HONOLULU -- The top-ranked BYU men's volleyball team captured its 16th straight victory on Saturday, outlasting No. 5 Hawai`i, 3-2 (24-30, 23-30, 30-22, 30-27, 15-11), in Honolulu. With the win, the Cougars improve to 17-3 overall and 15-1 in league play. The Warriors drop to 13-7 overall and 10-6 in conference action.

"Hawai`i came out on fire and played very well," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "It's good to be tested like this in pressure situations and to have come back is a compliment to the guys. They played really hard and just gutted it out."

Joe Hillman led the way for the Cougars with a career-high 27 kills, while Fernando Pessoa chipped in 17. Jonathan Alleman added 13 kills and Michael Burke was credited with 11. Setter Carlos Moreno paced the offensive attack with 70 kills. Defensively, the Cougars were led by Victor Batista who had seven blocks. Alleman was also credited with five blocks.

In game one BYU kept things close, but at 14-14 the Warriors pulled ahead by three off a block from Mauli`a LaBarre and Bender. Hawai`i held on to their lead and jumped further ahead after three BYU errors, making the score 22-17. The Warriors kept the game lively as the Cougars struggled to make an impact on the match. After their errors, BYU was allowed just seven more points before a block point from Stanhiser and Woodward gave the Warriors the decisive, 30-24 win.

Game two saw a more energetic BYU squad, for most of the game both teams traded leads. But at 23-22, the Warriors began to pull ahead, going on a 4-0 run to make the score 27-22. Joe Hillman scored the next and last point for BYU in game two, after which the Warriors went on a 3-0 run to take game two, 30-23 and give them a 2-0 edge in the match. Hillman hit .512 clip with just five errors for the night.

The Warriors returned to a very determined BYU team in game three. Hawai`i trailed by five at mid game and could not catch up as the Cougars increased their lead to as much as eight before taking the game 30-22. BYU who had been out blocked by the Warriors eight and a half to two, upped their game and surpassed Hawai`i in blocking by the end of game four (11.5 to 11).

In game four the Warriors had no answer for the Cougars who hit error free for most of game four. BYU would go on to hit .708 in the game and push the match to a fifth and deciding game. In game five the Warriors struggled to stop the Cougar tide as it rolled over them for a 15-11 victory in the game and a 3-2 match win.

"We tried to block their hitting tendencies better in the last three games and play better defense," Peterson said. "We played well at the end when the game was on the line. The team had to dig down deeper and it took awhile to get there."

The Cougars return to Provo to host defending national champion Lewis University on Mar. 26, starting at 9 p.m. BYU will then face George Mason on Mar. 27 at 7 p.m. The Lewis vs BYU match will be broadcast live on College Sports TV, available on DirecTV channell 610.

Click the pdf link above to view detailed box score.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
          BRIGHAM YOUNG vs Hawai`i (Mar 20, 2004 at Honolulu, Hawaii)
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  5| 11   1  18  .556|  1|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  2  1|  0|  12.0
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  5|  5   0  10  .500| 70|  1   4|  0|  0| 0  2  3|  1|   7.0
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  5| 27   5  43  .512|  0|  1   5|  0|  6| 1  2  0|  0|  30.0
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  5| 13   6  31  .226|  1|  1   2|  0| 11| 1  4  2|  0|  17.0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  5| 17   9  31  .258|  3|  0   4|  0|  6| 0  2  1|  0|  18.0
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  5|  7   3  13  .308|  0|  1   7|  0|  2| 0  7  4|  0|  11.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 20 EVANS, TAYLOR.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 80  24 146  .384| 76|  5  24|  2| 32| 2 19 11|  1|  96.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  8  40  .225   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  9  34  .206   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 24 23 30 30 15  (17-3, 15-1 MPSF)
   3  19  2  24  .708   Hawai`i............. 30 30 22 27 11  (13-7, 10-6 MPSF)
   4  15  3  32  .375
   5  13  2  16  .688
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Tuyay, Kimo.........  5|  1   0   1 1.000| 58|  1   0|  0|  4| 1  4  0|  0|   5.0
 8  Jeschke, Arri.......  5| 11   4  25  .280|  1|  0   1|  1|  5| 1  3  1|  0|  13.5
 13 Bender, Matt........  5| 23   9  44  .318|  1|  1   3|  0|  3| 0  2  3|  0|  25.0
 14 Woodward, Ryan......  5| 11   3  20  .400|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  2|  11.5
 16 LaBarre, Mauli`a....  5| 10   4  18  .333|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  1|  0|  11.5
 22 Stanhiser, Joshua...  5|  9   1  16  .500|  0|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  6  0|  0|  12.0
 5  Muise, Jake.........  2|  3   3   6  .000|  0|  0   3|  1|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 10 Beckwith, Brian.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 Reft, Alfred........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 68  24 130  .338| 62|  2  11|  5| 34| 2 20  5|  2|  82.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  3  31  .419   Site: Honolulu, Hawaii (Stan Sheriff Center)
   2  15  3  27  .444   Date: Mar 20, 2004   Attend: 5179   Time: 2:32
   3  12  7  24  .208   Referees: Dan Hironaka, Ernest Ho
   4  18 10  35  .229   Length of Games - 0:29/0:27/0:25/0:33/0:15
   5   7  1  13  .462
    

