Cougars' Season Ends at Hawai`i

HONOLULU -- In front of a crowd of 7,081 at the Stan Sheriff Center, it was No. 2 Hawai`i that prevailed over BYU 3-0 (30-19, 30-23, 30-22) Friday night in the second round of the NCAA Championship. The Cougars' season ends with a record of 24-9, while the Rainbow Wahine advance to the Sweet Sixteen and improve to 34-1.

Although BYU had a solid offensive match, Hawai`i proved to be too much of an offensive juggernaut, hitting .385 on the night. The Cougars, though, were plagued by untimely service errors, totaling 11 in the match, contrasted with a season-high tying 14 aces the previous night against New Mexico State.

"Hawai`i is a very good volleyball team," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "I wish them luck. They have two of the best outside hitters in the country."

Hawai`i jumped out to a quick lead in the first game with a 5-1 lead to force BYU into an early timeout. All-American Kim Willoughby led the way for the Rainbow Wahine putting down three consecutive kills. Out of the timeout Hawai`i continued its run reeling off the next five points to take a 10-1 lead. BYU gained the ball back on another Brown kill, but the Cougars gave it back on a service error. The Cougars were their own worst enemy in the early going with three consecutive service errors. The two teams proceeded to trade side-outs, until BYU narrowed the gap with a 6-1 run, with kills from Carrie Bowers, Lauren Richards, Lexi Brown and Kim Wilson, to make the score 19-12 Hawai`i. The Rainbow Wahine then countered with a 4-0 run. BYU was led by Brown's five kills and a .289 team hitting percentage, but Hawai`i hit and overwhelming .541, led by Willoughby's nine kills in the game.

"I feel we needed to serve well and we didn't tonight," Lamb said. "We couldn't get Hawai`i out of system, and it's tough to beat any team when you do that."

BYU gained its first lead of the match with a Wilson kill to take a 1-0 lead in the second game. The game would start out back-and-forth, with neither team leading by more than two points. Wilson and Bowers carried play in the early going with three kills apiece. Hawai`i led by Willoughby, suddenly pulled away with a 7-0 run. It was started with a Willoughby kill and sustained by three of her aces. With Hawai`i up 18-11, BYU staged a run of its own, a 5-1 run that was capped with a Lily Kahumoku attack error. The Cougars couldn't draw any closer, however, as Bowers' six kills and Wilson's five kills in the game went for naught. BYU improved defensively, though, limiting the Rainbow Wahine attack to .282 hitting and holding Willoughby to three kills in the game.

The Rainbow Wahine took a quick 2-0 lead on a Willoughby kill and BYU error. The Cougars would fight back to stay close in the early going with a pair of Brown kills and a kill from Bowers. Hawai`i then pulled away with a 7-2 run to take a 13-6 lead. The Cougars then countered with a dramatic 7-2 run of their own, forcing the Rainbow Wahine into their first timeout. The run was powered by three Wilson kills and the serving of Sahara Castillo. Hawai`i would gain the momentum back and would hold the lead through the finish, with the match ending on back-to-back BYU attack errors.

The Cougars were led by three players with double-digit kills. Wilson led the way with 12 kills, followed by Bowers with 12 and Brown with 10.

Senior libero Uila Crabbe, playing in front of a hometown crowd, led the Cougars with 10 kills and totaled 435 on the season, breaking the Mountain West Conference record of 433.

The Rainbow Wahine were led by Willoughby's match-high 16 kills.

The Cougars finished with their highest win total since 2000, when they finished 26-7.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
             BYU Cougars vs Hawai`i (Dec 05, 2003 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
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4  TOGO, Melanie.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   3|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  3|  6   1  16  .312| 34|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  2  2|  3
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  3|  4   1  16  .188|  0|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  3| 11   4  28  .250|  3|  0   0|  1|  6| 0  1  1|  0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  3| 10   2  23  .348|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  3|  3   0   9  .333|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0
 3  VARNER, April.......  1|  0   1   3 -.333|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  1|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  3| 12   5  30  .233|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  1|  0
 11 KEARL, Lindsey......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  2   3|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0
 15 CASTILLO, Sahara....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  2|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 46  14 125  .256| 43|  4  11|  3| 47| 0 10  5|  3
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  3  38  .289   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  5  39  .231   BYU Cougars......... 19 23 22  (24-9)
   3  18  6  48  .250   Hawai`i............. 30 30 30  (34-1)
    Hawai`i                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Willoughby, Kim.....  3| 16   2  38  .368|  3|  3   1|  0|  7| 0  1  3|  0
 5  Tano, Nohea.........  3|  6   2  14  .286|  4|  0   0|  0|  6| 0  2  1|  0
 6  Lundqvist, Karin....  3| 12   2  18  .556|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  1|  0
 9  Kahumoku, Lily......  3|  7   4  24  .125|  1|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  2  1|  0
 10 Kamana`o, Kanoe.....  3|  5   0   6  .833| 46|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  1|  0
 14 Duggins, Lauren.....  3| 11   1  21  .476|  0|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  3  0|  0
 2  Boogaard, Susie.....  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 11 Watanabe, Ashley....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 15 Villaroman, Melissa.  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  3| 12| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 58  11 122  .385| 56|  3   2|  4| 51| 0 10  7|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  22  2  37  .541   Site: Honolulu, HI (Stan Sheriff Center)
   2  17  6  39  .282   Date: Dec 05, 2003   Attend: 7081   Time: 1:28
   3  19  3  46  .348   Referees: Kevin Cull, Glenn Sapp
                        Length of Games - 0:22/0:26/0:26
                        NCAA Tournament Women's Volleyball - 2nd Round
                        BYU "Cougars" vs. #2 HAWAII "Rainbow Wahine"
                        Turnstile - 6492

HONOLULU -- After defeating New Mexico State Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the BYU women's volleyball team will seek to return to the 'Sweet Sixteen' when it faces second-ranked Hawai`i tonight in the second round at the Stan Sheriff Center at 7 p.m. (HST), 10 p.m. (MST).

There will be a live audio stream of the match available on the Internet. The radio broadcast will be a production of KKEA 1420 AM in Honolulu and Scott Robbs will be calling the play-by-play. A link to the broadcast can be found on the 2003 BYU women's volleyball schedule page.

Live Stats will not be available for the match. The match will be televised live on KFVE Channel 5 locally in Hawai`im but no satellite link is available.

The Cougars will be seeking their first trip to the Sweet Sixteen since 2000, when it lost to Arizona. BYU's lone match against Hawai`i in the NCAA Tournament was in 1996, when the Cougars dropped a Sweet Sixteen match-up.