Cougars notch four-game victory

PROVO — With BYU beating three-time NAIA volleyball champion Cal-Baptist for the second time in as many nights, the Cougars shook season-opening jitters, logged a pair of home victories and still didn't tip much of their hand going into next week's two-match series against defending NCAA champion UCLA.

After sweeping the Lancers in three games Friday, the Cougars (2-0) overcame a third-game stumble beat CBU in four Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse, 30-24, 30-20, 24-30, 30-21.

"This is a good test of what we need to do," said All-American middle blocker Russell Holmes, who finished with 11 kills, a .350 hitting percentage, two solo blocks and two block assists.

He was one of four with double-digit kills and one of four hitting better than .350, joined by freshman Robby Stowell (17 kills at .429), freshman Andrew Stewart (16 and .273), Ivan Perez (13 and .435) and Trent Sorensen (seven and .385).

Like Friday night, the Cougars featured four — and sometimes five — first-year players on the court at once.

"I can't tell they're freshman," said Perez. "Robby is playing tremendous, Andrew is playing great — they're all playing better than we are."

Still, there's room for Cougar improvement going into next weekend's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation openers the third-ranked Bruins.

Comparing Friday to Saturday, BYU logged only half as many blocks and committed substantially more service errors.

The Cougars ran off with Saturday's first two games, outhitting the Lancers .459 to .195 in the opener and .438 to .133 in the second.

However, BYU struggled in the third with its own serving and with receiving from CBU, falling behind by five points for much of the game.

"It was discouraging — we lost the serve/serve-receive battle there," said interim co-head coach Ryan Miller. "If you're not doing those skills well, it's difficult to do well against any team."

After being outhit .192-.105 in the third game, the Cougars cruised to the fourth with a lopsided .379-.038 advantage in hitting percentage.

A night after playing just eight, BYU sent a dozen to the court, with injured players Bryan Stewart (wrist) and Brian Congelliere (knee) making one-game cameos.

Completing a two-game suspension for violating unspecific team rules, the high-flying duo of Yosleyder Cala and Rodnei Santos were also missing from weekend play.

"We may have three or four new starters next week, and UCLA will be watching video of these matches," Millar said. "That's an advantage for us."

Shamsu Awudu had 19 kills and Yakai Sun 12 for the Lancers (0-3), who have opened against No. 1 UC Irvine and No. 2 BYU.