Cougars Drop Another to Long Beach

LONG BEACH -- The Cougars fell to Long Beach State for the second-consecutive night, losing 3-1 (31-29, 28-30, 27-30, 24-30) Friday at the Walter Pyramid. BYU is now 18-6 overall and 14-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the 49ers are 19-9 overall and 12-8 in the MPSF.

"They served harder and more consistently than us," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "They performed better under pressure and made the right plays at the right time. They out played us tonight."

Victor Batista led the Cougars with 14 kills and added five blocks while Yosleyder Cala was the only other BYU player to register double-digit kills with 12. Russell Holmes had a match-high eight blocks as the Cougars recorded 16.0 compared to 9.5 for the 49ers. As a team, BYU hit .243 (55-22-136) and had 47 digs, led by Brian Rowley, who had nine.

Robert Tarr had a match-high 21 kills for Long Beach and Norm Hutton added 20. The 49ers hit .250 (69-30-156) and had 49 digs, led by Tyler Caldwell's 11 and Tarr's 10. Long Beach disrupted BYU's passing with a strong service game, recording 10 aces, including two each from Francisco Valdez, Tarr, Duncan Budinger, Hutton and Tyler Hildebrand.

Game one went to BYU, 31-29, as the Cougars out-hit the 49ers .346 (13-4-26) to .143 (18-12-42). BYU jumped out to a 5-1 lead but Long Beach came back to tie the score at 11. From there the score was tied 16 times, the last at 29. The game ended with back-to-back 49er hitting errors.

Games two, three and four followed a similar pattern as Long Beach took an early lead and never looked back. In the second, the 49ers led from start to finish with the exception of a tie at 27. They then scored three of the next four points to take the game. In game three they took the lead at 4-3 and held it the rest of the way. With the score tied at 1-1 in the fourth, Long Beach rattled off six in a row and coasted to the win.

BYU will conclude its regular season with two matches at Hawai`i, currently in second-place in the MPSF. Peterson said consistent play will be an important factor when the Cougars face the Warriors.

"We have to get better at consistently serving hard and passing well," Peterson said. "If we can do that and be cool under pressure, we'll be just fine."

BYU and Hawai`i will play Friday and Saturday, April 14 and 15 at the Stan Sheriff Center. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. HT.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
    #2 BYU Cougars vs #7 Long Beach State (Apr 07, 2006 at Long Beach State)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  CALA, Yosleyder.....  4| 12   6  32  .188|  0|  0   2|  4|  6| 1  5  0|  0|  15.5
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  4|  2   0  14  .143|  1|  1   1|  0|  3| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  4|  8   5  18  .167|  1|  2   3|  1|  8| 0  0  0|  0|  10.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4|  8   2  18  .333|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 1  7  0|  0|  12.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  0   0   0  .000| 40|  0   0|  0|  8| 1  1  0|  0|   1.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 14   3  25  .440|  0|  0   4|  0|  0| 1  4  0|  0|  17.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  7|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  9| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4|  3   2  10  .100|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 1  0  0|  0|   4.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  4|  8   4  19  .211|  0|  2   2|  2|  8| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 55  22 136  .243| 49|  5  13| 10| 47| 5 22  0|  0|  76.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 16.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  4  26  .346   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  14  6  36  .222   BYU Cougars......... (1) 31 28 27 24  18-6 (14-6)
   3  14  8  38  .158   Long Beach State.... (3) 29 30 30 30  19-9 (12-8)
   4  14  4  36  .278
    Long Beach State       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Lotman, Paul........  4|  4   5  13 -.077|  2|  0   5|  2|  9| 1  0  0|  0|   5.0
 5  Hildebrand, Tyler...  4|  3   0   6  .500| 57|  2   3|  0|  4| 0  2  0|  0|   6.0
 9  Hutton, Norm........  4| 20  12  49  .163|  1|  2   4|  0|  8| 0  2  0|  0|  23.0
 13 Liles, Teddy........  4| 10   2  18  .444|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  6  1|  0|  13.0
 17 Budinger, Duncan....  4| 11   3  21  .381|  0|  2   2|  0|  4| 0  2  1|  0|  14.0
 24 Tarr, Robert........  4| 21   8  48  .271|  1|  2   4|  1| 10| 0  5  0|  0|  25.5
 1  Caldwell, Tyler.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  0   0|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  Watten, Dustin......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  Valdez, Francisco...  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  2   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 10 Shea, Luke..........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 14 Fabry, Daniel.......  2|  0   0   1  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 69  30 156  .250| 65| 10  18|  5| 49| 1 17  2|  0|  88.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  18 12  42  .143   Site: Long Beach State (Walter Pyramid)
   2  15 10  41  .122   Date: Apr 07, 2006   Attend: 1459   Time: 1:59
   3  16  6  38  .263   Referees: Kim Pickering, Bob Oshita
   4  20  2  35  .514   Triple blocks: Long Beach State 1
                        Yellow cards: BYU #1 (Game 3); BYU #15 (Game 3)