Michael Burke led the Cougars with 16 kills, five digs, and five blocks in their season opening win over Lewis University in Honolulu at the Outrigger Tournament. (Photo by Mark Philbrick/BYU Photo)

HONOLULU -- The BYU Cougars opened the 2005 season with a 3-1 (30-26, 30-32, 34-32, 32-30) win over the Lewis University Flyers in the opening match of the Outrigger Tournament Wednesday.

While the Cougars came away with the win, coach Tom Peterson said his team needs to play better and eliminate the errors to become a better team and continue winning.

"Of course you want to win on opening night," Peterson said. "It isn't what we can focus on though. We didn't play well but we gained valuable experience. It's good to play really good teams to know where we're at."

After winning the first game 30-26, the Cougars dropped the second in a close one, 30-32. The third and fourth were also close but BYU made enough plays to come out with the win.

Both teams struggled, making various errors and hitting for low percentages. BYU hit .236 (66-32-144) on the night while Lewis hit .222 (54-26-126).

Senior middle blocker Michael Burke led the way for the Cougars, registering 16 kills, five digs, and five blocks. Junior outside hitter Victor Batista hit for a match-high 18 kills and recorded seven digs.

In a lineup that featured various new starters, two players stood out in their debuts as starters. Freshman middle blocker Russell Holmes recorded nine kills while recording a team high .500 hitting percentage (9-2-14). He also added a service ace and two blocks. Junior setter Rob Neilson, who saw action off the bench in 2004, contributed 51 assists, five kills, and seven digs.

The Cougars also received a much-needed spark off the bench from Senior Casey Patterson, who came in and registered six kills and six digs. Peterson said that his biggest contribution was his solid passing, an area where the Cougars struggled all night.

Jeff Soler was the high man for the Flyers as he recorded 15 kills and eight digs. Jared Dayton and Enrique Escalante each registered 12 kills while J.J. Castellano had a match-high 11 digs.

Peterson said he hopes his team will come ready to play Thursday against a very good Penn State team.

"Penn State is an experienced team and they aren't going to make the same mistakes that Lewis made," Peterson said. "We need to play much better than we did tonight if we hope to be competitive."

The Cougars will be back in action on Thursday at 4 p.m. (HST) as they take on Penn State. Lewis will play Hawai'i, the hosts of the tournament, at 7 p.m. (HST).

To view the detailed box score, click on the pdf version above.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
            Lewis vs Brigham Young Univ. (Jan 05, 2005 at Honolulu)
    Lewis                  |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  Escalante, Enrique..  4| 12   2  25  .400|  1|  2   4|  0|  2| 0  4  1|  0|  16.0
 4  Dayton, Jared.......  4| 12   8  27  .148|  1|  3   5|  1|  3| 0  3  0|  0|  16.5
 7  Soler, Jeff.........  4| 15   3  31  .387|  3|  2   2|  3|  8| 1  2  0|  0|  19.0
 8  Mueller, Matt.......  4|  9   9  22  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  8| 0  4  0|  0|  11.0
 14 Sisk, Brandon.......  4|  3   0   6  .500| 43|  0   2|  0|  3| 0  1  0|  4|   3.5
 16 Pochopien, Greg.....  4|  3   4  15 -.067|  0|  0   5|  0|  0| 1  4  1|  0|   6.0
 2  Kyner, David........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 3  Castellano, J.J.....  4|  0   0   0  .000|  1|  0   0|  3| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 22 China, Michael......  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  2|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 54  26 126  .222| 49|  7  21|  9| 35| 2 18  2|  4|  72.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13  4  21  .429   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  TEAM RECORDS
   2  15  6  37  .243   Lewis............... (1) 26 32 32 30  0-1
   3  13 10  37  .081   Brigham Young Univ.. (3) 30 30 34 32  1-0
   4  13  6  31  .226
    Brigham Young Univ.    |     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| 16   4  32  .375|  0|  1   4|  0|  5| 2  3  0|  1|  20.5
 8  PEREZ, Ivan.........  2|  3   4   9 -.111|  1|  1   2|  1|  2| 0  1  0|  0|   4.5
 11 HOLMES, Russell.....  4|  9   2  14  .500|  1|  1   2|  0|  0| 0  2  0|  0|  11.0
 14 NEILSON, Rob........  4|  5   2   7  .429| 51|  0   2|  0|  7| 2  1  0|  1|   7.5
 15 BATISTA, Victor.....  4| 18  12  42  .143|  1|  1   4|  0|  7| 0  2  0|  1|  20.0
 17 EVANS, Taylor.......  4|  8   5  25  .120|  2|  4   3|  0|  4| 0  0  0|  0|  12.0
 2  STEWART, Bryan......  1|  1   0   1 1.000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 4  CONGELLIERE, Robert.  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   1|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 6  HEYES, Matt.........  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0|   1.0
 7  ROWLEY, Brian.......  4|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  0   0|  2|  7| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 9  PATTERSON, Casey....  3|  6   3  13  .231|  2|  0   3|  1|  6| 0  2  0|  1|   7.0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  3|   |        |   |   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  4| 66  32 144  .236| 59|  9  23|  7| 39| 4 11  0|  4|  84.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  16  6  32  .312   Site: Honolulu (Stan Sheriff Center)
   2  14 10  37  .108   Date: Jan 05, 2005   Attend:     Time: 2:22
   3  16  8  38  .211   Referees: Dixon Chun, Dan Hironaka
   4  20  8  37  .324   Length of Games - 0:26/0:30/0:35/0:32
                        11th Annual Outrigger Volleyball Invitational
                        LEWIS "Flyers" vs. BYU "Cougars"