Clutch Win for Cougars

PALO ALTO -- The Cougars are one win away from clinching third place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after defeating the Stanford Cardinal in four games, 30-28, 18-30, 30-26, 32-30, Friday night in Burnham Pavilion. BYU is now 19-9 overall and 14-7 in the MPSF and will conclude the season with a second match against Stanford. The Cardinal fell to 11-13 and 10-11.

"It was a great exciting match," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "The ups and downs were almost too much to take but it's nice to come out on top. Tomorrow night is huge. If we win then we clinch the third seed but if we lose then we would probably play Long Beach at Long Beach."

Ivan Perez led the Cougars with 19 kills and a .353 hitting percentage (19-7-34). Casey Patterson came through with a solid match overall, contributing 12 kills, four assists, 10 digs and match-highs with four aces and six blocks. His ace and block totals both tie career highs. Victor Batista was second on the team with 14 kills and Michael Burke was also in double-digits with 10. Brian Rowley had an impressive match at the libero position, tying a career high with 14 digs and recording 38 service receptions without a return error. Russell Holmes continued his strong play off the bench with four kills and four blocks.

As a team BYU hit .274 (67-27-146) and had eight aces and 42 digs. The Cougars out-blocked the Cardinal 12.5 to 8.0.

Stanford was led by Ben Reddy's 19 kills while Chris Ahlfeldt had 10 and Craig Buell added 11. David Vogel led his team with 13 digs.

After winning two of the first three games, BYU controlled the fourth early on as Batista helped his team jump out to a 5-2 lead with an ace and a kill. The strong Cougar start was followed with an identical run by Stanford to knot the score at seven apiece. The Cardinal were able to control the game for a while after tying the score, building leads as big as three, the last at 18-15.

BYU was determined not to let the game get away as Burke started a three-point run with a thunderous kill. Holmes, Neilson and Batista followed Burke's kill with a triple block before Perez tied the score at 18 by finding the floor on the Stanford side of the net. The game would remain close the rest of the way as the two teams traded one-point leads before the Cougars moved ahead by two on three occasions at 27-25 on a Patterson kill, 28-26 on a Batista kill and 29-27 on a Cardinal hitting error. After Stanford scored the next two to tie the score at 29, Burke recorded a kill but was followed by a Buell kill for the Cardinal. With the scored tied at 30, Reddy had a service error and a hitting error to give the game and the match to BYU.

Perez and Taylor Evans combined for 13 kills on 17 errorless swings to help the Cougars win a back-and-forth game one, 30-28. Perez, who had seven kills on ten attempts, finished the game with a kill coming out of a BYU timeout. The score was close throughout, with neither team able to get ahead by more than one point until back-to-back kills by Evans gave BYU the 21-19 advantage. Stanford proved resilient, fighting back to tie the game at 26 before the Cougars scored three straight on a Cardinal hitting error and two kills in the middle by Burke to take the 29-26 lead.

Stanford fought off two game points before Perez came through with the game winner. Patterson had a solid all around game one, charting four kills, two assists, two digs and two blocks while Neilson set BYU to a .541 (23-3-37) hitting percentage and registered 19 assists. Reddy from Stanford was nearly perfect in the opening frame, recording six kills on seven errorless swings.

Game two was controlled by the Cardinal from the first point as Stanford built an early 7-2 lead by making plays and taking advantage of Cougar errors. BYU fought back to cut the lead to one at 9-8. The Cardinal dominated the rest of the way though, outscoring the Cougars 21-10 to close out the game, 30-18. BYU managed to tally just eight kills and a -.094 (8-11-32) hitting percentage while Stanford hit .292 (11-4-22).

After a dismal game two, the Cougars came out and competed in the third, keeping the score close before building a five-point lead at 18-13 with an 8-3 run, equaling its point total from second game. BYU led by as many as six at 20-14 on a Reddy attack error. The Cougars led by as many as five late in the game at 25-20 before Stanford made a run of its own, running off four straight to cut the deficit to one point. BYU weathered the rally and recovered to win the game 30-26, scoring five of the last seven points including a kill by Perez on game point. The Cougars out-hit the Cardinal .290 (17-8-31) to .231 (12-6-26) in the game.

BYU and Stanford will both conclude regular season play in the second match between the teams. The match will begin at 7 p.m. (PST) and can be followed online by visiting BYUCougars.com.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
     #6 Brigham Young vs #9 Stanford (Apr 15, 2005 at Stanford University)
    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| 10   3  20  .350|  0|  1   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|  12.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4| 19   7  34  .353|  0|  1   5|  0|  6| 0  1  0|  0|  20.5
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  4| 12   5  25  .280|  4|  4   5|  2| 10| 2  4  0|  0|  20.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  2   0   4  .500| 57|  1   3|  0|  2| 1  2  0|  2|   5.0
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 14   8  41  .146|  0|  1   5|  0|  7| 0  5  0|  1|  17.5
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  6   3  11  .273|  0|  0   2|  3|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   6.0
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  1|  0   0   2  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  0| 14| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  2|  4   1   9  .333|  1|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0|   6.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 67  27 146  .274| 63|  8  22|  5| 42| 3 19  0|  3|  87.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  23  3  37  .541   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2   8 11  32 -.094   Brigham Young....... (3) 30 18 30 32  19-9 (14-7)
   3  17  8  31  .290   Stanford............ (1) 28 30 26 30  11-13 (10-11)
   4  19  5  46  .304
    Stanford               |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Buell, Craig........  4| 11   2  20  .450|  1|  1   1|  1|  5| 0  5  0|  0|  14.5
 2  Ahlfeldt, Chris.....  4| 10   0  18  .556|  2|  1   0|  0|  2| 1  2  1|  0|  13.0
 5  Vogel, David........  4|  9   5  25  .160|  0|  1   2|  1| 13| 0  3  0|  0|  11.5
 8  Clayton, William....  4|  5   8  21 -.143|  1|  1   3|  4|  7| 0  3  0|  0|   7.5
 15 Reddy, Ben..........  4| 19   7  38  .316|  1|  1   6|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|  20.0
 17 Hansen, Kevin.......  4|  3   0  10  .300| 46|  0   0|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  1|   3.5
 11 Lindberg, Brian.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  2|  5| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 57  22 132  .265| 52|  5  12|  8| 44| 1 14  1|  1|  70.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  4  29  .379   Site: Stanford University (Maples Pavilion)
   2  11  4  24  .292   Date: Apr 15, 2005   Attend: 725   Time: 2:00
   3  12  6  26  .231   Referees: Eric Asami, John Kinyon
   4  19  8  53  .208