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Show SECTION 0 SPORTS EDITOR 1 SUNDAY, MARCH 27, Darnell Dickson 344-255- 5 2005 ddkksonheraldextra.cora BYU SPORTS BYU spikes Cougars sweep doubleheader from Utes Jason Franchuk 49ers in five ' ,. ' HERALD DAILY In the second rematch of the 2004 National Championship, the BYU men's volleyball team came out on top, defeating Long Beach State in a e thriller (34-32630, on Saturday night in the Smith Fieldhouse. h BYU now owns a lead over the 49ers in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, 10-- to 30-2- five-gam30-2- 15-1- one-matc- 9-- 7. "This is the type of match we would've expected with Long Beach," said BYU coach Tom Peterson. "It's a very important win." The teams traded games before an intense fifth game. Long Beach started fast, leading 1 before the Cougars came back to lead on a Russell at DAILY HERALD raising its record in conference play. The Cougars return td action when they travel to Corvallis, Ore., for e a series 5 BYU Monday and Tues3 UTAH day at Oregon State before returning home for a three-gam- e MWC series with Air Force that starts Thursday. If s not likely the Cougars will get similar breaks the Utes normally surrender, until the Falcons come to town. Utah lost the first game Saturday , then had its chances in the second. Trailing 3 in the seventh, the Utes had a runner on second base with one out, but couldn't tie the game. " to " The scores always end up about the same, and it's mostly for the same reasons why BYU owns Utah on the baseball diamond. The Cougars simply do the little things better when these teams meet and time is running out. The string is now wins in 16 of the last 17 after BYU swept a doubleheader, 2 and Saturday at Miller Field. "We're playing well and we're playing with confidence," said BYU coach Vance Law, "There can't be too many teams in school history that have had a better start than us." BYU improved to and ree tie with UNLV turned to a in the Mountain West Conference by two-gam- 7-- 2-- 5-- 7-- 5-- 1 4-- first-plac- double was In the eighth, a two-oThe runner scored when the next wasted. .barter, Ryan Chambers, flied out. The two-ru- n In BYUs half of the eighth, the margin held up. In the ninth, BYU had a little more Cougars broke it open with another bizarre twist. luck, finishing th game off on a double play. A Utah runner tried to Apana Nakayama stroked a double advance from first base after a fly that the Ute centerfielder misplayed, out and was tagged at second. That miscalculating the ball's pace and arc as he roamed in and watched as it marked outs No. 2 and 3. sailed over his head. Game over. The beat goes on. Law believes one reason for the After Nakayama stood safely on second base, the Utes decided to prosuccess has been the lineup's ability test. They argued the runner never" to respond to tough times. Trailing 1 touched first base. entering the fifth, the BYU coaches Pitcher Josh Cooper, with no presscolded the batters. sure to make the play, chucked the The Cougars responded with three RBI ball over the first baseman's head, runs, sparked by doubles from Sean McNaughton and i Nakayama moved to third base on a play Law, in all his years of baseball, Marcos VUlezcas. had never seen before. Utah lost its apSee BASEBALL, B5 peal, too. ut 3-- back-to-bac- k 3-- NBA 7-- Holmes-Victo- r Batista block. The 49ers tied the game BYU at 7 and again LBSU at 10, before BYU ran away with the game and the match. Perez started a run with a kill and added an ace two points later to put his team up Batista added a kill before Michael Burke gave BYU the win with a block that sent the Cougar bench and fans into a frenzy. Perez led BYU with a career- - and match-hig- h 25 kills, hitting a match-bes- t .526 He added three service aces. Batista and Taylor Evans each added 12 kills! Batista also had a team- - and match-hig- h eight blocks. Holmes, who had seen little action in the last few weeks, came off the bench to play middle and contributed four kills, four blocks and three digs. In the fifth game he tallied two kills and a block. "Russell has been getting better and better," Peterson said. "That lineup works very well as long as we pass. It adds a different dimension to what we can do." Yassir Sliti had 19 kills to lead Long Beach Sate. Robert Tarr was next with 16 while Duncan Budinger had 14 and Teddy Liles 10. The Cougars won the battle of percentages, hitting .333 for the compared to .199 49ers. BYU also Long 7-- 5-- Milestone for Sloan 13-1- ). Beach, Game 19.5-11.- 1 was a replay of Friday's match, which was a Long Beach sweep. The Cougars fought back from an early deficit to earn multiple-game point chances but eventuLong Beach held the ally lost, advantage throughout much of the game and was ahead 5 before BYU went on a 1 run that included two Perez kills and one by Evans. Despite game-poiopportunities at and 3332, the Cougars could not capitalize as the 49ers got the win on an Evans hitting error. Perez had seven kills and four digs ; in the game while Evans contributed four kills. Sliti led the Beach with six and Budinger and.Tarr added five 36-3- 4. 