Sizzling Service Game Too Much For Tigers

STOCKTON -- A strong service game allowed the No. 6 BYU Cougars to throw No. 11 Pacific off rhythm and sweep the Tigers, 30-25, 30-28, 30-24, Friday at the Spanos Center and extend their win streak to five matches. BYU improved to 12-6 overall and 7-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while Pacific fell to 11-11 and 5-9.

"We were able to get them out of system with our serve and that made a big difference," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "It allowed us to control the momentum and make a few runs."

Casey Patterson and Victor Batista led the service attack, each registering three aces while Taylor Evans added two. Along with the aces, BYU made less service errors than Pacific, 13-19, and had several serves that the Tigers struggled to return that resulted in BYU points.

The serves proved to be the difference as nether team excelled offensively with the Cougars hitting .259 (42-21-81) compared to .195 (36-19-87) for the Tigers. Ivan Perez led BYU with 11 kills while Michael Burke and Batista added eight each. Batista's .545 (8-2-11) hitting percentage was a match high.

"We still made a lot of errors that we need to correct but we worked hard enough when we weren't making errors to stay in control," Peterson said.

Brian Zodrow was Pacific's only offensive threat as he had a match-best 19 kills and hit .486 (19-2-35). The Tigers did out-block the Cougars 12-6 as Simon Chen-Byerly led the way with eight block assists.

In games one and two BYU's hitting struggles were manifest as the Cougars hit .154 and .233. They overcame the struggles by serving well and playing solid defense, winning 30-25 and 30-28. Burke broke a 28-28 tie in the second with a kill and followed it up with another for the win.

BYU improved offensively in the third hitting .400 (15-5-25) and winning 30-24.

Although the match was played in Stockton, Calif., the 'homecourt' advantage belong to the Cougars. Of the 550 fans in attendance, the majority were BYU fans.

The Cougars and Tigers will face off again Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Spanos Center. A win would extend BYU's win streak to six matches.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
       #6 Brigham Young vs #11 Pacific (Mar 11, 2005 at Stockton, Calif.)
    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......  3|  8   3  17  .294|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  5  1|  0|  10.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 11   6  24  .208|  1|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  12.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  3|  6   5  11  .091|  0|  3   5|  1|  6| 0  0  1|  0|   9.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  2   1   5  .200| 35|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  3|   3.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  8   2  11  .545|  1|  3   1|  0|  1| 0  1  1|  0|  11.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  7   4  13  .231|  1|  2   1|  1|  5| 0  1  0|  0|   9.5
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  21  81  .259| 39|  8  13|  3| 22| 0 12  3|  3|  56.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  8  26  .154   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  8  30  .233   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 30 30  12-6, 7-4 MPSF
   3  15  5  25  .400   Pacific............. (0) 25 28 24  11-11, 5-9 MPSF
    Pacific                |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  HAZELETT, Mitch.....  3|  0   1   2 -.500| 35|  0   5|  0|  0| 0  5  0|  1|   2.5
 3  BRIZUELA, Mauricio..  3|  4   5  15 -.067|  0|  0   4|  4|  3| 0  3  0|  0|   5.5
 6  ZODROW, Brian.......  3| 19   2  35  .486|  0|  1   4|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0|  21.0
 11 METZ, Bryson........  3|  7   4  14  .214|  0|  2   2|  1|  0| 0  1  0|  1|   9.5
 13 DAUBURS, Nils.......  3|  5   3  10  .200|  0|  0   4|  0|  3| 1  3  0|  0|   7.5
 14 CHEN-BYERLEY, Simon.  3|  0   4   9 -.444|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  8  0|  0|   4.0
 5  CUNNINGHAM, Drew....  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ALEXANDER, Brad.....  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 9  ADAMSON, Brian......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 18 GONZALES, Mike......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  3|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 36  19  87  .195| 35|  3  19|  8| 17| 1 22  0|  2|  51.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  7  26  .115   Site: Stockton, Calif. (Spanos Center)
   2  14  4  32  .312   Date: Mar 11, 2005   Attend: 550   Time: 1:33
   3  12  8  29  .138   Referees: Mickey Matthews, Eric Asami