The No. 7 BYU women’s volleyball team swept Portland (25-15, 25-10, 25-14) in an easy three sets on Thursday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.
The Cougars advance to an 18-1 season record and an impeccable 7-0 record in conference play.
“I’m really impressed with how well we passed the ball tonight,” said BYU coach Heather Olmstead. “It made it easy for Lyndie (Haddock) to distribute the ball, which she did a great job of. We were really dialed in offensively and defensively. I am really proud of the team’s effort tonight.”
Veronica Jones-Perry led the Cougars with 16 kills in addition to 12 kills by McKenna Miller.
What stopped Portland, however, were BYU’s blockers. BYU had a total of 11 blocks, seven of which came from Cosy Burnett in addition to her .875 clip and seven kills.
Additionally, Lyndie Haddock got 36 assists and Mary Lake added 19 digs to the win.
The Cougars began the first set going back-and-forth with the Pilots due to errors on both sides. BYU went then went on a 6-0 run to distance itself from Portland at 19-12. After a five-point rally, a kill from Kennedy Redding finished the first set win for the Cougars, 25-15.
BYU started out the second set with amazing blocks from Burnett and Haddock, boosting the Cougars go up 6-2, forcing a Portland timeout.
BYU then went on an 11-1 run, caused by Pilot errors, making the score 19-7. BYU scored six of the last eight points, winning the set 25-10 on a Burnett service ace.
During the second set BYU also lost starter Taylen Ballard, when she came down on her knee wrong.
When asked how this affected the team Burnett said, “You know it sucks. She is our teammate and our sister and the best thing we can do as a team is support her and help her, but I think it shows the strength of our team in that each one of us can step up and we can still get the win.”
The Cougars stayed strong in the third set, scoring the first point with a service ace from Lake.
During the rest of the set, Jones-Perry continued to annihilate the Pilots with back-to-back kills.
BYU then rallied again to a 6-1 lead, caused by four Portland errors, which put BYU up by double digits, 19-9. With a kill from Sara Hamson, the Cougars earned the win against the Pilots.
BYU returns to the Smith Fieldhouse on Oct. 14 at 1 p.m. MDT for its next match against Gonzaga.
Jones-Perry In anticipation of the match, Jones-Perry said, “It’s going to be a tough game, their our rivals but I can’t wait to see how it goes.”
