121  .430| 69|  1  20|  4| 30| 4 24  3|  2|  88.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 16.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  20  2  29  .621   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE (ELAINE MICHAELIS CRT)
   2  16  7  34  .265   Date: Apr 01, 2006   Attend: 2034   Time: 2:11
   3  15  6  24  .375   Referees: LES CALLES, BURT FULLER, K. MAETANI, JA,SH
   4  20  4  34  .471