By Angela Wallace
In a tight conference race, the BYU women”s volleyball team moved into third place after conquering UNLV and San Diego State in two key matches last weekend on the road.
With only two more regular season Mountain West Conference matches left this season, BYU head coach Karen Lamb said the Cougars are pretty content with third place but also have some work to do.
“We”re going to enjoy this, but we need to focus on next week,” she said. “We had the opportunity to lose Friday night and lose the first game [against San Diego State], but we took care of business.”
After being tied for fourth place with the Rebels going into Friday”s match, BYU won the five-game showdown despite some rough spots.
“We got it done,” Lamb said. “It was a little ugly and hard at times, but we stuck together and won.”
After the Cougars won the first game 30-22, UNLV came out firing in the second and third game. The Rebels ended up closely winning games two and three, 33-35 and 26-30 respectively, while BYU couldn”t recover.
“They jumped out in the second and third game,” Lamb said. “We were just too far behind, but in the fourth and fifth game, we kept our lead and pulled it out.”
The Cougars bounced back in Game 4, tying the count at 2-2. The competitive fifth game finally went to BYU after a kill by freshman Erica Lott, who led the team in kills with 16 while hitting .357 for the match. For the defense, freshman Lindsey Evans came within two digs of the BYU record while setting a new career-high record.
“We had some nice performances tonight,” Lamb said. “Everyone who came in made a good contribution. Our passing was a little rough, but we made up for it with our hitting. Lindsey Evans did well and had 33 digs, and Erica [Lott] played three nice games for us.”
Senior Lindsey Metcalf also helped carry the load, posting a triple-double with a season-high 13 kills, 18 digs and 10 blocks. Senior April Varner and junior Lexi Brown also contributed 13 kills apiece.
Sophomore Lindsy Hartsock tallied nine blocks and nine kills while junior Lauren Richards finished with 61 assists and 11 digs for the match.
After heading to San Diego State for Saturday”s match, BYU found the Aztecs ready for a fight. Although extremely close, the Cougars squeaked out Game 1 36-34 after Hartsock and Richards combined for two key blocks.
“It was a long first game, but we hung in there and won,” Lamb said. “We had a slow start in the second game but took off when Lindsy Hartsock served 11 straight points.”
San Diego State took the lead early in the second game until BYU found their afterburners as they tallied a 7-0 and 12-0 run. The Cougars doubled the Aztecs” score for a 30-15 win after Lott slammed the last kill of Game 2.
Lott also captured the match-winning kill in Game 3, which BYU won by eight points. The Cougars improved to 16-9 overall and 8-4 in MWC play.
“It was a nice win, and we played pretty well, too,” Lamb said. “We had a lot of good things happen and a good chemistry on the floor. Tonight was a nice team effort.”
Brown tallied a career-high hitting percentage of .733, while leading the Cougars with 11 kills. Junior Kim Wilson led the defense with 11 digs. Richards helped quarterback the offense, posting 48 assists while Hartsock led the team in blocks with six and added 10 kills. Metcalf and Lott both came away with eight kills apiece as well.
