Sept. 24, 1999
STANFORD, Calif. - The University of California women's volleyball team (4-5) fell to the No. 10 ranked Brigham Young Cougars, 3-0 (15-11, 15-8, 16-14), Friday evening in the first match of the Pacific-10-Mountain West Women's Volleyball Challenge at Maples Pavilion on the Stanford campus. The Cougars improve to 7-1 overall.
BYU was led by Caroline Bower and Nina Puikkonen with 12 kills apiece. Bower also led the Cougars with 15 digs. Cal was led by senior Brook Coulter with 14 kills, and junior Alicia Perry had a team-high 11 digs and four service aces.
In the first game, the Bears made an impressive comeback after being down 13-6. Cal rattled off five straight points to get within 13-11 with the help of service aces from sophomore setter Candace McNamee and Perry, a tip by McNamee and a block by freshman Leah Young. But, after a long 13-11 point, BYU was able to put the game away, 15-11. In game one, Coulter had eight kills and Perry two service aces.
Cal started in a hole in the second game, falling behind 5-0. The Bears were able to get within 8-5 on a service ace by freshman Caity Noonan, and later got as close as 12-8 on a service ace by Perry, but that was as close as Cal would get before losing 15-8.
The Bears had their best effort of the match in losing game three, 16-14. Game three saw Cal jump out to its first lead of the match, 3-2, on a kill by Coulter. Cal then got a 6-2 lead on a kill by Perry, but BYU chipped away, making an 8-0 run to take a 10-6 lead. However, the Bears were not done yet as they came back to tie the game, 11-11, on a kill by Noonan. Cal then took a 14-11 lead on a tough serve by McNamee that led to a bad BYU pass, a service ace by McNamee and a kill by Jameka Stevens. Despite being at game point, though, the Bears could not hold their lead against the Cougars, giving up the next five points to lose the game and the match, 16-14.
"One of the things we did accomplish in the match is that we served well (the Bears had nine service aces)," said Cal head coach Rich Feller. "That is one of our main goals is to be relentless in our serving, but offensively we couldn't convert. It is obviously harder to score points against a big team like BYU. We were never able to get in a good rhythm offensively."
Cal will next face Utah in the Bears second match of the Pac-10-Mountain West Challenge Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.