PROVO, Utah -- PROVO, Utah (Jan. 14, 2000) The eighth-ranked BYU men's volleyball team continued its winning ways on Friday, grabbing a 3-0 win over 11th-ranked Lewis University in front of 2,463 fans in the Smith Fieldhouse. The win marked the Cougars 31st straight victory in the Fieldhouse, dating back to March, 28, 1997.
Four Cougars registered double figures in kills, including Mike Wall, who recorded a match-high 18 kills on 31 swings. Casey Jennings hit .444 on the night, connecting on 15-of-27 attempts with just three errors. The Cougar defense held Lewis to a .136 average at the net, forcing 38 errors on 132 attempts. Scott Bunker led the BYU defense, recording 10 blocks of the Cougars 33 blocks, while Brad Goldston picked up a match-high 12 digs.
"Lewis was playing at a big disadvantage," BYU head coach Carl McGown said. "They were missing one of their top players with a groin strain and their libero, who has a broken hand. I think our win tonight was more about them, then it was about us. Our blocking and our quick hitters were a vital part of our game tonight, but Lewis was playing without two of their top players. I can't imagine tomorrow night will be like tonight."
In game one, the two teams traded serves throughout most of the match until the Flyers started to pull away on a BYU hitting error, giving Lewis the 10-8 lead. Bunker helped turned things around for BYU when one of his five kills ended a two-point Lewis scoring streak. The 6-5 middle blocker took advantage of the sideout by dropping his next serve for one of the Cougars' two aces in the game. BYU tied things at 10-10 on a Lewis hitting error and then again at 11-11 on a Wall's dink. BYU ended the game after the Flyers committed three hitting errors, including an attempt by Eduardo Quinones that sailed long to end the 45-minute serving marathon. All totaled, the two teams traded serves over 60 times during the game. Quinones led Lewis with seven kills, while Wall collected a game-high nine kills. Pitzak teamed with Bunker to record seven on the Cougars‚ 10 blocks, while Joaquin Acosta tallied a game-high six digs.
Game two was much of the same. The two teams rallied to a 3-3 tie before Bunker and Acosta teamed on a block to take the 4-3 lead. Lewis rallied back to tie things up at 5-5 on two straight BYU errors, but Casey Jennings ended the Flyers run with a monster block on Malcom Nieves. Jennings and Olsen teamed on the very next play to block a second Nieves attempt, giving the Cougars a 7-5 lead. BYU would carry the momentum to a 13-6 lead before Lewis would call its second timeout of the game in an attempt to end the BYU rally. Bryan Johnwick ended the Lewis scoring drought on a kill off a quick set, but it was short-lived as the Cougars went on to a 14-8 lead before Pitzak picked up his fourth block of the match to end game-two, 15-8. The Cougar defense held Lewis to a -.097 hitting percentage in the game, recording 11 blocks, eight digs and forcing 13 hitting hitting errors.
In the final game of the match, BYU rolled to a 10-5 lead behind the offensive attack of both Wall and Acosta. Olsen's block gave the Cougars a 12-6 lead and the momentum to cruise to a 15-6 win on a Wall kill to end the match.
The two teams will face-off again tomorrow night, Saturday, Jan. 15th, in the Smith Fieldhouse in the final match of the weekend series. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (MST).
Short Box Score (Final)
No. 11 Lewis vs No. 8 BYU (Jan 14, 2000)
No. 8 BYU def. No. 11 Lewis 15-11,15-8,15-6
Lewis (0-1) (Kills-aces-blocks) - QUINONES, Eduardo 14-0-2; NIEVES,
Malcom 12-0-0; JOHNWICK, Bryan 10-0-2; AVILES, Paul 9-0-2; GETZ, Jeff
8-0-1; BINDON, Grant 2-0-0; DeJESUS, Reinaldo 1-1-1; DENIZ, Edgardo
0-0-1; Totals 56-1-7.0. (Assists) - DENIZ, Edgardo 52. (Dig leaders) -
QUINONES, Eduardo 9; GETZ, Jeff 5
BYU (2-0) (Kills-aces-blocks) - WALL, Mike 18-0-3; JENNINGS, Casey
15-0-4; ACOSTA, Joaquin 13-0-5; BUNKER, Scott 12-2-10; OLSEN, Matt
7-1-5; MAYOL, Jaime 1-0-0; PITZAK, Chris 1-0-5; Totals 67-3-16.5.
(Assists) - PITZAK, Chris 62. (Dig leaders) - GOLDSTON, Brad 12;
JENNINGS, Casey 8
Site: Provo, Utah (Smith Fieldhouse)
Date: Jan 14, 2000 Attend: 2463 Time: 1:55
Referees: Les calles, Tom Given, DJM;RG;MA;ST;EK;
The BYU wins marks the 31st straight in the Smith
Fieldhouse, dating back to March 28, 1997.