Cougars Offensive in Downing Falcons 3-1

COLORADO SPRINGS -- Allison Larson led the Cougars with a career performance as the BYU women's volleyball team had its most offensively complete match in conference play as it downed Air Force 33-35, 30-24, 30-25, 30-24 Saturday. With its win over the Falcons the Cougars complete a perfect 2-0 weekend and improve to 11-14, 6-5 Mountain West Conference, while Air Force drops to 8-17, 2-7.

"Statistically we played well," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "But we could've played a lot better and that bodes well for our team."

Larson had career-highs with 18 kills and a .583 attack percentage, while also recording four digs and three blocks.

"We seem to have a different player step up and come up big for us," Lamb said. "Tonight we had a handful of players that did well, but Allison really came up with some big plays."

Riding a six-match losing streak, Air Force came out with fire in the first game hitting a team-high .378 and putting down 21 kills. BYU recorded 22 kills in the game, but its nine attack errors was the difference in the game.

After losing a closely contested first game, the Cougars came out in game two and took control to the match. BYU relied on precise passing by setter Karina Puikkonen as she took control of the match by controlling the BYU attack. Puikkonen dished out 61 assists on the night, while managing to record six kills. As has been her trademark all season, Puikkonen put forth an all-around effort as she also had seven digs and eight blocks.

BYU held Air Force to a .024 attack percentage in the third game, as the Cougar block forced the Falcons to commit 11 attack errors. On the night, BYU held an 18.0-11.0 blocking advantage over Air Force.

Mirroring the effort of Friday night's effort against New Mexico, BYU came out with its best play in the final game. The Cougars made only two attack errors while putting down 18 kills (.571) to seal the match.

Three other Cougars registered double-digit kills and all three set various career highs on the night. Erin Webb, starting in place of an injured Carrie Bowers for a second consecutive night, put down a career-high 11 kills on .333 hitting while also chipping in with four blocks.

"I felt it was important to rest Carrie this weekend," Lamb said. "And Erin did a nice job of filling in for her this weekend."

Laura Nielsen recorded her first career double-double with career highs of 15 kills (.400) and 11 blocks. Kim Wilson continues to produce on the outside recording 15 kills on a career-high .462 hitting.

The Cougars improve to 9-0 when hitting for a higher attack percentage and 6-0 when hitting over .300 against their opponents this season.

"Even though we didn't play our best a lot of good things happened tonight," Lamb said. "We keep learning and doing certain things better and the experience is really valuable."

The Cougars capped off a winning weekend in BYU sports. The men's and women's cross country teams took home MWC crowns, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams won a dual competition versus Utah, the women's soccer team defeated Utah and the football team downed San Diego State.

BYU has three home matches remaining before the MWC Tournament in Fort Collins, Colo., Nov. 21-23. In their only match of the week, the Cougars will host No. 22 Utah, in a critical conference showdown, Friday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.

                              Volleyball Box Score
          BYU Cougars vs Air Force (Nov 02, 2002 at Air Force Academy)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  PUIKKONEN, Karina...  4|  6   1  10  .500| 61|  1   0|  0|  7| 1  7  0|  1
 5  CASTILLO, Sahara....  4|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   5|  2|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  4|  9   7  30  .067|  1|  2   0|  1|  8| 0  3  0|  0
 7  LARSON, Allison.....  4| 18   4  24  .583|  1|  0   2|  0|  4| 1  2  0|  0
 10 WEBB, Erin..........  4| 11   4  21  .333|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 1  3  1|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  4| 15   5  25  .400|  0|  1   2|  0|  1| 2  9  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 15 WILSON, Kimberly....  4| 15   3  26  .462|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 1  0  1|  0
 17 MAHAFFEY, Michelle..  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 75  24 137  .372| 64|  5  12|  5| 40| 6 24  2|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 18.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  22  9  45  .289   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  19  6  30  .433   BYU Cougars......... 33 30 30 30  11-14, 6-5 MWC
   3  16  7  34  .265   Air Force........... 35 24 25 24  8-17, 2-7 MWC
   4  18  2  28  .571
    Air Force              |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  HUITT, Kristin......  4|  0   1   2 -.500| 55|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  4  0|  0
 5  BISHOP, Tiffany.....  4| 15   6  34  .265|  0|  1   4|  0|  1| 2  3  1|  0
 7  JEFFERSON, Lamecca..  4| 14   5  30  .300|  0|  0   0|  3|  4| 0  0  1|  0
 10 DIAZ, Delavane......  4|  8  11  32 -.094|  0|  1   1|  0|  0| 1  4  0|  0
 11 EDMONDS, Brittany...  4|  5   3  13  .154|  0|  1   2|  0|  3| 0  0  1|  0
 23 HAMLETT, Kristin....  4| 20   3  30  .567|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  5  2|  0
 4  SIEFKIN, Carly......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  4|  1   1|  0|  3| 0  0  0|  0
 6  BEATTY, Jaime.......  4|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  2|  8| 0  0  0|  0
 9  HICKERSON, Elise....  2|  1   1   4  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0
 13 NIGRO, Christina....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 63  30 145  .228| 59|  5  11|  5| 30| 3 16  5|  0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  21  7  37  .378   Site: Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs, CO)
   2  14  5  30  .300   Date: Nov 02, 2002   Attend: 278   Time: 2:10
   3  12 11  42  .024   Referees: Kim Pickering, Donna Wigdon
   4  16  7  36  .250