PROVO -- Led by Lindsy Hartsock's career-high 16 kills, BYU earned its fifth straight win with a 3-1 victory over UNLV Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse.

Hartsock continued her sizzling hitting by topping a .600 attack percentage for the third consecutive match. She has hit better than .500 in five straight contests. Her career-best 16 kills came on 23 attempts with only two hitting miscues for a .609 percentage.

"Lauren (Richards) and I connected really well in the middle," said Hartsock, who added a match-high 10 blocks to record her second double-double of the season. "I'm happy with our improvement as a team."

While Hartsock dominated the middle, senior Lindsey Metcalf added a season-best .478 attack percentage from her outside hitter position while adding 11 kills. Erica Lott and Lexi Brown contributed nine kills apiece while Kim Wilson put down eight winners in BYU's 30-25, 23-30, 30-23, 30-21 victory.

"This was a real team effort tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "We played a lot of people. It was huge to have players come in and play well."

Despite BYU's statistical domination in game one -- the Cougars hit .378 compared to the Rebels' .054 attack percentage -- UNLV did not go down easily in a game of runs. After BYU turned an early 6-5 lead into a 20-11 advantage, UNLV raced back to within two points at 21-19. BYU had seemingly regained control at 26-21, but the Rebels again fought back to a two-point deficit at 27-25 before the Cougars scored the game's final three points, with Lott emphatically killing the game-winner after a Rebel overpass.

The Cougars set the stage for a potential fifth straight sweep by pulling away with a 9-3 run to take the second game, 30-23. Hartsock had five kills in the game while Wilson recovered from a slow start in game one to put down four kills without an error in game two.

UNLV quickly put any Cougar plans for a sweep in doubt by jumping out to big lead in game three. With the Rebels comfortably ahead 27-16, BYU made a valiant comeback effort before UNLV ultimately claimed the game, 30-23, on Brittani Lumsden's 10th kill of the night.

BYU's block continued to be a bigger factor as the match progressed and the team's six return-to-sender points in the fourth game helped the Cougars earn its most-dominating victory at 30-21. For the night, Metcalf added seven blocks to Hartsock's 10 to help the Cougars total 18 team blocks, five more than the Rebels. Metcalf posted her first double-double of the year by adding 11 digs while Richards boasted a team-high 12 defensive gems.

Overall, BYU out hit UNLV .254 to .040 and totaled 53 digs to the Rebels' 49. Lumsden's 13 kills led UNLV while Maria Aladjova added 11 kills. UNLV falls to 8-7 and 2-3 in the Mountain West Conference while BYU improves to 10-6 and 4-1.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        Brigham Young University Cougars
                UNLV vs Brigham Young (Oct 09, 2004 at Provo UT)
    UNLV                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  KING, Nicki.........  4|  0   1   4 -.250| 36|  1   1|  0|  9| 1  2  0|  0|   3.0
 2  LUMSDEN, Brittani...  4| 13  12  35  .029|  0|  2   2|  3|  7| 0  2  0|  0|  16.0
 9  PENCHEVA, Mariana...  4|  5   5  21  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 3  4  1|  0|  10.0
 10 MIRAMONTES, Lauren..  4|  9   7  30  .067|  1|  0   0|  0|  6| 2  3  0|  0|  12.5
 12 KEITH, Tarin........  4|  5   5  20  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   5.5
 14 ALADJOVA, Maria.....  4| 11   6  31  .161|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  1|  0|  12.0
 5  KOOCHI, Kristin.....  4|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  1   2|  1|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 7  WALKER, Jada........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  3   1|  1| 17| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 8  BANKS, Michelle.....  3|  1   2   7 -.143|  1|  2   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 11 FLAHAVEN, Ashley....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 OKAMOTO, Marisa.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 44  38 149  .040| 40|  9   8|  6| 49| 6 14  2|  0|  66.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  11  9  37  .054   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  9  42  .119   UNLV................ (1) 25 23 30 21  8-7, 2-3
   3   8  8  32  .000   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 23 30  10-6, 4-1
   4  11 12  38 -.026
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  4|  5   3  13  .154| 48|  2   4|  0| 12| 0  3  0|  4|   8.5
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  4| 11   0  23  .478|  1|  0   1|  0| 11| 2  5  0|  0|  15.5
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  4|  8   3  26  .192|  1|  1   4|  2|  6| 1  2  1|  0|  11.0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  4|  9   5  23  .174|  0|  1   2|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0|  12.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4|  9   7  23  .087|  0|  0   4|  1|  1| 1  0  1|  0|  10.0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  4| 16   2  23  .609|  0|  1   1|  1|  2| 1  9  0|  0|  22.5
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  2|  2   3   6 -.167|  0|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   3.5
 3  VARNER, April.......  2|  1   1   3  .000|  0|  0   0|  3|  4| 0  2  0|  0|   2.0
 12 PARKER, Catherine...  2|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 EVANS, Lindsey......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 21 KEMP, Annie.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 61  25 142  .254| 53|  6  17|  9| 53| 5 26  2|  4|  85.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  5  37  .378   Site: Provo UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  18  4  38  .368   Date: Oct 09, 2004   Attend: 1089   Time: 2H
   3  10 10  35  .000   Referees: KLUBNICK, DAPHNE NELSON, UILA CRABBE
   4  14  6  32  .250
                                         1   2   3   4 Total
                        Tie scores       2   7   5   0    14
                        Lead changes     1   1   5   1     8

