Hawai`i Edges BYU in Regular Season Finale

HONOLULU -- No. 4 BYU took No. 2 Hawai`i to the wire but could not pull out a win, falling 3-2 Saturday in Honolulu to conclude the regular season at 18-8 overall and 14-8 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The loss makes four in a row for the Cougars, their first streak of four-or-more losses since 1996.

The win makes 19 straight for Hawai`i, which finished the season at 23-4 overall and second in the MPSF at 19-3. BYU finished tied with Long Beach State for fourth in the league standings but will be seeded fifth as the 49ers own the tie breaker. The Cougars will play at Long Beach in the quarterfinals of the league tournament, Saturday, April 22.

Yosleyder Cala led the BYU with 21 kills and a career-best six service aces, the second highest single-match total in school history since the rally scoring era began in 2001. Victor Batista and Ivan Perez each had 16 kills and Russell Holmes and Taylor Evans had 11 apiece. Brian Rowley gave the Cougars several second-chance opportunities as he recorded 15 of BYU's 50 digs. Rob Neilson set the Cougars to a .321 (80-29-159) team hitting percentage.

Lauri Hakala led Hawai`i with 21 kills while Jose Delgado added 15 and Maulia La Barre had 11 and hit .846. The Warriors hit .286 as a team and had 40 digs and 14.5 blocks.

BYU took game one, 30-27, while out-hitting Hawai`i .375 to .226. The Cougars continued to play well, leading early in game two before the Warriors came back and took the game 30-26. Hawai`i then took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 30-25 win in game three but BYU stormed back with a 30-26 win in the fourth to force a fifth game.

The Warriors led throughout game five but the Cougars came back to get within one at 13-12 on an ace by Cala. Hawai`i quickly got back in control and scored the next two points for the win.

BYU will look to get back on the winning side of things when it plays at Long Beach on Saturday, April 22, in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
          #4 BYU Cougars vs #2 Hawai`i (Apr 15, 2006 at Honolulu, HI)
    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.....  5| 21   7  43  .326|  1|  6   6|  4|  9| 0  3  0|  0|  28.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  5| 16   9  36  .194|  1|  2   5|  2|  8| 0  3  0|  0|  19.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  5| 11   3  21  .381|  1|  0   4|  0|  1| 1  4  0|  0|  14.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  5|  2   0   3  .667| 69|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  5| 16   4  26  .462|  4|  1   8|  0|  4| 1  5  1|  0|  20.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  5| 11   6  24  .208|  0|  0   3|  0|  4| 0  1  1|  0|  11.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  2|  2   0   4  .500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2| 15| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  5|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 80  29 159  .321| 76|  9  29|  8| 50| 2 18  2|  0| 100.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18  6  32  .375   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16 11  40  .125   BYU Cougars......... (2) 30 26 25 30 12  18-8, 14-8 MPSF
   3  18  3  30  .500   Hawai`i............. (3) 27 30 30 26 15  23-4, 19-3 MPSF
   4  19  6  39  .333
   5   9  3  18  .333
    Hawai`i                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  Delgado, Jose.......  5| 15   9  33  .182|  1|  2   2|  2|  7| 0  3  1|  0|  18.5
 8  Hakala, Lauri.......  5| 21   5  40  .400|  1|  1   2|  0|  3| 1  5  1|  0|  25.5
 9  Carere, Matt........  5|  5   6  31 -.032|  0|  3   1|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  0|   9.0
 10 Beckwith, Brian.....  5|  2   1   6  .167| 54|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0|   3.5
 16 La Barre, Maulia....  5| 11   0  13  .846|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 1  5  1|  0|  15.5
 19 Dante, Dio..........  5|  5   1   9  .444|  0|  1   4|  0|  5| 0  6  0|  0|   9.0
 4  Kalima, Eric........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  Carney, Sean........  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 11 Reft, Alfred........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 13 Bender, Matt........  2|  2   0   7  .286|  0|  0   0|  2|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   2.5
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  5|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 62  22 140  .286| 57|  8  12|  9| 40| 2 25  3|  0|  84.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  6  31  .226   Site: Honolulu, HI (Stan Sheriff Center)
   2  11  4  31  .226   Date: Apr 15, 2006   Attend: 6826   Time: 2:44
   3  18  4  32  .438   Referees: Dickson Chun, Dan Hironaka
   4  15  8  35  .200   Turnstile:  5,550.
   5   5  0  11  .455