By Jonathan Andrus
The top-ranked BYU men”s volleyball team flexed its muslces March 9, defeating the Quincy Hawks with a decisive 3-0 win, 30-21, 30-17, 32-30.
BYU was able to make quick work of Hawks and improved to 13-1 on the season.
Early on in the match it looked as though the Cougars were going to cruise to an easy three game sweep, but then Quincy turned up the heat.
Forcing a 13-13 tie midway through the game, a Rob Steikuehler kill gave the Hawks their largest lead of the night at 22-19, but BYU came scraping back to tie things at 26-26 on a Wall kill.
Steikuehler knotted things up again at 29-29 before the two teams traded serves, ending with a BYU 31-30 lead when Paul Johnson committed the Hawks” seventh service error of the night.
The Cougars” 6-foot-9 Mac Wilson led a trio of blockers to shut down a Quincy attack, capping the comeback, 32-30.
“Most human beings I know have a tendency to let down after playing at such a high level,” McGown said. “I”m not sure what happened in game three, but I feel like we may have had a hard time staying focused. Quincy did a nice job and came out and played tough. I really think they have a good team.”
Early in game three, senior All-American Hecot Lebron fed Olsen to record his 3,734th career assist and move past Chris Pitzak for second on BYU”s all-time assist list. Jason Watson (1991-94) holds the BYU career assist record with 4,649.
“It”s cool (referring to the record),” Lebron said. “We got a win, I think that”s much better than beating some record.”
BYU was led by junior All-American candidate Mike Wall, who collected 14 kills on 25 swings. Senior All-American Scott Bunker and sophomore Luka Slabe each registered seven kills.
“We lost our edge, excitement, emotion in the third game,” Bunker said. “But I thought we played well.”
The Cougars will take the next week off before returning to action against their second straight non-conference opponent, Concordia of New York. The match will be March 17 in the Smith Fieldhouse at 7 p.m.
