Women’s volleyball: BYU blanks Weber in front of packed home crowd

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Savannah Hopkinson
Lyndie Haddock serves against Weber State. The junior had seven assists against the Wildcats. (Savannah Hopkinson)

The No. 14 BYU women’s volleyball team beat the Weber State Wildcats in three sets (20-25, 15-25, 22-25) in front of a packed crowd at Smith Fieldhouse on Friday night.

The Cougars improved to 10-1 on the season and continue their trend of dominating in Provo, having gone 72-2 at home since 2011.

I liked the way we came out focused after last night’s match,” said BYU coach Heather Olmstead. “I thought the girls did a good job responding today to another match and new opponent.”

McKenna Miller led the Cougars on offense with 15 kills and Veronica Jones-Perry finished close behind her with 13.

Despite BYU only needing three sets to secure the victory, it was clear that Weber State came to play. The Wildcats kept the score close early in the second set with a series of crucial blocks but eventually gave way to BYU’s relentless offensive attacks.

The Wildcats came back strong in the third set, jumping out to an 11-6 lead. However, a crucial block by Cosy Burnett seemed to turn the tide in the Cougars’ favor, which allowed them to mount a comeback.

The teams traded the lead back and forth before BYU finally pulled ahead and put the set and match away 22-25.

It wasn’t just solid playing that kept their opponent’s from getting into a steady rhythm according to BYU’s Mary Lake, who led the team with 17 digs.

“When the crowd is there and your school is backing you up, it just takes the whole game to the next level,” she said.

The importance of being able to feed off of a crowd’s energy was a sentiment echoed by Olmstead.

“The crowd’s energy was really helpful, I mean such a great crowd tonight,” Olmstead said. “Electrifying.”

McKenna Miller said she is pleased to see the progress that she and her teammates have made in practice, despite already being one of the most dominant programs in the country.

We can see things we can get better at, but there are also things that I feel like we’ve been working on that we applied [tonight],” Miller said. 

BYU will travel to Orem tonight to face crosstown rival Utah Valley University in the Cougars’ final non-conference game. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m. MDT.

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