By McCall Knowlton
The BYU women?s volleyball team defeated San Diego State Friday night and won the Mountain West Conference Title for the first time since 1999.
The sweep of the Aztecs (36-34, 30-26, 30-26) followed by a four game victory over UNLV (28-30, 30-26, 30-22, 30-23) Saturday night leaves the Cougars with a 23-2 overall record and a 14-2 MWC record at the conclusion of the regular season.
?Winning the title is something we haven”t done in some time,? said BYU head coach Jason Watson. ?We feel that the hard work our athletes have done and the direction they have chosen to take this program has been justified. Credit should go to our athletes because they?re the ones who have the magic.?
That magic definitely came through in BYU?s stats for the weekend. Chelsea Goodman put up her 13th double-double of the season with 21 kills and 13 digs against UNLV. Lauren Richards Evans also came up big against the Lobos, tying her season-high with 62 assists.
Erica Lott tied her career-high with 22 kills against San Diego State and Rachel Dyer put up seven blocks in both of the weekend matches.
?Offensively, we did a wonderful job,? Watson said. ?We pass-served well, which allowed us to exploit some things. This [SDSU] was a great win leading up to the Mountain West Conference Tournament.?
The Cougars finish up the regular season ranked No. 22 in the nation and rival their best start since 1998 when the team went 26-2 in regular season play.
Winning the MWC Title allows BYU to enter the MWC Tournament as the No. 1 seed and begin play Thursday with a match up against the winner of the TCU v. Air Force game being played tomorrow.
The Cougars swept both the Horned Frogs and the Falcons once during regular season play and will have had almost a week?s rest before facing their first opponent.
The Tournament officially begins Thursday with the finals match scheduled for Saturday night at UNLV in Las Vegas. The Cougars are the last team to play on the Lobos court before the Tournament begins and hope to take every possible advantage into their matches.
?I thought it was a successful conclusion to the regular season,? Watson said. ?I think our team is as prepared as we could hope to be entering the Mountain West Conference Tournament.?