PROVO -- Testing a 14-match winning streak, the No.1-ranked Cougars travel to fifth-ranked Hawai`i, to play at the Stan Sheriff Center on Mar. 18 and 20. Each match begins at 10 p.m. (MST) and will be available through Internet broadcasts: KFVE (Ch. 5) and KKEA Sports Radio (1420 AM).

For the second week, the BYU men's volleyball team (15-3, 13-1 MPSF) is ranked No. 1 on the USA Today/AVCA Top 15 Coaches' Poll. Last week the team was tied with UCLA for first place, but pulled ahead after beating fifth-ranked Pepperdine twice last week.

"It will be a hard match; Hawai`i is a very good team," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "It's always hard playing in someone else's gym, especially Hawaii. They bring in huge crowds. We can't relax in these matches just because we're ranked first. We still need to improve and make sure we bring our emotion to the matches."

The match up this weekend will be the 29th meeting between the two teams, as BYU leads the series 16-12 overall and Hawai`i leads 8-4 in Honolulu. Last season, the Cougars won 2-of-3 matches against the Warriors, splitting 1-1 at home and defeating Hawai`i in the MPSF Tournament Semifinals. The Warriors were tied with Pepperdine last week at the No. 5 spot in the AVCA.

This week four Hawai`i volleyball players Delano Thomas, Pedro Azenha, Jose Delgado and Dio Dante have been suspended from the team for violating team rules, head coach Mike Wilton announced Monday. All four will not participate in this week's matches, but may be reinstated as soon as Mar. 22.

During last week, BYU hosted fifth-ranked Pepperdine and finished with two wins, both in four games. The game scores for the match were 36-38, 30-24, 30-25, 30-27. The 14-match winning streak is the second longest streak in BYU history. The 1999 team holds the longest with 18. The Waves fell to 11-6 overall, 7-6 in league play. Both Joe Hillman and Fernando Pessoa posted career-highs with 26 and 24, respectively.

After winning the first two games by a combined 21 points, BYU picked up the first win over the Pepperdine on Friday of last week, 3-1 (30-18, 30-21, 23-30, 30-28). BYU held the Waves to a .000 percentage in the first game, while hitting a solid .385 percentage as a team. Sophomore Victor Batista gave the Cougars a huge lift with a blistering .783 percent, connecting on 18 kills and committing no errors.

Over the weekend, junior setter Carlos Moreno posted 57 and a season-high 77 assists to earn AVCA National Player of the week. Moreno averaged 16.75 assists per game last week to help the Cougars avenge preseason losses to Pepperdine.

Next week the Cougars will host non-conference teams for a two-match home stand, defending National Champion Lewis University on Mar. 26 and George Mason on Mar. 27. The BYU vs. Lewis match will be broadcast on College Sports TV, available on DirecTV channel 610.