Long Beach Rallies Past Cougars

LONG BEACH -- Despite taking games one and two, the Cougars could not finish off Long Beach State as the 49ers rallied to win in five games (31-29, 30-26, 26-30, 22-30, 13-15) Friday night at the Walter Pyramid. With the loss, BYU is now 18-5 overall and 14-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while Long Beach is 18-9 overall and 11-8 in league play.

Russell Holmes led the Cougars with 11 kills and nine blocks and Yosleyder Cala had 19 kills, four digs and five blocks. Ivan Perez added 15 kills and Victor Batista had 13 while Rob Neilson had a match-high nine digs. As a team, BYU hit .247 (72-36-146) and had 34 digs and 12.5 blocks.

Robert Tarr had a match-high 21 kills for Long Beach and Duncan Budinger added 14 kills and Norm Hutton had 10. Long Beach hit .309 (68-26-136) as a team and recorded 24 digs and 18.5 blocks.

"We played better than them for a while but we need to be consistent for the entire match," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "They got better at the right time. Hutton came in and provided a spark and Tarr caught fire at the right time."

With the match tied at two games apiece, BYU had the lead in game five, up 8-7, before Long Beach recorded back-to-back points to go ahead 9-8. After the teams traded points, Tarr served an ace to give the 49ers a two-point advantage at 11-9. A kill by Perez cut the lead to one but Hutton followed with a kill to put Long Beach back up by two at 12-10. On the next play, Neilson set crosscourt to Cala, who put it away to cut the deficit back to one. The Cougars could not crack the 49ers, however, as the teams continued to trade points and Long Beach won the game, 15-13, to take the match.

BYU took game one, 31-29, despite hitting just .081 (16-13-37). The 49ers hit even lower at -.027 (12-13-37). The Cougars improved in game two and hit .286 (19-9-35) on their way to a 30-26 win.

From there Long Beach took control, out-hitting BYU the rest of the way and winning the next three games. The 49ers were next to unstoppable in games four and five, hitting .583 and .722.

The Cougars will take on Long Beach again Friday at 7:30 p.m. (PT) in the Walter Pyramid.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
   #2 Brigham Young vs #7 Long Beach State (Apr 06, 2006 at Long Beach State)
    Brigham Young          |     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.....  5| 19  10  34  .265|  2|  0   4|  0|  4| 0  5  1|  0|  21.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  4|  4   3  15  .067|  1|  1   2|  1|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   5.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  5| 15  11  37  .108|  2|  2   4|  1|  8| 1  0  1|  0|  18.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5| 11   3  20  .400|  2|  0   2|  0|  1| 2  7  0|  0|  16.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  4   2   7  .286| 60|  0   0|  0|  9| 2  2  1|  0|   7.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  5| 13   4  21  .429|  1|  2   4|  0|  4| 0  0  1|  0|  15.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  5|  6   3  12  .250|  1|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   7.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 72  36 146  .247| 69|  6  19|  6| 34| 5 15  5|  0|  90.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16 13  37  .081   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19  9  35  .286   Brigham Young....... (2) 31 30 26 22 13  18-5 (14-5)
   3  15  6  31  .290   Long Beach State.... (3) 29 26 30 30 15  18-9 (11-8)
   4  13  7  29  .207
   5   9  1  14  .571
    Long Beach State       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  Hildebrand, Tyler...  5|  6   1  10  .500| 52|  2   1|  0|  7| 0  3  0|  0|   9.5
 6  Valdez, Francisco...  3|  5   3  11  .182|  0|  0   1|  1|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 10 Shea, Luke..........  1|  0   2   2-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 13 Liles, Teddy........  5|  9   3  15  .400|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 2  7  0|  0|  14.5
 17 Budinger, Duncan....  5| 14   4  29  .345|  0|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  7  0|  0|  17.5
 24 Tarr, Robert........  5| 21   7  38  .368|  0|  2   3|  1|  3| 0  2  1|  0|  24.0
 1  Caldwell, Tyler.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  4|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 2  Lotman, Paul........  5|  1   1   4  .000|  2|  2   2|  0|  0| 1  3  0|  0|   5.5
 3  Watten, Dustin......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  Hutton, Norm........  3| 10   4  20  .300|  1|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  4  2|  0|  12.0
 11 May, Justin.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Fabry, Daniel.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 22 Cape, Kevin.........  2|  2   1   7  .143|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 68  26 136  .309| 60|  6  15|  6| 24| 3 31  3|  0|  92.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12 13  37 -.027   Site: Long Beach State (Walter Pyramid)
   2  11  4  28  .250   Date: Apr 06, 2006   Attend: 1476   Time: 2:12
   3  16  7  29  .310   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Scott Hogue
   4  16  2  24  .583   Triple blocks: Long Beach State 5, BYU 1
   5  13  0  18  .722