PROVO -- In its Mountain West Conference opener, the BYU women's volleyball team was defeated by Colorado State 30-20, 30-20, 30-26 in the Smith Fieldhouse Friday night. The loss drops the Cougars to 9-4 overall and 0-1 in MWC play, while the Rams improve to 10-4, 1-0.
BYU was overwhelmed by an energized CSU squad that took advantage of every Cougar error.
"Colorado State played a great match and was definitely the best team on the court tonight," BYU coach Karen Lamb said. "But we helped them to the win. They did a nice job blocking, but it wasn't their blocking as much as it was our hitting."
The first game set the tone for the match, as the Rams jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead that was facilitated by six Cougar attack errors. BYU's 10 attack errors combined with CSU's six team blocks paved the way for the Rams, despite only 11 kills. After three early hitting errors, Carrie Bowers rebounded to lead BYU with three kills. After falling behind early, the Cougars traded points with the Rams, who led by as many as 10 points in the game.
In contrast to the first game, the Cougars and Rams were locked in a close second game to start. The two teams would begin the game trading points, but consecutive kills by Andreya Downs and Becky Sarauer put CSU up 10-7, before kills by Lindsy Lewis-Hartsock, April Varner and Lindsey Metcalf pulled BYU up to an 11-11 tie. Then the Rams started to pull away on the strength of a 4-0 run, started by a Katie Jo Shirley kill, to go up for good. After hitting .000 in the first game, the Cougars improved to .136 in the second game, but were outshone by CSU, which hit a match-high .383 in the game.
"Our passing was off tonight," Lamb said. "Without solid passing, we lost some of our options. There are great expectations here, but the reality is we're a young team and we're still learning to play with each other."
The Cougars never held the lead in the third game, but continually fought back to keep it close. The Rams were led by seven kills from Shirley, six kills from Sarauer and five kills from Tess Rogers to keep CSU ahead of BYU.
On the night, the Cougars were led by seven kills from Kim Wilson and six kills each from Varner and Metcalf. Metcalf also tied for a match-high with five blocks. Lindsey Lewis-Hartsock tallied five kills with four blocks, while hitting .444.
CSU was led by Shirley and Sarauer with 16 kills each.
BYU will be in action again on Saturday as it takes on Wyoming at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.
Volleyball Box Score
2003 BYU Women's Volleyball Stats
Colorado State vs BYU Cougars (Sep 26, 2003 at Provo, Ut)
Colorado State | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
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4 ROGERS, Tess........ 3| 11 3 20 .400| 0| 2 1| 0| 4| 0 1 0| 0
9 COURTNEY, Melissa... 3| 2 2 7 .000| 46| 0 4| 0| 7| 2 2 0| 0
10 SARAUER, Becky...... 3| 16 3 35 .371| 0| 0 6| 0| 3| 0 3 0| 0
11 SHIRLEY, Katie Jo... 3| 16 5 31 .355| 1| 1 0| 0| 4| 2 1 0| 0
15 FRECH, Bri.......... 3| 5 1 10 .400| 2| 0 2| 0| 11| 0 5 0| 0
17 DOWNS, Andreya...... 3| 3 3 12 .000| 2| 0 1| 0| 0| 1 0 0| 0
1 HOFF, Brittany...... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0
14 KERR, Lindsey....... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1| 0 0| 1| 11| 0 0 0| 0
16 KARLIK, Kristen..... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0
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Totals.............. 3| 53 17 115 .313| 52| 3 15| 1| 42| 5 12 0| 0
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 11.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 11 4 29 .241 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 21 3 47 .383 Colorado State...... 30 30 30 10-4
3 21 10 39 .282 BYU Cougars......... 20 20 26 9-4
BYU Cougars | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE
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3 VARNER, April....... 2| 6 3 21 .143| 1| 0 1| 1| 3| 0 0 0| 0
5 RICHARDS, Lauren.... 3| 1 4 10 -.300| 25| 0 4| 0| 10| 0 2 1| 3
6 METCALF, Lindsey.... 3| 6 3 17 .176| 1| 0 1| 1| 3| 0 5 1| 0
8 BOWERS, Carrie...... 3| 4 4 18 .000| 0| 0 2| 1| 4| 0 1 0| 0
14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy.... 3| 5 1 9 .444| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 1 3 0| 0
18 NIELSEN, Laura...... 3| 4 1 13 .231| 0| 1 0| 0| 0| 0 3 1| 0
2 KIHOLM, Mandi....... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0
4 TOGO, Melanie....... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 0
7 WILSON, Kim......... 2| 7 4 17 .176| 0| 0 2| 0| 4| 0 0 0| 0
12 CRABBE, Uila........ 3| 0 0 1 .000| 1| 0 0| 0| 10| 0 0 0| 0
15 CASTILLO, Sahara.... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0
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Totals.............. 3| 33 20 106 .123| 28| 1 11| 3| 37| 1 14 3| 3
TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 8.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 10 10 34 .000 Site: Provo, Ut (Smith Field House)
2 13 7 44 .136 Date: Sep 26, 2003 Attend: 1464 Time: 1h 35m
3 10 3 28 .250 Referees: PATSY MALTA, MYLIE JEWKES, KAREN MARSHALL