Russell Holmes had 10 kills and Rob Neilson had 50 assists in BYU's 3-0 loss to Pepperdine. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)

PROVO -- BYU fell 3-0 (28-30, 28-30, 30-32) to No. 1 Pepperdine Saturday in the Smith Fieldhouse despite leading late in games two and three. The Cougars, ranked No. 2, are now 8-2 overall and 6-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Waves are 6-1 overall and 6-1 in the MPSF.

The defeat was BYU's first home loss of the season. The Cougars were 7-0 at home going into Saturday's match.

"Pepperdine was better for longer periods of time," BYU coach Tom Peterson said. "It wasn't anything physical. It was mental. We couldn't sustain a good level of play. That's something we can fix if we want to and if we can come together as a team."

Yosleyder Cala led BYU with 20 kills and had five digs. Russell Holmes was second with 10 kills and hit a team-best .651. The Cougars hit .274 (56-24-117) for the match and had 5.5 blocks and 33 digs.

John Parfitt had 12 kills to lead Pepperdine and Andy Hein added 10. Tom Hulse was dominant on defense, recording eight blocks, and efficient on offense, registering five kills and hitting .714.

BYU started strong in game one, riding the momentum of Friday night's win. The Cougars jumped out to a 9-5 lead behind three kills by Cala but Pepperdine fought back to tie the game at 12. With the score tied at 16, BYU went on another run to go up 21-18. The Waves again came back, tying the score at 22 and then taking the lead for good at 26-25. Pepperdine would go on to win 30-28 on a kill by Hein. Cala led BYU with six kills while Holmes and Perez had four each. Parfitt led Pepperdine with four.

Game two belonged to the Cougars until Carrol began serving late in the game. BYU led 26-19 but after a Parfitt kill, Carroll served four-straight points to cut the lead to two at 26-24. An Evans kill ended the run but the Waves were not finished as they outscored BYU 6-1 to take the game, 30-28, and the 2-0 lead for the match.

The Cougars were in a familiar situation in the third, leading late in the game but again allowing Pepperdine to go on a run and win the game, 31-29, and clinch the match. BYU was up 29-26 but allowed the Waves to score three-straight points. Cala recorded a kill to end the rally but it would be BYU's last point as Pepperdine rattled off three more, including a block on Cala for the match winner.

Saturday's match was another sellout as 5,682 fans were in attendance. Friday's match was also a sellout.

The Cougars will be back in action next Friday and Saturday when they play USC in the Fieldhouse. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. and be available live on CougarTV.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                     Brigham Young University - Volleyball
  #1 Pepperdine Waves vs #2 BYU Cougars (Feb 04, 2006 at SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU)
    Pepperdine Waves       |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  Hein, Andy..........  3| 10   4  16  .375|  2|  0   4|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  1|  12.0
 11 Grobe, Jon..........  2|  7   1  14  .429|  0|  0   1|  0|  1| 0  1  0|  0|   7.5
 12 Carroll, Paul.......  3|  7   5  22  .091|  0|  1   1|  0|  7| 0  3  0|  0|   9.5
 14 Hulse, Tom..........  3|  5   0   7  .714|  1|  0   1|  0|  3| 2  6  0|  0|  10.0
 15 Winder, Jonathan....  3|  1   2   7 -.143| 42|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  5  0|  0|   3.5
 16 Parfitt, John.......  3| 12   6  32  .188|  1|  0   0|  0|  3| 0  2  0|  0|  13.0
 9  Schleppenbach, J.D..  3|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 10 Sutherland, Tanner..  3|  9   1  12  .667|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 19 Stalzer, Aaron......  2|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 51  20 111  .279| 46|  1   9|  0| 30| 2 23  0|  1|  65.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  6  39  .179   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  TEAM RECORDS
   2  16  6  29  .345   Pepperdine Waves.... (3) 30 30 32  6-1; 6-1 MPSF
   3  22  8  43  .326   BYU Cougars......... (0) 28 28 30  8-2; 6-2 MPSF
    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.....  3| 20   6  40  .350|  1|  0   1|  0|  5| 0  0  0|  0|  20.0
 3  CHARETTE, Jonathan..  3|  9   3  22  .273|  0|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  2  0|  0|  10.0
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  7   5  17  .118|  0|  0   3|  0|  5| 0  1  1|  0|   7.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  3| 10   2  13  .615|  1|  0   2|  0|  5| 0  1  0|  0|  10.5
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  3|  2   1   3  .333| 50|  0   1|  0|  5| 1  1  3|  0|   3.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  3|  7   5  18  .111|  1|  0   4|  0|  2| 1  2  2|  0|   9.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  2|  0   1   1-1.000|  1|  0   0|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  3|  1   1   3  .000|  0|  0   1|  1|  2| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 18 GOMES, Rodrigo......  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 19 SORENSEN, Trent.....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  3| 56  24 117  .274| 54|  0  15|  1| 33| 2  7  6|  0|  61.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 5.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  19  9  37  .270   Site: SMITH FIELDHOUSE BYU (ELAINE MICHAELIS)
   2  21  8  40  .325   Date: Feb 04, 2006   Attend: 5682   Time: 1H 50M
   3  16  7  40  .225   Referees: TOM GIVEN, MAILE JEWKES, MAETANI / JA; SH