Northridge Exacts Revenge on Cougars

NORTHRIDGE -- The No. 4 BYU Cougars fell behind early to No. 8 Cal State Northridge and were unable to recover, falling 3-0 (19-30, 16-30, 28-30) to the Matadors Saturday at Wells Fargo Court. The Cougars fell to 16-9 overall and 11-7 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with the loss while Northridge improved to 15-11 and 8-10.

BYU coach Tom Peterson said his team struggled to find any kind of consistency.

"Northridge played well and kept us out of rhythm," he said. "It was probably our worst match of the year."

Victor Batista led the Cougars with 12 kills while Ivan Perez added 11. Casey Patterson led BYU with four digs. The Cougars struggled in all aspects, hitting just .170 (42-26-94) and recording 4.5 blocks and 20 digs.

Jeff Conover directed the Northridge offense to a .400 (40-10-75) hitting percentage. Nils Nielsen had 12 kills to lead his team while Isaac Kneubuhl added nine. James Lischer was nearly perfect, hitting 7-of-9. Conover tallied four of the teams 10 service aces.

BYU suffered two difficult losses in games one and two, failing to reach the 20-point mark in each. Northridge managed to break open a tight first game by scoring nine of 11 points to push the lead from 17-15 to 26-17. The second was much of the same as the Matadors used another big run to push a 10-8 lead to 19-10.

The third was much more competitive as BYU rediscovered its hitting ability, finishing with a .387 (18-6-31) percentage. The score was tied at 24 before a Kneubuhl kill gave Northridge the lead for good at 25-24. The Cougars stayed within a point the rest of the game before a Nielsen kill ended it at 30-28 to seal the match.

BYU will host the UC San Diego Tritons, April 8 and 9 at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse for their final home matches of the regular season.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
   Brigham Young vs Cal State Northridge (Apr 02, 2005 at Northridge, 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|  4   0  11  .364|  1|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3| 11   7  21  .190|  0|  1   4|  0|  3| 0  2  2|  0|  13.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  3|  4   1  11  .273|  1|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  3   4   9 -.111| 33|  1   1|  0|  3| 1  0  0|  0|   5.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3| 12   8  25  .160|  3|  1   3|  2|  2| 0  2  1|  0|  14.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  8   5  15  .200|  0|  0   1|  3|  3| 0  1  0|  0|   8.5
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  3|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  2|  0   1   2 -.500|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 42  26  94  .170| 41|  3  13| 10| 20| 1  7  3|  0|  49.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  12  9  35  .086   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  12 11  28  .036   Brigham Young....... (0) 19 16 28  16-9, 11-7
   3  18  6  31  .387   Cal State Northridge (3) 30 30 30  15-11, 8-10
    Cal State Northridge   |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Kneubuhl, Isaac.....  3|  9   1  16  .500|  0|  0   3|  1|  2| 1  1  0|  0|  10.5
 2  Nielsen, Nils.......  3| 12   3  24  .375|  0|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  1  0|  1|  12.5
 3  Lischer, James......  3|  7   0   9  .778|  0|  2   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 4  Waite, Brian........  3|  5   3  10  .200|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  7  0|  0|   8.5
 6  Conover, Jeff.......  3|  1   0   1 1.000| 37|  4   0|  0|  2| 1  3  0|  0|   7.5
 8  Hanson, Cary........  3|  6   3  15  .200|  1|  3   0|  1|  3| 1  5  2|  0|  12.5
 10 Bellante, Matt......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 Pedraza, Sebastian..  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 13 Bluemling, Travis...  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 14 Levoe, Matt.........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 40  10  75  .400| 38| 10   7|  3| 22| 3 19  2|  1|  62.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  3  32  .375   Site: Northridge, Calif. (Wells Fargo Court)
   2  10  1  18  .500   Date: Apr 02, 2005   Attend: 457   Time: 1:19
   3  15  6  25  .360   Referees: Verna Klubnikin, Marvin Hall