PROVO -- Entering the weekend tied with UCLA for the No. 1 ranking in the nation, the BYU men's volleyball team took another step closer on Saturday to becoming the lone team at the top of the national rankings. After a 3-1 win on Friday--along with a UCLA loss at Long Beach State--the Cougars recorded another 3-1 win over Pepperdine again on Saturday to improve to 15-3 overall, 13-1 in league play.
"I'm happy with how we played," BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. "When we pass the ball well, we have a good chance of siding-out. We have five really good hitters, that's why teams just can't key in on any one person. This match was huge, especially leaving to go play Hawaii next week."
Saturday's victory was the 14th straight for the Cougars, marking the longest active win streak in the nation. It also marks the second longest win streak in the program's 14-year history.
"This was a good measuring stick for us," Peterson added.
Both Joe Hillman and Fernando Pessoa posted career highs with 26 and 24 kills, respectively. Setter Carlos Moreno tallied a season high with 77 assists in leading the Cougars to a second-straight victory over fifth-ranked Pepperdine.
"Carlos set a great match," Peterson said. "He understood that Pepperdine was going to key on our middles and made the necessary adjustments. He made a lot of good plays under pressure.
Fred Winters led the Waves with 27 kills on the night, while Sean Rooney chipped in 17.
In game one, the Cougars got off to a hot start, connecting on their first four attack attempts. The Waves came storming back, going on a 3-0 run to take a 10-9 lead. Pepperdine extended its lead to four points after John Parfitt and John DeWolff tag-teamed to block a Victor Batista attack attempt. After the Waves took a 26-22 lead, the Cougars began to make a run.
After one of Joe Hillman's game-high nine kills, BYU had cut the Waves' lead to just two points. After back-to-back Pepperdine errors, the Cougars evened the score at 28-28. Fred Winters notched one of his team-high 10 kills to give the Waves a 29-28 lead. Pepperdine and BYU traded serves through a total of nine game-point serves for the Waves. Forty-six minutes in to the game, Sean Rooney blocked a Hillman attempt for the game-winning point, giving Pepperdine the 38-36 victory in game one.
After dropping game one, the Cougars came out with something to prove in game two. The Cougars hit .515 on 21-of-33 attempts, while holding the Waves to just 12-of-32 attempts, forcing seven errors. After a 11-11 tie, the Cougars went on a 3-0 run to take a 14-11 lead and never looked back. BYU later extended its lead to six points after a Pepperdine back-row attack error to give the Cougars a 28-22. BYU held their advantage and closed things out after Fernando Pessoa picked up his fifth kill of the game to give the Cougars a 30-24 win.
Trailing 18-20 in game three, the Cougars tied things up at 20-20 after Alleman out-dueled John Mayer at the net. BYU then went on a 10-4 run to take a 29-24 lead after Hillman picked up his 21st kill of the match. The Waves were credited with a block, cutting the BYU lead to 29-25. On the next serve, Hillman recorded his career-high 22nd kill of the night to give BYU a 30-25 win in game three.
In the fourth and deciding game of the match, took a game-high five-point lead after Mayer was called for a ball-handling error. The Waves climbed back to within two after Mayer and Hein teamed up to block a BYU attempt. Batista gave BYU a 27-23 lead with his ninth kill of the night; however, Pepperdine got back to within two,29-27, after Alleman was called for a ball-handling error. Moreno then ended the match dumping the ball over the net to catch the Pepperdine defense off guard.
"After the match I asked the guys if they thought we still needed to improve," Peterson said. "The players agreed we need to keep working to improve and not worry about the standings or the rankings."
The Cougars will pack their bags and head to Hawaii this week. BYU will take on fifth-ranked Hawaii on Thursday, March 18 and again on Saturday, March 20 before a two-match home-stand on March 26 (vs. Lewis) and March 27 (vs. George Mason).
For detailed box score, click the pdf version link above.
Volleyball Box Score
2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
Pepperdine vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (Mar 13, 2004 at Brigham Young Univ.)
Pepperdine | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
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3 HEIN, Andy.......... 4| 7 2 15 .333| 1| 0 2| 0| 1| 1 7 1| 0| 11.5
7 WINTERS, Fred....... 4| 27 10 51 .333| 1| 1 6| 0| 4| 0 3 1| 1| 29.5
8 DE WOLFF, Arist..... 4| 2 1 6 .167| 1| 2 3| 0| 7| 1 2 1| 0| 6.0
11 MAYER, John......... 4| 4 4 10 .000| 58| 1 3| 0| 5| 1 4 1| 0| 8.0
12 ROONEY, Sean........ 4| 17 2 46 .326| 1| 0 4| 0| 5| 0 1 0| 0| 17.5
16 PARFITT, John....... 4| 12 2 19 .526| 1| 0 0| 0| 3| 0 3 1| 1| 13.5
9 KA, James........... 4| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 0| 0| 3| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
14 HULSE, Tom.......... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0| 0.5
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Totals.............. 4| 69 21 147 .327| 65| 4 18| 0| 28| 3 21 5| 2| 86.5
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 23 4 42 .452 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 4 TEAM RECORDS
2 12 7 32 .156 Pepperdine.......... 38 24 25 27 11-6,7-6 MPSF
3 18 7 40 .275 BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 36 30 30 30 15-3,13-1 MPSF
4 16 3 33 .394
BRIGHAM YOUNG | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
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3 BURKE, Michael...... 4| 11 3 20 .400| 1| 0 0| 0| 3| 1 3 2| 0| 13.5
5 MORENO, Carlos...... 4| 1 1 6 .000| 77| 0 3| 0| 5| 1 4 0| 0| 4.0
11 HILLMAN, Joe........ 4| 26 6 46 .435| 1| 0 3| 0| 8| 0 1 0| 0| 26.5
12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan... 4| 13 4 24 .375| 1| 0 3| 2| 6| 2 2 1| 0| 16.0
17 PESSOA, Fernando.... 4| 24 7 37 .459| 1| 0 4| 0| 12| 0 1 0| 0| 24.5
18 BATISTA, Victor..... 4| 9 2 14 .500| 0| 0 5| 0| 1| 0 2 2| 0| 10.0
6 FERRE, Aaron........ 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
14 NEILSON, Rob........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn..... 4| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 2| 10| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
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Totals.............. 4| 84 23 147 .415| 82| 0 18| 4| 45| 4 13 5| 0| 94.5
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 23 8 47 .319 Site: Brigham Young Univ. (Smith Fieldhouse)
2 21 4 33 .515 Date: Mar 13, 2004 Attend: 2925 Time: 2H 29M
3 19 5 33 .424 Referees: BURT FULLER, TOM GIVEN
4 21 6 34 .441