Waves Crash Down on Cougars

MALIBU -- The No. 6 Cougars dropped their second-consecutive match Friday night, losing 3-1 (27-30, 25-30, 30-23, 17-30) to Pepperdine at Firestone Fieldhouse in the first of two meetings with the Waves. The loss puts BYU at 7-5 overall and 2-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Pepperdine is now 8-1 overall and in the MPSF.

The Cougars were unable to get into any kind of rhythm early in the match, dropping the first two games to the Waves. After coming back to take game three in convincing fashion, BYU had nothing left in the tank in the fourth, allowing Pepperdine to take over and win the match.

"We're just not mentally prepared to play against good teams," BYU Coach Tom Peterson said. "We can't sustain anything for a long time but we'll keep plugging away at it. It's not the physical talent but the mental errors."

Michael Burke provided a bright spot for the Cougars, going errorless on his way to hitting .611 (11-0-18) and collecting 11 kills. Victor Batista tied Burke for a team-high 11 kills.

For the match, BYU hit just .219 (55-27-128) and had 32 digs and seven team blocks. Brian Rowley had a team-leading eight digs.

Many Pepperdine players turned in solid performances, with Sean Rooney registering a match-high 17 kills. Andy Hein hit a blistering .750 (10-1-12) on his way to 10 kills. Two other Waves had double-digit kills with John Mayer getting 14 and John Parfitt finishing with 13.

As a team, Pepperdine hit .345 (60-19-119), had 39 digs and 11.5 team blocks.

The first game was fairly evenly matched as both teams came out strong offensively. The Waves were too much as they hit .414 (16-4-29) compared to .367 (14-3-30). Pepperdine did not cool down in the second, hitting .424 while BYU's hitting fell off to .235.

The Cougars showed signs in the third, out-hitting the Waves .364 to .250 on their way to a 30-23 win. The run was short lived as Pepperdine stormed back to win 30-17 in the fourth.

The teams will conclude their two game series Saturday at 3 p.m. (PST) in Firestone Fieldhouse.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                      Briham Young University - Volleyball
   #6 Brigham Young Cougar vs #2 Pepperdine (Feb 11, 2005 at Malibu, Calif.)
    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
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  2|  1   0   2  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 3  BURKE, Michael......  4| 11   0  18  .611|  1|  1   4|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|  12.5
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3|  8   4  21  .190|  0|  0   1|  2|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   8.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  4|  9   6  21  .143|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  2|  5   1  10  .400|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  1  2|  0|   5.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  2   1   5  .200| 45|  0   4|  0|  6| 1  3  1|  0|   4.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 11   6  25  .200|  2|  2   5|  1|  2| 2  1  1|  0|  15.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4|  8   8  25  .000|  1|  1   2|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   9.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 55  27 128  .219| 49|  4  19|  5| 32| 3  8  5|  0|  66.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  3  30  .367   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  8  34  .235   Brigham Young Cougar (1) 27 25 30 17  7-5, 2-3 MPSF
   3  17  5  33  .364   Pepperdine.......... (3) 30 30 23 30  8-1, 8-1 MPSF
   4   8 11  31 -.097
    Pepperdine             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Hein, Andy..........  4| 10   1  12  .750|  0|  1   3|  1|  3| 2  4  1|  0|  15.0
 9  Ka, James...........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 Sutherland, Tanner..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 Mayer, John.........  4| 14   4  23  .435|  3|  0   1|  1|  9| 0  4  0|  0|  16.0
 12 Rooney, Sean........  4| 17   6  39  .282|  1|  2   4|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  0|  19.5
 13 Grobe, Jon..........  1|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Hulse, Tom..........  4|  2   1   6  .167|  0|  0   4|  1|  0| 1  2  1|  0|   4.0
 15 Winder, Jonathan....  4|  4   3  10  .100| 47|  1   1|  0|  3| 1  2  0|  0|   7.0
 16 Parfitt, John.......  4| 13   3  27  .370|  1|  1   0|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  0|  15.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 60  19 119  .345| 53|  5  16|  4| 39| 4 15  2|  0|  76.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  4  29  .414   Site: Malibu, Calif. (Firestone Fieldhouse)
   2  16  2  33  .424   Date: Feb 11, 2005   Attend: 1174   Time: 1:45
   3  16  8  32  .250   Referees: Marvin Hall, Bob Oshita
   4  12  5  25  .280
                                         1   2   3   4 Total
                        Tie scores      19   3   1   3    26
                        Lead changes     7   2   1   2    12