FT. COLLINS -- The BYU women’s volleyball team (9-9, 4-3) fell to Mountain West Conference undefeated Colorado State (15-3, 7-0) at their home court Thursday in three games (15-25, 16-25, 21-25).

"Even though we had some great swings, they played very well defensively," BYU head coach Shay Goulding said. "We started to get in our groove in the third set - was completely different from the previous two."

Freshman Nicole Warner led the Cougars in kills with nine, hitting .667, a career-high in hitting percentage. Christie Carpenter added eight kills while setter Kiana Rogers posted 26 assists and seven digs. Senior Morgan Lloyd Sorensen tallied 10 digs, her 13th double-digit dig night of the season. Melissa Lake Wright added nine digs to the night.

"Christina Measom and Nicole Warner both did a good job of playing their rolls tonight," said Goulding.

The Rams were led by Tessa Nelson with 10 kills, hitting .667 and Katelin Batten with 16 digs.

"Colorado State played well," said Goulding, "they were very good at keeping the ball alive."

Three kills and three blocks from Colorado State put the Rams up 6-0 in the first set, causing BYU to call a timeout. After a BYU attack error, the Cougars scored their first point of the match, a kill by Senior Marisa Boaz. The next three BYU points came from CSU errors, followed by Nicole Warner tallying the second kill of the night for the Cougars, bringing the score to 11-5 in favor of the Rams.

The Cougars struggled to keep up, the Rams eventually tallying a 10-point lead at 20-10. BYU then scored two-straight points from Camilla Phillips and Christina Measom, but a service error caused the Rams to regain the serve, only for Christie Carpenter to post her first kill of the night at 22-13. BYU followed with two attack errors and a kill from Carpenter. Colorado State then finished off the set with a kill by CSU’s Jacque Davisson.

In set two BYU kept the score close, but still struggled to keep up with the Rams. The Rams began with a 3-0 run, stopped by a kill from Measom to give the Cougars their first point of set two. The teams traded points until the Rams posted a 6-1 run to bring the score to 11-5.

The Cougars then posted three-straight points with a kill from Boaz, a CSU attack error and a block by Phillips and Boaz (11-8). Measom was then blocked by Colorado State defenders, followed by two more CSU points, bringing the score to 14-8. The Rams then ran away with the score, the Cougars scoring a point every so often, but eventually falling to the Rams 25-16.

Set three proved to be the best for the Cougars, although still falling short. The set began with a 3-1 Cougar run, the first lead of the match for the Cougars by kills from Warner, Measom and a CSU service error. With back-to-back kills from Tessa Nelson, the Rams knotted the score at three. BYU scored its fourth point off a CSU attack error, follwed by a bad set by Measom to again tie the score at four. Carpenter answered back with a kill, but the Rams’ Tessa Nelson followed suit, bring the score five all. After an attack error on CSU, the Rams started to pull away with a 4-0 run.

After back-and-forth play, the Cougars came within one at 12-11 and 13-12, but were unable to hold on. A 5-0 Ram run put them ahead by six and a 3-0 Cougar run made a dent, but couldn’t come out with the win in set two. Even a late 4-0 run wasn’t enough for the Cougars, falling in set three 25-21.

The Cougars will be back in action Saturday at Wyoming at 7 p.m. Check back to www.byucougars.com/volleyball_w/ for updates. GameTracker will be available by clicking on the BYU women’s volleyball schedule page.

