Junior outside hitter April Varner shared team-high honors with 18 kills while also collecting 10 digs for her second double-double of the season in BYU's thrilling come-from-behind win against Air Force on Friday night. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)

COLORADO SPRINGS -- Staging its biggest comeback of the season, the BYU women's volleyball team stormed back from an 0-2 deficit to defeat Air Force 3-2 (20-30, 25-30, 30-25, 30-24, 15-5) Friday night. The Cougars improve their record to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain West Conference, while the Falcons drop to 10-5, 1-1.

For the second consecutive night, everybody but prospective redshirt and backup setter Jenna Judkins played and contributed.

"It was really bleak and things were pretty horrible," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "But we made some adjustments and came through and played great the last three games.

"This was truly a team effort. Everybody contributed and we had a lot of energy on the bench."

The outside hitting duo of Kim Wilson and April Varner paced BYU with 18 kills apiece. Wilson also hit at a .349 clip, and Varner put up 10 digs for her second double-double of the season.

Lexi Brown and Carrie Bowers also hit double-digit kills with 11 each. Brown effort was void of hitting errors as she posted a .550 attack percentage.

The Falcons started the match on fire, and hit a match-high .481 in the first game, followed by a .387 attack percentage in the second game. That proceeded to put the Cougars in a 0-2 hole. Before Friday, BYU was 0-4 this season when it had lost the first two games of a match.

The Cougars awoke in the third game, adjusting to Air Force outside hitter Delavane Diaz, who finished with 26 kills on the night. BYU took the next two games in quick fashion before running away with the fifth and final game.

Lauren Richards continues to be a top all-around force, as she dished out 54 assists to go with seven kills, seven blocks and one ace.

BYU out blocked Air Force 14-11 on the night with Brown and Richards leading the match with seven apiece. Uila Crabbe collected a match-high 14 digs.

"Air Force is a vastly improved team," Lamb said. "They have a lot of weapons and were pretty excited to play us."

The Cougars will have to quickly prepare for an early week match at Weber State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                            The Automated ScoreBook
          BYU Cougars vs Air Force (Oct 03, 2003 at Colorado Springs)
    BYU Cougars            |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VARNER, April.......  5| 18  11  39  .179|  1|  1   3|  1| 10| 0  0  0|  1
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  5|  7   2  10  .500| 54|  1   5|  0|  5| 1  6  1|  2
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  2|  1   2   6 -.167|  0|  0   0|  2|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 8  BOWERS, Carrie......  5| 11   7  21  .190|  3|  2   1|  0|  4| 0  5  0|  0
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  2|  3   1   4  .500|  4|  0   1|  0|  0| 1  0  0|  0
 18 NIELSEN, Laura......  5|  7   0  11  .636|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  5  0|  1
 4  TOGO, Melanie.......  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  1   0|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  5| 18   3  43  .349|  0|  0   2|  2|  6| 0  1  1|  0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  4| 11   0  20  .550|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  7  0|  0
 12 CRABBE, Uila........  5|  0   0   1  .000|  4|  0   0|  1| 14| 0  0  0|  0
 15 CASTILLO, Sahara....  3|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  0|  1| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  1|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 76  26 155  .323| 66|  5  16|  8| 46| 2 24  2|  4
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  14  5  29  .310   GAME SCORES           1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  18  9  41  .220   BYU Cougars......... 20 25 30 30 15  12-4, 3-1 MWC
   3  20  7  38  .342   Air Force........... 30 30 25 24  5  10-5, 1-1 MWC
   4  17  4  34  .382
   5   7  1  13  .462
    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......  5|  2   1   3  .333| 54|  0   2|  0|  4| 0  3  1|  0
 4  SIEFKEN, Carly......  5|  0   0   1  .000|  1|  5   2|  1|  4| 0  0  0|  0
 10 DIAZ, Delavane......  5| 26  11  60  .250|  1|  2   2|  3| 12| 0  2  0|  1
 11 EDMONDS, Brittany...  5|  1   0   4  .250|  0|  1   2|  0|  7| 0  0  1|  0
 13 GALLEGOS, Rebecca...  5|  7   2  12  .417|  0|  0   1|  0|  3| 0  4  0|  0
 23 HAMLETT, Kristin....  5|  8   5  29  .103|  0|  0   2|  0|  2| 1  5  0|  0
 2  BURKE, Jenalee......  5|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  1|  9| 0  0  0|  0
 7  JEFFERSON, Lamecca..  5|  2   5  13 -.231|  1|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  0  1|  0
 8  BENGARD, Lindsay....  1|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
 16 WHITE, Molly........  5| 13   1  20  .600|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 1  4  1|  0
 19 BRYANT, Trier.......  1|  0   1   1-1.000|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0
    TEAM................   |                 |   |       |  0|   |        |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 59  27 144  .222| 57|  8  11|  5| 43| 2 18  4|  1
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  15  2  27  .481   Site: Colorado Springs (Cadet East Gym)
   2  16  4  31  .387   Date: Oct 03, 2003   Attend: 514   Time: 2:15
   3   9  6  28  .107   Referees: KIM PICKERING, DAN APOL
   4  16  9  41  .171
   5   3  6  17 -.176