BYU Swept by UCLA to Finish With Split

PROVO -- A night after defeating the No. 1 ranked team in the country, the BYU Cougars were swept, 21-30, 24-30, 26-30, by the UCLA Bruins Saturday in front of a packed Smith Fieldhouse. BYU now stands at 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Bruins are 8-1 and 4-1. There were 6,072 in attendance.

BYU Coach Tom Peterson said it was a combination of UCLA playing better and the Cougars making too many errors.

"It's not always easy but you've got to give credit to UCLA," he said. "They made us look inexperienced tonight. We also did it to ourselves. We just broke down in so many areas and had a lot of mental errors."

Victor Batista led the Cougars with 15 kills while Taylor Evans added eight. As a team, BYU hit .234 (43-21-94) and had nine total blocks.

Kris Kraushaar had 11 kills to lead the Bruins while Paul Johnson added nine. The Bruins hit .322 (45-17-87) as a team and had seven service aces.

It appeared as if the Cougars would ride the momentum of Friday's win early in game one as BYU jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind two kills by Evans. The Cougars had their largest lead at 9-3 before the Bruins charged back, tying the game at 10. It was all UCLA from there as the Bruins capitalized on several BYU errors to win 30-21. Evans and Batista had four kills each to lead BYU. UCLA had three aces to disrupt the Cougar passing.

The Cougars were unable to recover from a poor game one, falling behind early in the second. UCLA led by as many as six at 19-13, again taking advantage of BYU's errors. The Cougars cut the lead to three at 21-24 but the Bruins were too much as they took the game 30-24, winning on a Johnson kill.

Game three was more of the same as UCLA jumped ahead at 6-5 and took held the lead the rest of the game. Down 19-13, BYU made things interesting, closing the gap to 26-28. The Bruins would not let the Cougars get any closer as they scored the next two points to take the game, 30-26, and the match.

Peterson said the matches with UCLA could prove very important when the MPSF tournament rolls around.

"This win meant a lot to them," Peterson said. "It could determine the host of the postseason tournament."

BYU will be on the road next week for the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass. The Cougars will play Ball State Friday, Feb. 4 and either Penn State or Springfield College on Saturday.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                      Briham Young University - Volleyball
   UCLA  Bruins vs Brigham Young Cougar (Jan 29, 2005 at BYU PROVO UT 84602)
    UCLA  Bruins           |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  GONZALEZ, Dennis....  3|  3   0   4  .750| 39|  0   1|  0|  3| 1  0  3|  0|   4.0
 5  JOHNSON, Paul.......  3|  9   2  18  .389|  0|  3   0|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0|  13.5
 7  ACOSTA, Jonathan....  3|  8   2  12  .500|  1|  2   1|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  10.0
 14 KLOSTERMAN, Steve...  3|  6   6  19  .000|  0|  0   3|  1|  0| 1  1  0|  0|   7.5
 17 VINCE, Allan........  3|  8   3  16  .312|  0|  0   3|  0|  1| 1  0  0|  0|   9.0
 26 KRAUSHAAR, Kris.....  3| 11   3  17  .471|  2|  2   2|  0|  7| 0  2  1|  0|  14.0
 1  KER, Tony...........  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 45  17  87  .322| 42|  7  10|  1| 26| 3  6  4|  0|  58.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  5  26  .308   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  5  28  .357   UCLA  Bruins........ (3) 30 30 30  8-1; 4-1 MPFS
   3  17  7  33  .303   Brigham Young Cougar (0) 21 24 26  6-3; 2-2 MPFS
    Brigham Young Cougar   |     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......  3|  4   3  12  .083|  2|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  4  3|  0|   6.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3|  5   6  18 -.056|  1|  0   2|  2|  3| 0  4  0|  1|   7.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  3   1   6  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 1  2  1|  0|   5.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  3   1   5  .400| 36|  0   1|  1|  1| 1  1  1|  2|   4.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3| 15   4  23  .478|  0|  0   3|  4|  6| 1  0  0|  0|  16.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  8   3  17  .294|  1|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  3|  5   3  13  .154|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|   5.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 43  21  94  .234| 40|  1  12|  7| 20| 3 12  6|  3|  53.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  8  33  .152   Site: BYU PROVO UT 84602 (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  14  6  24  .333   Date: Jan 29, 2005   Attend: 6072   Time: 1h 30m
   3  16  7  37  .243   Referees: BURT FULLER, JOHN MARTIN, A. Maetaini
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       2   3   4     9
                        Lead changes     2   3   2     7