Sweep Goes to Cougars

LARAMIE -- The No. 23 BYU women's volleyball team recorded its first sweep of Mountain West Conference play Friday night with a 30-28, 31-29, 30-21 win at Wyoming to improve to 9-4 overall and 2-2 in league action.

"This was an impressive road win for us," said BYU head coach Jason Watson. "I thought we got better as the match went on, which is always the goal for us. Wyoming pushed us a lot, especially in game two, but we kept our composure and responded well."

Senior rightside Erica Lott led BYU with 13 kills on the night followed closely behind by Chelsea Goodman with 12 and Rachel Dyer with 11. Dyer also posted a team-best seven blocks while hitting .579 for the night with no errors and 19 swings. Junior setter Amy Schlauder posted a season-high six blocks while pacing BYU to a .315 hitting percentage led by a .636 mark (7-0-11) from Ashton Hansen. After being blanked in the blocking category in game one, the Cougars posted 11 rejections for the match.

Lott gave BYU its first lead of the match with one of her seven game-one kills to make it 6-5, which soon became 14-11. Wyoming scored three straight to tie the game at 14-14, but neither team would string together consecutive points again until the 24th and 25th tallies recorded by the Cougars, giving them a 25-22 lead. The Cowgirls pushed back to get within one at 27-26, but BYU picked up its play to record its first game-one victory since taking the first frame at No. 2 Stanford.

Wyoming gave the Cougars all they could handle in game two, going up early and running up to a 23-17 lead. However, just when it looked like Wyoming would run away with the win, BYU stormed back, going on an 8-2 run featuring three more rejections to tie the game at 25-25. A block from Goodman gave BYU a 28-27 lead, which soon turned into game point at 29-28. Lauren Scott staved off the Cougars with a kill down the middle, but Goodman again came up big with a kill down the line to give BYU another game-point opportunity. Lott made quick work of the opportunity with another rejection, one of six Cougar blocks in the game.

BYU kept the momentum in its favor to start game three, building a 6-1 lead thanks in part to two more blocks and two kills from Dyer. Wyoming responded to cut the lead to one at 7-6, but the Cougars found another gear with four straight points to once again push the lead to five at 11-6. From there, it was all BYU as the Cougars put together a 7-0 run and led by as many as 12 points to record the win.

The Cougars will continue their road trip on Saturday with a match at Air Force. The contest, which will be BYU's 10th road match of the season, will begin at 7 p.m. and can be followed via live stats or BYU All-Access.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                                  BYU Cougars
       BYU Cougars vs Wyoming Cowgirls (Sep 28, 2007 at Laramie, Wyoming)
    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  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  3| 12   9  32  .094|  0|  0   3|  1|  8| 0  2  1|  0|  13.0
 4  HANSEN, Ashton......  3|  7   0  11  .636|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|   8.5
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 13   2  26  .423|  0|  2   3|  0|  4| 1  1  0|  0|  16.5
 13 PORTER, Bryn........  3|  5   3  17  .118|  0|  1   2|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  0|   6.5
 15 SCHLAUDER, Amy......  3|  1   0   2  .500| 45|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  6  2|  0|   4.0
 44 DYER, Rachel........  3| 11   0  19  .579|  0|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  7  0|  0|  15.5
 11 PINEGAR, Annie......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   2|  2| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 LAU, Stephanie......  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 49  15 108  .315| 47|  4  13|  4| 39| 1 20  3|  0|  64.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  5  39  .359   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  5  39  .282   BYU Cougars......... (3) 30 31 30  9-4, 2-2
   3  14  5  30  .300   Wyoming Cowgirls.... (0) 28 29 21  6-6, 1-3
    Wyoming Cowgirls       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  GOVIER, Kayla.......  3|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 3  WHITNEY, Lauren.....  3|  7   8  28 -.036|  0|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  0  1|  0|   7.0
 7  SMITH, Rachel.......  3| 12   5  40  .175|  1|  1   1|  1|  5| 0  1  0|  0|  13.5
 9  WEISHAHN, Tasha.....  3|  3   0   5  .600| 31|  1   3|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   4.0
 10 HELLBAUM, Angie.....  3| 13   8  28  .179|  1|  1   1|  2|  5| 0  1  0|  0|  14.5
 15 SCOTT, Lauren.......  3|  8   1  15  .467|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  10.0
 6  KAGARISE, Jessica...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  8|  0   3|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0|   1.5
 8  WATSON, Chantilly...  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
 11 LEE, Carissa........  3|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  1   1|  1| 17| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 16 ELEY, Samantha......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 22 ARNESON, Jenna......  1|  1   1   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  24 124  .177| 44|  4  13|  4| 42| 0 10  1|  0|  55.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  4  46  .261   Site: Laramie, Wyoming (UniWyo Sports Cmplx)
   2  19 11  46  .174   Date: Sep 28, 2007   Attend: 783   Time: 1:40
   3  11  9  32  .062   Referees: Mary Blalcok, Chuck Ellis