By Brian Hintze
The BYU women’s volleyball team will host the Mizuno classic this weekend and play the two top-seeded teams in the nation.
The Cougars will play No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Long Beach State on Friday and Saturday nights.
“They’re big, they’re huge, we don’t have to win, but this is our chance to show the rest of the nation that we belong in the top 16 or 18 teams come tournament time,” said coach, Elaine Michaelis, about this weekends match ups.
Stanford will enter the tournament 3-1 after losing to the University of Utah Tuesday night. They will be without their All-American and National Freshman of the Year, Logan Tom, who is currently with the US Olympic team in Sydney, Australia.
They will also be missing their middle blocker, Jennifer Detmer, who didn’t make the road trip for personal reasons.
Without Tom and Detmer, Stanford is still one of the deeper teams in the nation and will be a good gauge to measure where the Cougars are.
Long Beach State is the second big match for the cougars this weekend.
The 49ers are 4-0 this season and will face Temple before coming to Provo.
They returned 3 starters and 10 letter winners from the previous year’s final four squad.
One of the top returnees is All-American Cheryl Weaver who averages 4.45 kills and 2.57 digs each game.
Another Long Beach standout is their six foot six inch middle blocker who averages 3.39 kills and 1.22 blocks per game and was named to the all-big west team.
“We’ll play two tough teams in two nights but we’ll play at a high level. The key to beating these teams is serving well so that they cannot get into their offense,” Michaelis said.
BYU is the first top 20 team that both Stanford and Long Beach face this year.
The Cougars have already faced one top 20 team and two top 30 teams.
BYU will open the tournament Thursday night against the defending Mid-Continent Conference Champions, Oral Roberts.
The Golden Eagles are returning four starters from last year and are seeking to even their record against BYU to 1-1.
BYU will also face Fairfield, defending Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Champions.
They are returning three starters and seven letter winners from last year’s 30-4 season.
This weekend is a pivotal one for the women’s volleyball team. Wins over Stanford and Long Beach could be the boost BYU needs to thrust them back into the national spotlight.
The Stanford game will be broadcast locally on KBYU TV and nationally over Satellite.
The record attendance for the women’s volleyball team in the Smith Field House is 3535, something they hope to break this weekend.
BYU will face off against Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. today, Aug. 6, in the Smith Fieldhouse.
Stanford and the Cougars hit the court Friday night, Aug. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse.
