LAS -- The BYU women's volleyball team came up with a big win Friday night at UNLV, defeating the Rebels in five games to take sole possession of third place in the Mountain West Conference. Big nights from redshirt freshman Lindsey Evans and senior Lindsey Metcalf helped lift the Cougars to 15-9 overall and 7-4 in MWC play.

"It was a very important win for us," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "This really gives us a good start to the weekend. We're thrilled."

The match started out well for the Cougars as they hit .400 and held UNLV to just .194 hitting while cruising to the 30-22 game one victory. However, the Rebels took control of games two and three, jumping out to early leads and keeping the Cougar offense in check to record 35-33 and 30-26 victories. BYU stormed back in game four, holding the Rebels to a dismal .109 hitting efficiency and forcing a fifth game by virtue of a 30-26 win. Game five was all Cougars as they took the lead early and never looked back enroute to a 15-10 victory and the match win.

"The third game was pretty ugly but we came out and did the job in the fourth and fifth games. We struggled passing but we were able to work through it and calm ourselves down."

While several Cougars made significant contributions in the match, the key difference-makers for BYU were Evans and Metcalf. Earning the start at the libero spot, Evans recorded a career-high 33 digs, the first Cougar to record more than 30 digs in a match since Korie Rogers in 1998. Evans was just two digs shy of being the first BYU player to post 35 or more digs in a match since Socorro Leal in 1984. With 13 kills, 18 digs and 10 blocks, Metcalf recorded the first triple-double of her career and posted season-highs in both the kills category and the blocks category while tying her season-high in digs.

Setter Lauren Richards notched her MWC-leading tenth double-double of the season with 61 assists and 11 digs along with senior April Varner, who had 13 kills and 16 digs. Erica Lott led the way for BYU with 16 kills, while playing in only three games, and Lexi Brown had the best hitting efficiency of the night with a .571 mark on 13 kills, one error and 21 attempts.

BYU returns to action Saturday night at San Diego State with a 7 p.m. PST start time. The Aztecs are currently 3-21 overall and 3-8 in the MWC. The Cougars swept SDSU in the last matchup between the two teams and own a 28-15 all-time series advantage over the Aztecs.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        Brigham Young University Cougars
            Brigham Young vs UNLV (Nov 05, 2004 at Las Vegas, Nev.)
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VARNER, April.......  5| 13   5  48  .167|  3|  0   0|  1| 16| 0  1  1|  0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  5|  5   1   9  .444| 61|  3   3|  0| 11| 1  4  0|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  5| 13   3  26  .385|  4|  1   2|  1| 18| 2  8  1|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  2|  3   2  14  .071|  0|  1   4|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  5| 13   1  21  .571|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  4  2|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  5|  9   3  29  .207|  0|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  9  0|  0
 1  GOODMAN, Chelsea....  4|  2   4   9 -.222|  0|  1   1|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  3| 16   6  28  .357|  0|  0   0|  2|  3| 1  0  0|  0
 16 EVANS, Lindsey......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2| 33| 0  0  0|  0
 17 POWELL, Stacie......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 20 JUDKINS, Jenna......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 74  25 184  .266| 69|  7  12|  7| 92| 4 26  4|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 17.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  2  25  .400   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  20  7  47  .277   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 33 26 30 15  15-9, 7-4
   3  17  6  55  .200   UNLV................ (2) 22 35 30 26 10  12-9, 6-5
   4  15  7  35  .229
   5  10  3  22  .318
    UNLV                   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  KING, Nicki.........  5|  4   0  11  .364| 54|  3   1|  0|  9| 1  2  0|  0
 2  LUMSDEN, Brittani...  5| 12   9  37  .081|  0|  1   1|  1| 18| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BANKS, Michelle.....  2|  3   1   5  .400|  1|  0   1|  3|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 9  PENCHEVA, Mariana...  5| 17   7  41  .244|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 1  1  0|  0
 10 MIRAMONTES, Lauren..  5| 14   6  43  .186|  0|  1   1|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  0
 14 ALADJOVA, Maria.....  5| 20  11  57  .158|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 5  KOOCHI, Kristin.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 7  WALKER, Jada........  5|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   2|  1| 19| 0  0  0|  0
 12 KEITH, Tarin........  4|  4   6  25 -.080|  3|  2   1|  2|  7| 0  1  0|  0
 16 OKAMOTO, Marisa.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 74  40 219  .155| 61|  7  11|  7| 72| 2  6  0|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  8  36  .194   Site: Las Vegas, Nev. (Cox Pavilion)
   2  19  9  52  .192   Date: Nov 05, 2004   Attend: 634   Time: 2:35
   3  18  7  66  .167   Referees: Tom Pingel, Ken Beckham
   4  16 11  46  .109
   5   6  5  19  .053

