Cougars Sweep Weber State to Improve All-Time Record to 51-0

PROVO -- Early season inconsistencies have hurt the Cougars this year, but a familiar foe came to town, as the BYU women's volleyball team swept Weber State 30-26, 31-29, 30-24 to remain perfect (51-0) against the Wildcats. With the win, BYU improves to 3-5, while Weber State falls to 5-3.

"It was a total team effort tonight," BYU head coach Karen Lamb said. "We struggled all night, but the important thing is that we found a way to win."

Having lost the first game in all its previous seven matches, BYU played Weber State point-for-point at the start of the first game. After the Cougars took a 20-18 lead, the Wildcats staged a tide-changing 6-0 run to put BYU in a 20-24 hole, forcing a Cougar timeout.

Allison Larson started BYU's own run out of the timeout as her tip dropped for a point. The 4-0 run was capped with a Stephanie Kropushek attack error as the game evened at 24-24. Karina Puikkonen and Carrie Bowers sealed the game with a 4-0 run of their own as they had back-to-back double blocks, followed by a Bowers kill and Puikkonen kill. The Wildcats were held to a -.041 attack percentage in the first game.

In the second game, with the score tied 5-5, Cougar middleblocker Lexi Brown left the match after a knee injury. Junior transfer Laura Nielsen replaced Brown entered the match and recorded her first kill as a Cougar to draw BYU to 15-16. Nielsen's second kill put BYU ahead 19-17 and forced a Weber State timeout. With the Cougars holding a slim 21-20 lead, the Wildcats reeled off a 5-0 run, before the Cougars stormed back to take a closely contested second game.

BYU found itself down again in the third game, 1-6, but managed to battle through many lengthy rallies to tie the game at 13-13 on a block by Puikkonen and Nielsen on Kris Hollingsworth. After taking their first lead of the match at 15-14, the Cougars didn't look back and cruised to the sweep.

"BYU is a very young team," Weber State head coach Al Givens said. "I thought this might be our chance to break through here. We've been playing well this season, and I'm disappointed we didn't play well tonight."

Bowers led the Cougars with 10 kills (.296) while also recording five blocks. Puikkonen continues her stellar all-around play as she put up 33 assists, five kills (.364), seven digs, and a team-leading six blocks. Nielsen recorded seven kills and only one attack error with a .667 attack percentage to go with four digs and four blocks.

Weber State was led by its outside hitting tandem of Holly Montano and Stephanie Kropushek, who had 9 and 10 kills, respectively. For the match the Cougars outhit the Wildcats .198 to .085.

The Cougars will next travel to College Station, Texas, this weekend, to participate in the Texas A&M Invitational. BYU will play Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday, and Sam Houston State and No. 16 Texas A&M on Saturday. BYU will next be at home against Arkansas, Thursday, Sept. 19.

                              Volleyball Box Score
            Weber State vs BYU Cougars (Sep 10, 2002 at Provo, Utah)
    Weber State            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BECKSTRAND, Lyndsay.  3|  8   1  15  .467|  0|  2   2|  0|  1| 1  2  3|  0
 5  METCALF, Stephanie..  3|  6   6  29  .000|  0|  1   1|  2|  8| 0  1  0|  0
 7  ROBINSON, Laura.....  3|  0   0   5  .000| 34|  1   0|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  2
 9  MONTANO, Holly......  3|  9   6  34  .088|  0|  2   2|  1| 13| 1  1  0|  0
 11 KROPUSHEK, Stephanie  3| 10   8  34  .059|  0|  2   0|  1| 12| 0  2  0|  0
 14 SMITH, Michelle.....  1|  1   3   7 -.286|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 1  DEHAAN, Cassie......  2|  4   1   8  .375|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0
 6  HOLLINGSWORTH, Kris.  2|  2   3   7 -.143|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 8  MEYER, Kendrea......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 10 PAYNE, Becky........  3|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 40  28 141  .085| 34|  8   8|  4| 51| 2 12  4|  2
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1   9 11  49 -.041   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  7  47  .234   Weber State......... 26 29 24  5-3,0-0 Big Sky
   3  13 10  45  .067   BYU Cougars......... 30 31 30  3-5, 0-0 MWC
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  3|  5   1  11  .364| 33|  1   3|  0|  7| 1  5  0|  0
 3  VARNER, April.......  2|  0   4  14 -.286|  2|  0   1|  2|  5| 0  1  2|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  0   2   4 -.500|  1|  2   1|  2|  6| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3| 10   2  27  .296|  0|  1   0|  0|  3| 0  5  0|  0
 9  BROWN, Alexis.......  2|  5   1   6  .667|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  1   0   4  .250|  1|  0   1|  1| 18| 0  0  0|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  3|  8   3  18  .278|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 1  3  1|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  3|  7   4  21  .143|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  2|  4   4  12  .000|  2|  0   1|  1|  5| 0  1  0|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  7| 0  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  2|  7   1   9  .667|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  4  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 47  22 126  .198| 40|  4   9|  8| 60| 2 20  3|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15 11  49  .082   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  16  5  41  .268   Date: Sep 10, 2002   Attend: 846   Time: 1H 45M
   3  16  6  36  .278   Referees: BRUCE GRANT, MAILE JEWKES, NINA PUIKKONEN

PROVO -- After hosting the BYU Mizuno Classic last week, the BYU women's volleyball team returns to the Smith Fieldhouse to host Weber State Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Cougars are 50-0 all-time versus the Wildcats dating back to their first meeting in 1970.

BYU is coming off a 1-3 performance at the Mizuno Classic, where they faced two of the top teams in the nation in No. 3 USC and No. 6 Florida. The Cougars' overall record stands at 2-5, as they look to regroup and get on a winning track against the Wildcats, who are off to an impressive 5-2 start.

"They are a really nice team," head coach Karen Lamb said. "They played us tough last year, and they are returning most of their starters. I'm glad we don't have to travel there to play, because they always play us tougher there."

The Cougars are led by the all-around play of setter Karina Puikkonen. This season she is averaging 9.27 assists per game, while boosting the BYU attack with 1.27 kills per game and a team-leading .268 attack percentage. Puikkonen also leads the team with 0.27 service aces per game, while contributing defensively with 1.58 blocks and 1.27 digs per game.

First-year coach Lamb has juggled her line-up with only two starters returning from last year's 20-9 team, and as a result 10 different Cougars have seen extended playing time this season. Provo native and true freshman Kim Wilson made her collegiate debut against No. 3 USC and is projected to be an integral part of the team this season.

Offensively the Cougars are being outhit .191 to .113 this season, but their blocking has been an early season strength. Led by first-year starters Carrie Bowers and Lexi Brown, who average 1.58 and 1.46 bpg, respectively, BYU has outblocked five of seven opponents this year.

Weber State returns five starters from a team that went 13-16, 9-5 Big Sky last year. They have two second-place tournament finishes this season, at the College of Charleston Invitational and the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanook Classic.

The Wildcats lean primarily on their outside attack for offense, as 788 of 1057 (75%) total attacks come from their outside hitters. Weber State is led by senior Holly Montano and junior Stephanie Kropushek who average 3.75 (.315) and 3.61 (.264) kills per game, respectively.

The last meeting between the two teams came in Ogden, Utah, at the Dee Events Center last year, where the Cougars prevailed in four games.