Sept. 27, 2002
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State, with probably its finest overall performance of the season, defeated Brigham Young, 3-0 (30-16, 30-17, 30-15) Friday night in Peterson Gym. The win improved the Aztecs to 10-7 on the year while the Cougars dropped to 5-9. It was the opening Mountain West Conference match of the season for both squads and was San Diego State's first win over BYU since 1996, breaking an nine-match Cougar win streak in the series.
SDSU hit .378 as a team over the three games, one point shy of the season-best .379 percentage recorded against San Francisco earlier this month. The 48 points allowed in the match was the fewest by the Aztecs this season, far better than the team's previous low of 61 points (on two occasions).
While Brigham Young hit just .087 for the match, the big advantage for the Aztecs was defensively at the net where they recorded 16 team blocks compared to only two by the Cougars. Senior Nicole Akporiaye led the Aztecs with 11 block assists while teammate Megan Schauermann had seven. SDSU also fared well from the service line, recording 12 aces to BYU's three.
Offensively, BYU's Karina Puikkonen led all players with 11 kills. She moved to an attack position for the second and third games of the match after setting in game one.
Zlatina Anguelova had 10 kills for the Aztecs while Rochelle Currier and Aspen McPartland totaled nine and eight respectively.
The first game of the match saw San Diego State win the first six points and race out to an 11-3 lead. The teams traded points before the Cougars put together a run to close within four at 18-14. But the Aztecs won 12 of the final 16 points, including the final eight in a row to win it. Anguelova led SDSU with five kills while Akporiaye and Schauermann contributed five and three blocks respectively.
In game two, San Diego State ran off seven straight points midway through contest to take a 20-12 lead. During that run, Robyn Gregg had three of her match high four service aces. BYU's Carrie Bowers had four kills while Anguelova and McPartland tallied three apiece for SDSU.
San Diego State put together another run early in game three, this time winning seven consecutive points behind the a serving of Sara Engstrom and hitting of Rochelle Currier. Currier finished the game with four kills with McPartland serving up three kills and three blocks.
San Diego State continues Mountain West Conference action on Sunday when they host 16th-ranked Utah at Peterson Gym. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m.