PROVO -- Despite a final surge to keep the game alive in the third set, the BYU women’s volleyball team fell short and lost to the visiting TCU Horned Frogs (25-27, 23-25, 22-25) Saturday evening at the Smith Fieldhouse in front of 1,027 fans, the second-largest crowd of the season.

With the loss, the Cougars fall to 9-8 on the season and 4-2 in league play while TCU improves to 16-5, 5-2 in the MWC race.

“TCU is a good team and they showed up to play tonight,” said BYU women’s volleyball head coach Shay Goulding. “We had a few players step up tonight and hit well even when we were down. We fought hard and I’m pleased with that.”

Down 24-19 in the closing moments of the third match, the Cougars fought back to cut the lead to 24-22 off a Christie Carpenter kill to try and force a fourth match, but fell a few points short as TCU adjusted to the momentum swing and walked away with a conference victory.

The Cougars were without the services of senior team captain Kayla Walker who sprained an ankle in practice on Friday. For the first time this season, three Cougars scored in double figures for kills as Christie Carpenter had a season and career-high 15 kills on the night while Christina Measom and Nicole Warner each registered 10.

“I didn’t think it would affect us that much to not have Kayla, but you can see that it did,” Goulding said. “But with the players we had, we beat them point for point.”

Carpenter also contributed a season and career-high 10 digs, allowing her to earn her first double-double of the season.

“Christie is passing really well and hitting in range,” Goulding said. “She has improved a lot over the past few weeks.”

Camilla Phillips earned a .333 hitting percentage to lead the team in the third set while Carpenter tallied a .308 mark.

In a closely contested opening set with 14 tied scores and three lead changes, the Horned Frogs got the early lead in the set by making crucial blocks in the stretch and winning 27-25. BYU’s Carpenter led the team with six kills while Warner contributed five of the Cougars’ 18. The Horned Frogs had a .256 hitting percentage to the Cougars’ .229 in set one.

The pivotal second set saw TCU jump to an early 5-1 lead before the Cougars trimmed it to 8-9 moments later. The Horned Frogs got ahead in spurts up 16-11 and then 18-12 as BYU battled to stay in contention, eventually cutting the TCU lead to 21-17 with a kill from Warner. Two consecutive Measom kills tied the score at 22 and 23, but the Horned Frogs once again held on for a 25-23 second match victory.

Measom tallied an impressive .429 hitting percentage in the match while Morgan Lloyd Sorensen had five digs.

The Cougars will next travel to Colorado State to take on the conference-undefeated Rams Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. MT.

Volleyball Box Score
                           BYU Cougar Volleyball 2009
                TCU vs BYU Cougars (Oct 10, 2009 at Provo, Utah)
   TCU                    |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2  EDWARDS, Kourtney...  3| 12   4  30  .267|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 1  2  2|  0|  14.0
5  HESTER, Kristen.....  3|  6   1  11  .455|  1|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   6.0
7  MUNCE, Megan........  3|  7   1  12  .500| 39|  0   3|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  1|   8.0
8  HUDSON, Christy.....  3| 10   3  26  .269|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 1  0  0|  0|  11.0
10 HESTER, Irene.......  3|  7   3  24  .167|  2|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  0  0|  0|   7.0
17 OTTO, Lauren........  3|  8   2  23  .261|  2|  0   1|  1| 13| 1  0  0|  0|   9.0
1  BLACKWOOD, Katelyn..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   1|  1| 12| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
3  PONT, Kylie.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
12 HORIO, Meghan.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  1   1|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
31 HERNANDEZ, Victoria.  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 50  14 126  .286| 48|  1   8|  3| 47| 3  4  2|  1|  56.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  16  5  43  .256  17-25  68%   SET SCORES                1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  17  5  44  .273  14-24  58%   TCU................. (3) 27 25 25  16-5, 5-2 MWC
   3  17  4  39  .333  14-22  63%   BYU Cougars......... (0) 25 23 22  9-8, 4-2 MWC
   BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7  MEASOM, Christina...  3| 10   2  27  .296|  0|  0   0|  0|  4| 1  2  1|  0|  12.0
8  BOAZ, Marisa........  3|  2   2   8  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  1|  0|   2.5
9  ROGERS, Kiana.......  3|  1   1   6  .000| 35|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  0|   3.0
10 PHILLIPS, Camilla...  3|  5   2  17  .176|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  1|   6.0
14 CARPENTER, Christie.  3| 15   6  41  .220|  0|  0   1|  0| 10| 0  2  1|  0|  16.0
15 WARNER, Nicole......  3| 10   5  23  .217|  1|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  6  0|  0|  13.0
1  LLOYD SORENSEN, Morg  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  1   1|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  1|   1.0
6  GOODSELL, Chelsea...  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
11 LAKE WRIGHT, Melissa  3|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 43  18 123  .203| 40|  3   5|  1| 52| 1 15  3|  2|  54.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.5
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  18  7  48  .229  17-27  62%   Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  12  5  38  .184  13-24  54%   Date: Oct 10, 2009   Attend: 1027   Time: 1h 31m
   3  13  6  37  .189  14-25  56%   Referees: Jesse Martinez, Mike Farish, Chelsea Nita
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores      14   2   1    17
                        Lead changes     3   0   0     3

PROVO -- After winning two-straight matches, BYU (8-7, 3-1) will return to its home court to take on MWC conference opponents, New Mexico and TCU this week.

"I believe this is a very crucial week for us in terms of the Mountain West Conference Championship,” BYU head coach Shay Goulding said Tuesday. “We will play our matches this week one ball at a time and one match at time, but certainly it is pertinent that we get two wins in order to keep us in a good position for our goals in the conference.”

They will first face New Mexico Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. New Mexico State has an 11-5 overall record with a 3-2 conference record thus far this season. In the history of the matchup with New Mexico, BYU leads 62-11.

“New Mexico lost some significant players from last year,” Goulding said. “But they are a well-coached team and a very competitive program so I expect them to be very good.”

Saturday the Cougars will look to defend their home court once again as they take on TCU at 6 p.m. TCU has a 15-4 overall record this season and is currently 4-1 in conference play. In the all-time series record against TCU, BYU leads 12-1.

“TCU is similar in strength only they are returning more players from last year and so they will also be strong,” Goulding said. “We are prepared and committed to bringing our best out to meet both these teams this week in order to defend the Smith Fieldhouse and to continue to pursue our 2009 goals.”

In the Cougars' last outing they defeated the UNLV Rebels 3-0 (25-17,20-17, 25-21). Senior rightside hitter Kayla Walker led the Cougars with 14 kills, nine digs and seven blocks – including two solo blocks. Christina Measom, Christie Carpenter and Camilla Phillips also contributed six kills each while Nicole Warner had five. Setter Kiana Rogers had 30 assists and nine digs while Morgan Lloyd Sorensen had 10 digs.

Both games will be shown on BYUTV and BYU LIVE video. BYU LIVE video can be viewed online by visiting the schedule page HERE.

The BYU Women's Volleyball team is promoting Breast Cancer Awareness the whole month of October and encourages fans to wear pink with your Cougar blue all month.