Top-Ranked Cougars Hold Strong in Hawai`i

HONOLULU -- Defending its top ranking in front of 4,598 fans, the No. 1-ranked BYU pushed past fifth-ranked Hawai'i for a 3-1 win at the Stan Sherriff Center on Thursday night. The game scores are 30-25, 30-25, 28-30, 30-27.

"We didn't play our best," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "We need to adjust more to their hitting tendencies and improve on our blocking. We will be better prepared on Saturday because we can adjust from what we saw on Thursday."

The Cougars improve to 16-3 and 14-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while the Warriors drop 13-6, 10-5 in league play. The team now extends to a 15-match winning streak, including five matches on the road.

Senior Fernando Pessoa led BYU in kills with 18 and added nine digs for the match, while also hitting a .560 clip. Pessoa has now recorded 16 double-digit kill performances on the season. Senior Jonathan Alleman pitched in 13 kills, six digs and two blocks to help the Cougars to another MPSF win.

Michael Burke also registered 11 kills for a .364 hitting percentage and threw in five blocks. Junior setter Carlos Moreno, this week's AVCA National Player of the Week, tallied 55 assists, five kills, eight digs and six blocks on the night.

In game one, BYU came on strong, but Hawai`i kept the score close to start. At 9-9, a 5-0 run gave the Cougars a 5-point edge as the Warriors struggled to put together an answer. Ryan Woodward of Hawai`i scored the last kill of the game before a kill from BYU opposite Joe Hillman and a service error from Mauli`a LaBarre gave the Cougars the game, 30-25.

Senior Joe Hillman fired six of his nine kills in the first game, committing no hitting errors and hitting a .667 percentage. He helped the Cougars to a .423 hitting percentage, while Hawai`i only hit .250. Senior libero Shawn Olmstead also posted four of his nine digs in the first game.

Game two played out similarly, with both teams vying for the lead for the first half of the game. At 13-12 the Cougars put together a 7-0 run to give themselves a comfortable 13-19 lead. Aiding them were Burke and Alleman who each had five kills for game two. But the Warriors got back together and came within three before BYU took the game, 30-25. Burke connected on five kills, hitting a blistering .833 percentage while Alleman registerd a .429 percentage.

The first half of game three was no different, but with the score tied at 12 the Warriors rallied to a 20-14 lead, their largest of the evening. BYU closed to within two but the Hawai`i momentum was too much as they took game three, 30-28. The Warrior defense won it for the team, accumulating 10.5 team blocks by game three; compared to two for BYU.

"We just came out flat in the third game and they took advantage of it," Peterson said.

In game four BYU took control of the match back after the Warriors took an early 3-0 lead; the Cougars led 15-13 at mid game. Hawai`i struggled to get back in the game, tying things up at 22-all off a pair of kills by Bender and a Hillman error. But the Cougars pulled ahead after a 4-0 run and eventually took game four, 30-27 and the match.

Matt Bender led the Warriors with 23 kills, while Arri Jeschke and Joshua Stanhiser added 12 and 11 kills respectively. Hawaii played the match without four regular season starters, Delano Thomas, Pedro Azenha, Jose Delgado and Dio Dante.

"Even though they were without some starters, they still kept us off guard with their good ball control and the middles beat up on us," Peterson said. "We just need to play our game on Saturday and not let them take us out of it."

BYU will match up again with Hawai`i on Saturday, Mar. 20 at the Stan Sherriff Center. The game will start at 7 p.m. (HST)

For the detailed box score, click the pdf link above.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
            BRIGHAM YOUNG vs Hawai`i (Mar 18, 2004 at Honolulu, HI)
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  BURKE, Michael......  4| 11   3  22  .364|  0|  0   1|  0|  2| 0  5  0|  0|  13.5
 5  MORENO, Carlos......  4|  5   3  12  .167| 55|  0   4|  0|  8| 1  5  2|  0|   8.5
 11 HILLMAN, Joe........  4|  9   4  28  .179|  0|  2   1|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  1|  11.5
 12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan...  4| 13   8  24  .208|  1|  0   1|  0|  6| 0  2  0|  0|  14.0
 17 PESSOA, Fernando....  4| 18   4  25  .560|  2|  0   3|  0|  9| 0  1  1|  0|  18.5
 18 BATISTA, Victor.....  4|  7   4  15  .200|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  3  1|  0|   8.5
 10 CARPENTER, Cory.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  2|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 63  26 126  .294| 59|  2  12|  2| 41| 1 17  4|  1|  74.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  3  26  .423   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  7  30  .367   BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 30 28 30  (16-3, 14-1 MPSF)
   3  16  9  39  .179   Hawai`i............. 25 25 30 27  (13-6, 10-5 MPSF)
   4  15  7  31  .258
    Hawai`i                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Tuyay, Kimo.........  4|  3   0   3 1.000| 58|  1   1|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  2|   5.5
 8  Jeschke, Arri.......  4| 12   3  22  .409|  0|  1   3|  0|  5| 0  3  0|  0|  14.5
 13 Bender, Matt........  4| 23  12  55  .200|  0|  0   5|  0|  4| 1  3  1|  0|  25.5
 14 Woodward, Ryan......  4|  9  11  29 -.069|  0|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  1|   9.0
 16 LaBarre, Mauli`a....  4|  8   2  13  .462|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 2  4  0|  0|  12.0
 22 Stanhiser, Joshua...  4| 11   2  21  .429|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  2  1|  0|  12.0
 5  Muise, Jake.........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 Reft, Alfred........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  3|  0   0|  0| 13| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  2|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 66  30 143  .252| 62|  2  20|  2| 32| 3 15  3|  3|  78.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  7  32  .250   Site: Honolulu, HI (Stan Sheriff Center)
   2  14  5  34  .265   Date: Mar 18, 2004   Attend: 4598   Time: 2:20
   3  20  6  37  .378   Referees: Ernest Ho, Dan Hironaka
   4  17 12  40  .125   Length of Games - 0:27/0:28/0:34/0:31
                        Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Match
                        #1 BYU "Cougars" vs. #5 HAWAII "Warriors"
                        Turnstile - 3238