By ROSEMARY LARSEN
The Cougar women’s volleyball team is on the road to a national championship after a win against the University of Minnesota Saturday.
BYU hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament over the weekend, where the Cougars played the Golden Gophers from Minnesota following the Gopher’s win over Miami (Ohio) Friday.
“I thought Minnesota played a nice match,” said Cougar Head Coach Elaine Michaelis. “They were well prepared and the middle attack was strong for them.”
The Cougars defeated the Gophers in three games with scores of 15-8, 15-9 and 15-11. The University of Minnesota (23-10) has never beaten the Cougars (28-5) in five meetings, but they were still able and willing to put up a fight in Saturday’s game.
“Our team was a little tight at first, but the game was a serve, serve-receive game and we were able to block well and play some nice defense,” Michaelis said.
The defense for the Cougars was led by Rachel Greene, who had a solo block and eight block assists. Greene was supported by Korie Rogers with five blocks and 14 digs followed by Helen Hjorth with her five blocks and 12 digs.
“We’ve been working hard all week on blocks,” said Cougar senior Amy Steele Gant. “Rachel, whose been sick for a while, did a great job. I think our team was focused and did a good job blocking.”
Gant led the Cougar offense with an amazing 20 kills and only six errors. She had seven digs and four block assists to help the dominating defensive effort.
“I think a strong point of our team is that we can stay level-headed,” Gant said. “Minnesota was a great team and we really fought hard.”
For the Golden Gophers, freshman Nicole Branagh was the top hitter. The Cougars were anticipating a big game from Branagh and she didn’t let them down. She had 15 kills, 12 digs and two service aces off of her spin toss.
“(Branagh) is a young freshman with phenomenal potential,” Michaelis said. “We felt we needed to control her on both the front and the back rows.”
Minnesota senior Sarah Pearman led the defensive effort and ended the match with eight kills and eight digs.
BYU was able to control the Golden Gophers, who hit .135 as a team and had only 10 total team blocks. The Cougars hit .393 in the match, which lasted a little more than an hour, while acquiring 16 total team blocks.
“The team played well and we’re real excited to be in the final 16 at Penn State,” Michaelis said.
Saturday’s win moves the Cougars to the Eastern Regional semi-finals where they will face Texas A&M this week at Penn State.
“Texas A&M has some great outside hitting,” Michaelis said. “But I think we’re in the ballpark with everyone else, so we’ll see.”