27-2- 4-- nt 30-2- 9, 29-2- 31-3- 0 Jazz win moves coach into sixth place on career wins list Doug Alden J THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SALT LAKE CITY Jerry Sloan's most dis- - , appointing season coaching the Utah Jazz got a little brighter Saturday night. Sloan passed Red Auerbach for sixth place on the career victory list with win No. 939 when the Jazz beat the Milwaukee Bucks Sloan tried to brush off the accomplishment, as he tends to do with every milestone. Auerbach coached the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championUTAH 94 ships while Sloan has never MILWAUKEE 89 won a title ring in his 17 sea sons with the Jazz and parts of three coaching Chicago. is kind of silly because Auerbach Red "Passing I don't,feel like I've passed him. It's not important to me," Sloan said. "He's a great coach that's had great success with great teams." Sloan has also had plenty of success, just not this season. Utah is headed for its first losing record since 1982-8- 3 and the first of Sloan's lengthy tenure with the team. But he got to celebrate a little Saturday night with visiting family, including his daughter, Kathy, and a few grandchildren. "I'm a big fan of Jerry's and I'm excited that he got that win," said Raja Bell, who led Utah 23 points. with a season-hig- h With the loss, the Bucks finished the season on the road against Western Conference teams. ' Kris 17 points Humphries added a career-higfor the Jazz, Gordon Giricek had 13 and Matt Harpring 12. Harpring finally sealed it on two free throws with 5.7 "seconds remaining for the Jazz, who 94-8- MWw " :- -v mk I" 0-- h See VOLLEYBALL, B5 See SLOAN, B3 DOUGLAS C. PIZACAssociated Press Utah's Kris Humphries, left, tries to drive around Milwaukee's Ericfe Strickland during the first quarter. HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS MV, SF take titles V 2 . Jacob Conde DAILY HERALD Mountain View and Spanish Fork track teams rag over the competition Saturday, as teams gathered in Provo for the Mt. Invitational. After a week of bad weather, the sun shone down as schools from in and out of the valley gathered to vie for individual and team glory. The Mountain View boys took first place with 128 points overall, with Spanish Fork's boys team taking second with 112. Provo was third with 87 points, Lehi fourth with 61, and Pleasant Grove fifth with 55.5. In the girls competition, it was ll Spanish Fork. The Dons finished with 144.5 points, with Mountain View second at 107.5. Lone Peak (86.5), Timpview (64) and Provo ' (47.5) rounded out the top five. "Good things have been happen Lng here," said Spanish Fork coach David Boyack. "We have a good group that runs multiple events. They're always willing to do extra. A highlight for the Dons were the Stewart sisters, Nachelle and Natalie. The duo took first and second place, respectively, In the 100 Tim-panog- , ' .S? i V Norton dominates in Timpanogos victory rJ meter race, qualifying for state. In addition, Natalie ran away with the 400m, while Nachelle won the Neil K. Warner DAILY NeilK. HERALD 200m. "They've worked hard and this is an extension of their hard work," said Spanish Fork girls coach Mark Hansen. Hansen said expects both the boys and girls teams to be ready for a good run when state rolls around. "Continue with our consistency day after day and we'll be there," he said. "If their consistency is there, then they should be in good shape." It wasnl all about team points, however, as several participants bests and quali-ie- d ained f forpersonal state competitions. Among these was Riley Rampton of Lehi. to win Rampton lead 20 feet, the long Jump and qualify for state. Lehi coach Mike O'Connor said Rampton'i results were part of the team's larger goal to build a sue cessful track and field program at the school "For us, every step is good step," O'Connor said. "We're trying ' . " J; two-hitte- I1 1 v h 6-- 3-- 1 JIftDNY HAMKOHOWty NerJ Mountain VWVi Spcnotf EvtmM the ba ton from David Douma in the 4xSO0 relay at the Ml. gti Timpanoitot Invitational on Saturday at Provo High See TRACK, B4 School ! Warner I In one inning, , 1 Timpanogos pitcher Ricky Norton never allowed the ball to leave the infield. . On In another inning, Norton used Location V just four pitches to retire the side in order, and in another, Norton induced so many ground balls to The Easter Classic in Las shortstop Abe Read that Timpais Thursday through Vegas nogos coach Kim Nelson shouted, Four local teams are today. "Hey, tie a world record now," competing: Mountain View, referring to Read getting three Pleasant Grove, Lone Peak put outs in one inning. and Timpanogos. Inning after inning, Norton kept El Dorado High batters guessing as he pitched a compler te-game Saturday Timpanogos scored five runs in the first inning, giving Norton afternoon to help Timpanogos all the runs he would need. Tyson beat El Dorado (Las Vegas) 1 Gonzales led off the game with and finish the Valley Easter Clasrecord. a walk. He took third when Cole sic in Las Vegas with a McWhorter reached base on one "He threw very weU. 1 think that's the best command I've seen of three first ninning El Dorado him with. He threw a good curve-ba- ll errors. Alex Wolfe followed with a for a strike and a fastball" Nelson said. "He's kind of stepped walk to load the bases. Gonzales in and established himself as one scored on a passed bell. Tyson that we're going to start and use., He did very, very weU." See CLASSIC, B4 LAS VEGAS VWVW HCRAUJtXTRA.COM - CAU 175-510- 3 TO SVtSCJWK |