PROVO -- In the first match of its final home stand, the No. 1 BYU men's volleyball team tallied another 3-0 win over USC, securing the outright MPSF regular-season title. The game scores were 30-25, 30-27, 30-25.
"Teams are getting very good at the end of the season and whoever is hot is probably going to win the national championship," BYU head coach Tom Peterson. "We have to be a hot team, and we can't be a team who just plays in spurts."
Junior middle blocker Mike Burke hit a sizzling .923 percentage for match -- a career high -- to help the Cougars to a 22-4 overall record and 19-2 in league play. The Trojans dropped to a 6-22 overall record, 4-17 in the MPSF.
"I think Mike's (Burke) arm and shoulder were feeling better tonight and I think that helped his play," Peterson said. "He's able to swing his arm a little more freely without pain, or fear of that pain."
Burke added a match-high five blocks to his career performance, while hitting 12 kills on 13 attempts. Seniors Jonathan Alleman and Joe Hillman also posted 15 and 11 kills, respectively, while combining for seven blocks. Setter Carlos Moreno racked up 49 assists in the win and supplied two kills on three attempts.
The Cougars finished the match with a significant blocking advantage, 14.5 team blocks to the Trojans' four. BYU out-hit its opponent for a .453 percentage, while USC closed the match hitting .202. One area the Cougars did struggle with during the match was serving errors -- 20 total for the match -- including 16 through games one and two.
"We had a goal tonight to serve harder," Peterson said. "We tried to emphasize it in practice this week, but we weren't able to keep our serves in. But one good thing was we were able to play all of the seniors tonight."
Jeff Bailey and Blake Tippett both finished the match with 11 kills. Bailey hit a solid .526 percentage and Tippett added a match-high eight digs. Setter J.T. Gimour paced the Trojans with 36 assists for the match.
In game one, both teams traded scores, tying seven times in the beginning. After a USC block by Bailey and J. T. Gilmour to tie the score at 12, the Cougars charged ahead off kills by Burke and Hillman. The Trojans stayed close behind at 22-20 after a BYU hitting error, but senior Fernando Pessoa and Moreno added kills to take the lead at 27-23. Two more kills by Alleman helped the Cougars secure game one for a 30-25 win.
Game two was a different story as the USC team came alive, taking an early lead at 12-9. A block by Chris McKniff and Tippett increased the lead to 15-11 and helped to maintain a three-point advantage over BYU. Sophomore Taylor Evans subbed in at 18-23 to give the Cougars a lift, registering back-to-back kills. Three consecutive blocks by Burke helped to cap a 4-0 run and eventually tie the game at 26. Three USC errors gave BYU the advantage and a serving error finished game two at 30-27 for the Cougars.
"All of these teams are good enough to get momentum going, and you can't relax like we did in the second game tonight," Peterson said. "Luckily we turned it on, but we can't rely on that against good teams."
Pessoa took charge in game three to begin a 5-0 run for BYU, increasing the lead to 16-11. Two kills by Danny Newman and one by Tippett helped the Trojans stay close at 22-19. But three straight points by Alleman, two kills and a block, gave the Cougars a 27-21 lead. Peterson was able to sub in sophomore Steffin Rangel and setter Rob Neilson to finish off game three at 30-25.
The two teams square off on Saturday, Apr. 17 for a 7 p.m. match at the Smith Fieldhouse. Saturday's match will recognize the seven seniors on the squad and their parents. Local club teams can attend at a group rate of $25. The match will also be available with live stats found on the schedule.
To view the detailed boxscore, click the pdf version link above.
Volleyball Box Score
2004 BYU Men's Volleyball Stats
Southern California vs BRIGHAM YOUNG (Apr 15, 2004 at Brigham Young Univ.)
Southern California | 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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5 BAILEY, Jeff........ 3| 11 1 19 .526| 0| 1 3| 0| 1| 0 1 0| 0| 12.5
6 GILMOUR, J.T........ 3| 1 2 4 -.250| 36| 0 1| 0| 3| 0 1 0| 0| 1.5
7 TIPPETT, Blake...... 3| 11 7 27 .148| 0| 0 6| 0| 8| 0 2 0| 0| 12.0
9 LEAL, Pedro......... 3| 5 4 14 .071| 0| 0 3| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 5.0
14 GRANGEIRO, Joao..... 3| 6 4 15 .133| 0| 0 1| 0| 4| 0 1 0| 0| 6.5
16 BURDEN, Evan........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
18 MCKNIFF, Chris...... 3| 5 3 16 .125| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 3 1| 0| 6.5
19 NEWMAN, Danny....... 1| 2 0 4 .500| 1| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 2.0
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Totals.............. 3| 41 21 99 .202| 37| 1 14| 0| 18| 0 8 1| 0| 46.0
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 4.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 9 7 32 .062 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 15 6 31 .290 Southern California. 25 27 25 6-22, 4-17
3 17 8 36 .250 BRIGHAM YOUNG....... 30 30 30 23-4, 19-2
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...... 3| 12 0 13 .923| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 5 0| 0| 14.5
5 MORENO, Carlos...... 3| 2 0 3 .667| 49| 0 3| 0| 4| 0 2 0| 1| 3.0
7 GORNY, Chris........ 2| 3 1 10 .200| 1| 0 3| 0| 0| 1 1 0| 0| 4.5
11 HILLMAN, Joe........ 3| 11 1 20 .500| 0| 0 2| 0| 3| 1 2 0| 0| 13.0
12 ALLEMAN, Jonathan... 3| 15 3 23 .522| 1| 0 3| 1| 7| 1 3 0| 1| 17.5
17 PESSOA, Fernando.... 3| 8 4 17 .235| 1| 0 4| 0| 5| 2 2 0| 0| 11.0
2 RANGEL, Steffin..... 1| 1 1 3 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0| 1.5
8 HYTE, David......... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 1| 0| 0.0
10 CARPENTER, Cory..... 1| 1 1 3 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 3 0| 0| 2.5
14 NEILSON, Rob........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 1| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 1| 0.0
15 OLMSTEAD, Shawn..... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 7| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
20 EVANS, TAYLOR....... 3| 2 1 3 .333| 0| 0 2| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 2.0
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Totals.............. 3| 55 12 95 .453| 53| 0 20| 1| 28| 5 19 1| 3| 69.5
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 19 6 38 .342 Site: Brigham Young Univ. (Smith Fieldhouse)
2 19 3 30 .533 Date: Apr 15, 2004 Attend: 1504 Time: 1 H 45 M
3 17 3 27 .519 Referees: Les Calles, Tom Given