Cougars Finish Strong in Falling to No. 18 CSU

FORT COLLINS -- Seeking to sweep its Front Range trip, the BYU women's volleyball team was thwarted in its effort by No. 18 Colorado State, bowing 3-0 (30-19, 30-20, 31-29) Saturday night in Moby Arena. The Cougars, who had defeated Wyoming the night before, fall to 16-6 overall and 6-3 in the Mountain West Conference, while the Rams improve to 17-4, 8-0.

The Cougars were playing their second match in two nights, while the Rams played their first of two weekend matches tonight. CSU will play Utah in a nationally televised College Sports Television match Sunday.

BYU started out of the gate slowly and quickly fell behind a relentless CSU squad. The Rams hit over .300 in each game and had four players with double-digit kills to the Cougars' one. Although the Cougars finished strong, it was too little too late.

"We got off to a slow start in game one and our passing and serving was not as good as it has been," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "We had a hard time stopping their outsides."

CSU stifled the BYU attack in the first game, holding the Cougars to .030 hitting. The Cougars were also held to eight kills in the game, the first time they have been held under 10 kills in a 30-point game this season. The Rams added a 19-kill, .371-hitting performance to take the early 1-0 lead.

Although the Cougars improved in the second game and hit .257, the Rams had their most efficient game of the night in hitting .390.

BYU was strong in the last game by hitting a match-best .405 in the game. CSU hit .333 and managed to win the closest game of the contest by two points.

"We put some pressure on them and started doing some things in the third game that I liked," Lamb said. "The way we played in the third game is how we're capable of playing every game. Our goal is to get better as a team and when we start to play consistently, we'll be able to win more matches."

The Cougars were led by 12 kills from sophomore outside hitter Kim Wilson, who was the lone Cougar to post double-digit kills. Freshman middle blocker Lindsy Lewis-Hartsock put down eight kills on ten attempts to hit a match-high .800.

Defensively, junior outside hitter Lindsey Metcalf led BYU with 10 digs and five players led the Cougars in blocks with two each.

Tess Rogers led CSU with a match-high 13 kills.

BYU will return home for its final two MWC home matches of the season, when it hosts New Mexico Friday at 7 p.m. and Air Force Saturday at 7 p.m. Both matches are scheduled for the Smith Fieldhouse.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                       2003 BYU Women's Volleyball Stats
      BYU Cougars vs Colorado State (Oct 25, 2003 at Fort Collins, Colo.)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  TOGO, Melanie.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  3   1  14  .143| 32|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  2
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  4   3  17  .059|  4|  0   1|  0| 10| 1  1  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3|  6   2  17  .235|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  1  1|  0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  2|  4   2  13  .154|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  3|  8   0  10  .800|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0
 3  VARNER, April.......  1|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  3| 12   7  27  .185|  1|  0   1|  0|  1| 2  0  0|  0
 11 KEARL, Lindsey......  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   1|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  1|  0   0|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  1|  3   0   3 1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 41  16 105  .238| 39|  1   9|  3| 36| 4  8  1|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   8  7  33  .030   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  13  4  35  .257   BYU Cougars......... 19 20 29  16-6, 6-3 MWC
   3  20  5  37  .405   Colorado State...... 30 30 31  17-4, 8-0 MWC
    Colorado State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  ROGERS, Tess........  3| 13   2  24  .458|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 1  0  1|  0
 9  COURTNEY, Melissa...  3|  4   3   8  .125| 46|  0   1|  0|  9| 1  3  0|  0
 10 SARAUER, Becky......  3| 12   3  26  .346|  0|  0   3|  1|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 11 SHIRLEY, Katie Jo...  3| 11   1  23  .435|  1|  0   1|  0|  3| 1  2  0|  0
 15 FRECH, Bri..........  3| 11   5  20  .300|  1|  3   1|  0|  5| 0  3  1|  1
 17 DOWNS, Andreya......  3|  8   2  17  .353|  2|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 5  FOYTICH, Kimi.......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BAUER, Casey........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 14 KERR, Lindsey.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0
 16 KARLIK, Kristen.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 59  16 118  .364| 52|  3   8|  1| 42| 3 10  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  6  35  .371   Site: Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
   2  20  4  41  .390   Date: Oct 25, 2003   Attend: 1661   Time: 1:30
   3  20  6  42  .333   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Dan Apol