By Roxanne Truesdell
In the final game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men''s volleyball tournament, No. 1 BYU battled No. 2 Long Beach State in a four-game match. After losing the first game 27-30, BYU came back and won the next three 32-30, 30-28 and 30-24 to claim the title.
With 3,175 fans in attendance at the Smith Fieldhouse, the Cougars improved to 27-4 overall, 20-2 in MPSF play and automatically advanced to the NCAA Final Four in Hawaii this weekend. The NCAA tournament seeds were released Sunday after The Daily Universe went to press.
'I don''t want to say how excited we are,' BYU head coach Tom Peterson said. 'This puts us exactly where we want to be. I don''t want to get too excited because I know Long Beach is right now saying that BYU''s home court and crowd is the hardest place to play. They are looking forward to seeing us in the finals.'
The Cougars hit an impressive .422 for the match, connecting on 72 of 135 attempts with only 15 errors. Joe Hillman led BYU with 19 kills, followed by 15 kills by Jonathan Alleman and 14 kills for both Fernando Pessoa and Michael Burke. Burke hit with the most efficiency, killing 15 of 19 attempts with no errors, a .737 hitting percentage. Carlos Moreno, who was named MPSF tournament MVP after the match, had 66 assists and five blocks. Victor Batista led the Cougars with eight blocks.
'Carlos was able to set anybody,' Peterson said. 'I thought Joe Hillman had a great night. He was key for us. When we are able to go to our right side a bunch, not just our left side, that''s huge and we are really good.'
In game two, BYU was consistently behind but fought to stay within a couple points. Hillman did all he could at the end by contributing kill after kill. These kills made up for what BYU lacked in serving. They committed a total of 12 service errors in the first two games. Fortunately for the Cougars, they were able to slide by the 49ers and beat them in Game 2 to even the match at one game each.
'We started slow and then we got into our rhythm,' Moreno said. 'When we get into our rhythm nothing can stop us. Coming together after each play and saying supportive things towards one another is key. We can''t get frustrated, we are a team.'
Game three was another battle that had BYU behind until the very end of the game. A kill by Alleman tied the game at 23-23. With Moreno getting the serves in, Chris Gorny and Batista were able to throw up some big blocks, leading to a 26-23 advantage for BYU. Key errors on the 49ers'' part enabled the Cougars to win 30-28.
'Volleyball is a game of momentum,' Pessoa said. 'We have a great ability to come back because we never give up. We don''t like to rely on having to come back but the team knows that if we are within a few points of the other team, we still have a chance.'
In game four, BYU controlled the ball, got an early lead and never looked back. The Cougars were able to cut back on service errors, committing only two in game four and hitting a .464 percentage compared to Long Beach State''s .278.
Other Cougars joining Moreno on the MPSF All-Tournament team included Pessoa, Hillman and libero Shawn Olmstead. The 49ers'' Budinger and Hildebrand were also named to the all-tournament team, as well as Pepperdine''s Sean Rooney.
'I''ll admit the last few games offensively were very, very exciting to watch,' Peterson said. 'It''s another game when we go to Hawaii. We have to play even better, and for sure play more consistent.'