Rob Neilson dished out 37 assists in BYU's sweep of Ball State in the first round of the Hall of Fame Classic at Spring Field College. (Photo by Mark Philbrick/BYU Photo)

PROVO -- The BYU Cougars made short work of Ball State, sweeping the Cardinals, 30-22, 30-27, 30-23, in one hour and fifteen minutes Friday at the Hall of Fame-Morgan Classic.

The Cougars came out and got ahead early in the first game and never looked back. They held Ball State to a meager .091 hitting percentage on the match while hitting .333.

Victor Batista was on fire for BYU all night, finishing with 10 kills while hitting .750 (10-1-12). Casey Patterson was also strong with his swing, also registering 10 kills while hitting .563 (10-1-17). While no other Cougar had double figure kills, they had 44 kills compared to 35 for Ball State.

The nets belonged to BYU all night as the Cougars kept the Cardinal hitters at bay with 12 team blocks. Russell Holmes led the way with five while four other BYU players had three each.

Luis Castera and Nick Meyer were the top attackers for Ball State as they finished with 11 kills apiece. Castera added five digs and four blocks.

After blowing by the Cardinals in game one, the Cougars struggled to put Ball State away in the second. The Cardinals hung around by holding BYU to a .194 (16-10-31) hitting percentage. Ball State hit .000 (8-8-29) for the game. The Cardinals held a 21-17 lead after a Castera kill before the Cougars scored nine of the next 10 points to go ahead 26-22.

BYU came back strong in the third, holding the lead throughout while hitting .462 (14-2-26) and limiting Ball State to .139 (17-12-36).

Both teams will be action Saturday with the Cougars playing in the Hall of Fame Classic championship match at 8 p.m. (EST) and Ball State playing in the consolation match at 6. The winner between Springfield College and Penn State will play BYU for the tournament title.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                      Briham Young University - Volleyball
    Ball State vs Brigham Young Cougar (Feb 04, 2005 at Springfield, Mass.)
    Ball State             |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  MEYER, Nick.........  3| 11   6  19  .263|  1|  2   4|  1|  1| 0  4  0|  0|  15.0
 5  BERG, Evan..........  3|  3   1   7  .286| 29|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 8  DURBIN, Patrick.....  1|  2   1   5  .200|  0|  1   1|  1|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 11 BUSHONG, Scott......  3|  3   3  11  .000|  1|  0   4|  0|  2| 0  4  0|  0|   5.0
 14 CASTERA, Luis.......  3| 11   7  26  .154|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 1  1  0|  0|  12.5
 15 BRALEY, Andrew......  2|  1   4   8 -.375|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  1  0|  0|   1.5
 3  RIVERA, Arturo......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  RUMSCHIK, Mark......  3|  1   5   8 -.500|  2|  1   0|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 10 PECKLER, Ian........  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 16 GRABOVAC, Zoran.....  2|  3   0   4  .750|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   3.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 35  27  88  .091| 33|  4  14|  4| 16| 1 10  0|  0|  45.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  10  7  23  .130   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2   8  8  29  .000   Ball State.......... (0) 22 27 23  3-4
   3  17 12  36  .139   Brigham Young Cougar (3) 30 30 30  7-3
    Brigham Young Cougar   |     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......  2|  6   1   9  .556|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 1  2  0|  0|   8.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  3|  8   3  13  .385|  0|  0   2|  2|  4| 0  2  1|  0|   9.0
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3|  2   2   6  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  5  1|  0|   4.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  1   1   3  .000| 37|  2   4|  0|  2| 0  3  0|  0|   4.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  2| 10   1  12  .750|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  2  1|  0|  11.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  6   7  20 -.050|  0|  1   2|  1|  5| 1  2  1|  0|   9.0
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  3|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  3  0|  0|   2.5
 4  CONGELLIERE, Robert.  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 5  CONGELLIERE, Brian..  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  2|  0   0|  1|  3| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  2| 10   1  16  .562|  0|  1   3|  0|  2| 0  1  0|  0|  11.5
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 44  17  81  .333| 39|  4  16|  4| 20| 2 20  4|  0|  60.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 12.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  5  24  .375   Site: Springfield, Mass. (Blake Arena)
   2  16 10  31  .194   Date: Feb 04, 2005   Attend: 410   Time: 1:15
   3  14  2  26  .462   Referees: M. Paull, D. Carson, J. Limeres, Tom Waniewski
                                         1   2   3 Total
                        Tie scores       5  10   0    15
                        Lead changes     4   6   1    11