March 26, 2004

Box Score

PROVO, Utah - The Lewis University men's volleyball team shocked volleyball fans with its 2003 national championship over BYU. The Flyers nearly pulled an equally jaw-dropping upset before losing 3-1 to the top-ranked Cougars.

BYU notched their nation's leading 17th straight victory and improve to 18-3 on the season. Lewis fell to 13-11 overall.

In front of a season-high 4,342 fans in the Smith Fieldhouse, Lewis claimed game 1 30-28, before losing 30-25, 30-28, 30-20 in the ensuing three games.

In game one, the Flyers jumped out to a four-point lead before the Cougars came clawing back to tie things up at 12-12 after a Jonathan Alleman ace. The teams traded serves through a 24-24 tie when Lewis mounted another 3-0 run. James Elsea blocked Michael Burke to extend the Flyers' lead to 24-27. After a BYU timeout, the Cougars scored two straight points to cut the LU lead to 26-27. However, Lewis outlasted the Cougars to take a 30-28 victory in game one after Enrique Escalante picked up his third kill of the game.

In game two, Lewis jumped out to another quick lead, posting an 11-7 advantage. Behind back-to-back Lewis hitting errors, a Burke ace and a Batista kill, the Cougars went on a 4-0 run to take a 16-14 lead. After BYU took a 20-17 lead on a Lewis attack error, the Flyers went on a 4-1 run of their own to even things up at 21-21. Alleman, who had a game-high five kills, fueled another run for the Cougars to take a 25-22 lead. After the Flyers got within two points, 25-23, BYU poured on the offense and took a 28-24 lead before a Fabiano Barreto attack error gave the Cougars a game-high five-point lead at 29-24. Batista ended game two with his second kill of the game to give BYU the 30-25 win.

In game three, the Flyers took a commanding six-point lead. The Cougars, however, slowly chipped away at the Flyers' advantage, eventually tying things up at 16-16 on the first of four-and-a-half blocks in the game. The Lewis offense got back on track behind Fabiano Barreto, as the Flyers climbed back to a 25-21 lead. Trailing by three, 24-27, the Cougars went on a 3-0 run to tie things up on a Burke kill. Even at 28-28, Jeff Soler was blocked to trail 29-28 lead. After a Lewis timeout, the BYU defense came up big again. Pessoa, Burke and Moreno teamed up to block Soler for a second straight play for the 30-28, come-from-behind victory.

Lewis will look to build on its play against the nation's No. 1-rated team as it heads into its final stretch of conference games. The team sits in third place in the league with five matches to play.