University of Washington
BYU
BYU Ends Huskies Season With 3-2 Win
December 01, 2007 | Volleyball
Dec. 1, 2007
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Box Score
Post-Game Press Conferences: Washington | BYU
SEATTLE - Behind a career-high 22 kills from Rachel Dyer, unranked Brigham Young defeated No. 6 Washington in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars (23-7) advance to the Sweet 16 and regional play in University Park, Pa., and will face Middle Tennessee State. The Huskies finish their season at 27-4.
BYU took game one, 30-28, before the Huskies won games two and three, 30-28, 30-25. The Cougars then took the last two games, 30-22, 15-13, to stun the Huskies and the crowd of 2,471 at Bank of America Arena. It was Washington's first ever loss at home in the postseason.
Stevie Mussie led the Huskies with 35 kills, which was both a UW postseason record and a career-high, and hit .403 on the night. Christal Morrison added 14 kills and 13 digs for her 13th double-double of the year.
The Huskies opened up a 3-1 lead in the final game but a kill by Dyer and a service ace by Bryn Porter tied it up at 3-3. The game was tied six times from there as the crowd stood during the entire game in anticipation.
BYU strung together three straight points for a 12-9 lead before Washington got to within one at 13-12 on a kill by Mussie. Dyer had a kill for BYU and then Mussie followed that with a kill of her own to put the score at 14-13. Chelsea Goodman, who had her 23rd double-double of the year, then put down a kill through the Huskies back line to give the Cougars the upset victory.
"It's tough one, a tough match," said UW head coach Jim McLaughlin. "I thought BYU, they played well. I thought their setter (Amy Schlauder) did a good job of getting the quick going and that put pressure on us. Then I thought they blocked well, they know how to do that and they did a better job than we did blocking.
"I told these guys this thing is going to hurt and it's going to hurt for awhile, mostly because of the way that we go about things. They give everything that they have everyday."
After BYU led early in the first game, 4-3, the Huskies took control and opened up a five point lead on two different occasions, once at 14-9 and then again at 18-13. The Cougars scored five straight points, though, to tie it up. Washington held its last lead at 22-21 before four straight Cougars points gave them a 25-22 lead.
The Huskies rallied to tie it at 26-26 but BYU countered once again, this time scoring three straight points to take it to game point. Washington scored back-to-back points on a service error and an attack error by the Cougars, but a kill by Annie Pinegar gave BYU the win.
Washington outhit BYU in the first game, .344 to .306, but the Cougars held a slight advantage in kills (18 to 16) and sideout percentage (51 percent to 48 percent).
In the second game BYU broke free from a 5-5 tie, scoring seven of the next 10 points for a 12-8 lead. The Huskies tied it up at 14-14 on a kill by Mussie, but the Cougars went back out in front by five, 21-16.
Two kills by Morrison, another by Mussie and an attack error by BYU's Erica Lott brought Washington to within one at 21-20. The Huskies went up by a point, 24-23, on Jenna Hagglund's second service ace of the evening, before BYU scored three of the next four points to take a 26-25 lead.
With BYU leading 27-26, Mussie put down a kill to tie it up and then back-to-back attack errors's by Goodman put the Huskies up 29-27. After a kill by the Cougars Ashton Hansen, Mussie finished the game off with her 14th kill of the night.
Mussie continued to stay hot in game three, tallying 13 of the Huskies 19 kills and hitting .524. With the Huskies up 17-10, Mussie racked up four kills in a row, pushing Washington's lead to 21-10.
BYU rallied, scoring 10 of the next 15 points to trail by just four, 25-21, but three more kills from Mussie, including one for the game's final point, proved to be too much for the Cougars to overcome.
The two teams were tied four times during the first 16 points of game four, the last coming at 8-8, but from there the Cougars scored six straight points and led the rest of the way. Washington got to within four at 22-18 on a kill by Swarbrick, but once again BYU had an answer, scoring three straight points to essentially seal up the win.
The Huskies were seeking their fourth straight trip to the Final Four, but couldn't advance out of the first weekend of NCAA Tournament action for the first time since 2002. Five UW seniors closed out their career on Saturday night, including Morrison, Mussie, Ashley Aratani, Alesha Deesing and Alison Simmons.
The win by BYU was their 12th straight over Washington dating back to 1982. The Cougars had never lost to the Huskies coming into tonight's match, but they were still considered the underdog.
"I sure hope so," said BYU head coach Jason Watson when asked if he considered the win an upset. "I think beating Washington at home is a challenge. Its been done once this season, by Stanford. We looked at it that way and we wanted our athletes to be motivated in that way."
Five BYU players finished in double-figures in kills, led by Dyer's 22. Erica Lott added 17, Goodman had 16, Hanson had 13 and Porter finished with 10. Goodman added a match-high 20 digs.
NOTES: Washington was 13-0 at home in the postseason before tonight's loss ... Swarbrick finished with 13 kills and hit .435 ... BYU hit .337 (81-26-163) and Washington hit .269 (78-29-182) ... BYU had 13 team blocks to just eight for the UW, marking just the seventh time all season an opponent finished with more blocks than the Huskies ... Hagglund had 71 assists, while Schlauder had 71 for BYU ... Morrison added three aces and led the Huskies with five total blocks.