PROVO -- The Cougars return home this weekend for a busy schedule that includes instate rival Weber State on Tuesday and Mountain West Conference foes San Diego State and UNLV on Friday and Saturday. At 2-1 in the league, tied for third, and 0-2 against instate squads, BYU hopes to make a statement against all three teams.

"We want to keep getting better at everything we're doing," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "All of these teams are pretty good, but if we take care of things on our side of the net, we'll have a successful week."

BYU went 2-1 on the road last week as they fell in five games to Utah State on Tuesday but rebounded to sweep both New Mexico and Air Force Thursday and Saturday respectively. The 3-0 victory over the Lobos marked the 19th straight sweep BYU has recorded against New Mexico, dating back to 1995.

Junior Lexi Brown recorded double-digit kills in all three matches while sophomore Lindsy Hartsock put up 11 blocks against both Utah State and New Mexico. In fact, BYU's 21 team blocks against the Lobos rank as the eighth-highest single-match blocking total in BYU history. Lauren Richards also excelled last week as she recorded a career-high .700 hitting percentage against Air Force.

"We're really working on winning that third game and putting the match away early," said Lamb. "We want to take care of the basics and not let the match get out of control."

Nationally, the Cougars continue to make their presence known as they are 23rd in the nation in blocking and 25th in hitting percentage as of the latest rankings released on Sept. 26. BYU leads the MWC in the blocking category and is second only to Colorado State in offensive efficiency.

The Weber State match-up will begin Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. The Cougars will take on the Aztecs Friday evening at 5 p.m. before the BYU home football game and then face off against the Rebels Saturday night at 7 p.m. Live stats for all three matches can be accessed by going to the schedule page of the BYU Women's Volleyball home page at http://www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/. Despite a 3-4 home record this season, the Cougars are optimistic about their chances in this week's match-ups. Here's a look at the teams that will take the floor against BYU:

WEBER STATE

The 'Cats are now 2-14 on the season and 1-3 in Big Sky play after being swept last week, falling in four games to No. 22 Utah and losing conference road matches at Eastern Washington and Portland State. They have lost four straight matches heading into this week.

Injuries have plagued the Wildcats all season long, contributing to their tough year. Setter Shelby Walford will miss the rest of the season with a broken toe. Outside hitter Lindsay Phillips missed four straight matches with an knee injury. Sophomore Kim Ellis played in all three matches. Ellis, has now played in the last five matches, after sitting out the first 11 with an injury.

The Wildcats are led by senior middle blocker Lindsey Harris who averages 2.33 kills per game. BYU has never lost a match to the Wildcats, owning a 52-0 series advantage.

SAN DIEGO STATE

The Aztecs have had a rough start in 2004, losing their first 14 straight matches before finally coming up with a win last week against Wyoming to move to 1-14 on the year and 1-2 in the Mountain West Conference. However, three of their losses came at the hands of ranked teams as they fell to then-No. 17 Arizona to open the season, then-No. 18 UC Santa Barbara and then-No. 9 Colorado State.

San Diego State is led by sophomore outside hitter Melissa Stapley who averages 3.26 kills per game, good enough for ninth in the MWC. Junior Ashley Bowker is fourth in the Conference with 1.31 blocks per game and freshman Aime Cordeiro ranks fifth in digs (3.60).

BYU owns a 27-15 series advantage over the Aztecs.

UNLV

At 2-1 in MWC play , the Rebels are currently tied with BYU for third in the Mountain West. UNLV split in two matches last week, defeating the Wyoming Cowgirls in five but losing to Colorado State in four to move to 8-5 on the season.

The Rebels are led by Bulgarian freshman Maria Aladjova, who averages 4.04 kills per game, leading the MWC. Freshman Jada Walker also leads the league with 4.61 digs per game. UNLV currently tops the Conference in service aces per game (1.90) and digs per game (18.96) while coming in second in assists (14.73) and kills (16.08).

The Cougars are 13-2 all-time against the Rebels.