By Matthew Montague
It was two freshmen who helped the volleyball team pick up two big wins over the weekend.
With several key players injured freshman middle blocker Erin Webb and outside hitter Kim Wilson both had big games on the road, as the team won both matches this weekend.
The Cougars knocked off New Mexico and Air Force and improved their record to 11-15 overall and 6-5 in the Mountain West Conference.
BYU head coach Karen Lamb decided to give junior middle blocker Carrie Bowers a little rest on this road trip because of the pain and injuries she has been playing through.
“I felt it was important to rest Carrie this weekend,” Lamb said. “And Erin did a nice job of filling in for her this weekend.”
Earlier in the season Bowers suffered a stress fracture in her left foot and the injury caused other problems to her foot.
Bowers had played in every single game, before sitting out this road trip. Webb played in place of Bowers and was stellar.
On Friday against New Mexico the Cougars came out aggressive and strong to take early control of the match.
Webb gave the Cougars a spark as she led the team with a career high eight blocks on the night and added nine kills with an impressive .444 hitting percentage.
“We flat out played well tonight,” Lamb said. “With Carrie sitting out combined with all the injuries we have there wasn”t a lot of room for error. But we played well as a team and everybody contributed to the win.”
In game one BYU had 18 kills and a team hitting percentage of .324.
The Cougars” defense rescued them in game two.
While the offense struggled, hitting only .200 for the game, the defense responded by holding the Lobos to a -.207 attack percentage.
The Cougar offense returned in game three and BYU went on to win the match 30-25, 30-19 and 30-22.
Wilson continues to lead the Cougars” offensive attack as she recorded a match-high 14 kills to go with three digs and two blocks.
Wilson has been starting in place of sophomore outside hitter April Varner.
Varner went down with a sprained ankle in practice two weeks ago and has not been able to play since Oct. 23.
Since the injury to Varner, Wilson has picked up her play and has led BYU in kills in each of its last three matches.
Junior setter Karina Puikkonen had another solid overall night as she distributed a match-high 41 assists to go with six blocks and three digs. She also had seven kills with no attack errors to hit .875.
Sophomore outside hitter Lindsey Metcalf finished the night with 11 kills and hit .444 while posting match-highs with seven digs and two aces.
Junior middle blocker Laura Nielsen continues to be a solid force for the Cougars as she hit .500 and tallied up seven kills.
“It was a total team effort tonight,” Lamb said. “We made a few too many service errors, but I can”t complain. Everything seemed to go our way tonight.”
The Cougars carried their solid play over to Saturday night where they defeated the Air Force Academy in four games, 33-35, 30-24, 30-25, 30-24.
Senior outside hitter Allison Larson had a monster night for the Cougars as she had career-highs with 18 kills and a .583 attack percentage, while also recording four digs and three blocks.
“We seem to have a different player step up and come up big for us,” Lamb said. “Tonight we had a handful of players that did well, but Allison really came up with some big plays.”
The Falcons came out determined to knock off the Cougars, as they did earlier this season.
Air Force played a phenomenal first game, hitting a team high .378 and 21 kills.
BYU bounced back in game two to take the momentum from the Falcons and went on to win the match.
Puikkonen guided the Cougar attack by dishing out 61 assists on the night, while managing to record six kills, seven digs and eight blocks.
In their only match this week, the Cougars host No. 22 Utah Friday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.