Volleyball Box Score
                           BYU Cougar Volleyball 2009
      BYU Cougars vs Colorado State (Oct 15, 2009 at Fort Collins, Colo.)
   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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6  GOODSELL, Chelsea...  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
8  BOAZ, Marisa........  3|  3   3   9  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  1|  0|   4.0
9  ROGERS, Kiana.......  3|  0   0   4  .000| 26|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  1  0|  0|   0.5
11 LAKE WRIGHT, Melissa  3|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
14 CARPENTER, Christie.  3|  8   7  38  .026|  0|  0   2|  0|  6| 0  0  1|  0|   8.0
15 WARNER, Nicole......  3|  9   1  12  .667|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
1  LLOYD SORENSEN, Morg  3|  0   0   1  .000|  2|  1   3|  0| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
7  MEASOM, Christina...  3|  5   6  25 -.040|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  1|  0|   6.0
10 PHILLIPS, Camilla...  3|  3   2  11  .091|  0|  0   0|  2|  0| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 28  19 102  .088| 28|  2   9|  2| 33| 0  8  3|  0|  34.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1   9  9  38  .000  12-25  47%   SET SCORES                1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  10  7  37  .081  11-24  45%   BYU Cougars......... (0) 15 16 21  9-9, 4-3 MWC
   3   9  3  27  .222  14-25  56%   Colorado State...... (3) 25 25 25  15-3, 7-0 MWC
   Colorado State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
## Name                 SP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2  CRANSTON, Dana......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
5  PLOURDE, Megan......  3|  4   1  10  .300|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|   5.0
8  SANDERS, Evan.......  3|  3   0   4  .750| 35|  0   2|  0|  7| 0  3  0|  1|   4.5
10 DAVISSON, Jacque....  3|  8   4  28  .143|  0|  0   1|  0| 11| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
11 NELSON, Tessa.......  3| 10   0  15  .667|  0|  2   1|  0|  1| 0  6  0|  0|  15.0
13 MINCH, Danielle.....  3|  9   6  25  .120|  0|  0   0|  0|  3| 1  2  0|  0|  11.0
4  STEFFAN, Katelyn....  3|  7   2  12  .417|  2|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0|   8.0
6  BATTEN, Katelin.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  1| 16| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
9  KOENNING, Emily.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
16 HEMMINGS, Audrey....  3|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
   TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Totals..............  3| 41  13  95  .295| 39|  2   8|  2| 54| 1 16  0|  1|  52.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER SET                                            TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Set   K  E  TA   Pct Sideout Pct
   1  13  3  31  .323  12-15  80%   Site: Fort Collins, Colo. (Moby Arena)
   2  13  4  31  .290  12-17  70%   Date: Oct 15, 2009   Attend: 1605   Time: 1:25
   3  15  6  33  .273  14-21  66%   Referees: Ed Halik, Tana Martin
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       0   0   4     4
                        Lead changes     0   0   1     1

PROVO -- After splitting two conference matches last week, the BYU women’s volleyball team (9-8, 4-2) will fight two Mountain West Conference opponents on the road Thursday and Saturday. Thursday the Cougars will play MWC-undefeated Colorado State (14-3, 6-0) Saturday at 7 p.m. MT and Thursday they will play Wyoming (10-10, 1-5) at 1 p.m. MT.

“Colorado State is certainly playing some great volleyball right now so in order to beat them we will be patient, intelligent and persistent on their court,” said BYU head coach Shay Goulding. “If we stay true to game plan and aggressively execute on the serve and serve receive aspect of the game we will do very well. We have a lot of athletes stepping up in big ways right now so I like our chances.”

BYU leads the all-time record against the Rams at 48-22-1. After a three-game losing streak last year, the Cougars hosted the Rams and came out with a win in five games. Colorado State boasts a 10-match winning streak going into Thursday’s match.

As for Wyoming, BYU leads the series 63-4, the last meeting also coming from last season, the Cougars winning 3-0. The last nine-straight matches were in favor of the Cougars.

“We will continue to focus on the serve and serve receive battle as we go into Laramie,” said Goulding. “If we serve aggressively, Wyoming will have a hard time getting past our defense. I expect Wyoming to come out strong and eager to win, so we will have to put pressure on them early and keep it on through the match.”

BYU leads the MWC in blocks, averaging 2.95 blocks per set while Colorado State leads in kills averaging 13.1 per set. BYU is also No. 5 in the nation in blocks per set.

Freshman Nicole Warner leads the conference in blocks with 1.34 per set while Senior Kayla Walker leads the MWC in points (4.68/set) and kills (4.16/set).

Both matches can be followed on GameTracker by clicking on the link on the BYU women’s volleyball schedule page HERE.