PROVO -- The Cougars will take to the road one last time this regular season as they head south for matchups with UNLV and San Diego State this Friday and Saturday with both matches scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. PST (8 p.m. MST). At 14-9 overall and 6-4 in the Mountain West Conference, BYU is currently tied for third place with the Rebels and will be looking to secure the No. 3 seed for the upcoming MWC Tournament.

"Obviously these matches are very important for us," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "We want to take everything one match at a time and finish strong going into the Tournament."

The next two weeks will be crucial for the Cougars heading into the Tournament. With home matches against Wyoming, whom BYU lost to in October, and No. 9 Colorado State on the table next week, the Cougars need to come up big on the road.

BYU currently ranks in the top three in five statistical categories on the season, including hitting percentage (.278), blocks (3.23), opponent hitting percentage (.159), kills (15.68) and service aces (1.69). The Cougars lead the league in blocks per game in Conference matches (3.53). Lauren Richards leads all MWC players in aces with 0.52 while Lindsy Hartsock is second in the conference in both hitting percentage (.401) and blocks (1.77).

"We've done a lot of good things lately which makes us feel confident that we've improved," Lamb said. "These will be tough matches but we had a good week of practice. We just have to play well back-to-back and improve our passing and serving. If we do that, we should take care of both teams."

The Cougars are coming off a strong showing last weekend against conference opponents Air Force and New Mexico. BYU went 2-0 in those matches with a sweep of the Falcons 30-19, 30-15, 30-12 to mark the Cougars' eighth sweep of the season and a four-game win over the Lobos 30-19, 26-30, 30-24, 30-21.

Lexi Brown came up big for the Cougars in both contests as she recorded a team-leading 14 kills on .650 hitting against Air Force and 10 kills versus the New Mexico. True freshman Chelsea Goodman added a career-high 11 digs against the Falcons while Erica Lott hit a career-high .722 off the Lobos.

Here's a look at the squads the Cougars will face in this week's action:

UNLV

At 12-8 overall and 6-4 in the Mountain West Conference, the Rebels are currently tied for third place in the MWC with BYU. UNLV ranks first in the conference in digs with 15.58, second in assists (14.44) and servicec aces (1.58) and third in kills (15.92).

Senior setter Nikki King earned MWC Player of the Week honors two weeks ago and is closing in on UNLV's career digs record. King already owns the school's career assist mark. Freshman outside hitter Maria Aladjova is currently fourth in the MWC in kills per game with 4.50 and has recorded double-digit kills in 17 of UNLV's 20 matches. Freshman Jada Walker leads the conference in digs per game with 4.50.

The Cougars are 14-2 all-time against the Rebels, including a four-game win at home earlier this season.

SAN DIEGO STATE

The Aztecs had a rough start in 2004, losing their first 14 straight matches before finally coming up with a win against Wyoming to get MWC play started. The Aztecs are now 3-20 overall and 3-7 in the Mountain West with wins over the Cowgirls, New Mexico and Air Force. Five of their losses have come at the hands of ranked teams as they have fallen to then-No. 17 Arizona to open the season, then-No. 18 UC Santa Barbara, then-No. 20 Utah and then-No. 9 Colorado State twice.

Freshman Aime Cordiero is currently second in the MWC in digs per game in league play with 4.36. Since returning to the lineup on Sept. 21 after recovering from an injury, senior Kara Moriarty is averaging 3.45 kills per game and 1.94 digs per game.

BYU swept the Aztecs at home in October and leads the all-time series 28-15.