BYU volleyball travels to Omaha for Sweet Sixteen

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The No. 12 seeded BYU women’s volleyball team will travel to Omaha, Neb. for Friday’s Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament.

Alexa Gray gets ready to pass the ball against Gonzaga earlier in the season.

The Cougars, who are 28–3 for the season, take on No. 5 seeded Oregon with a near identical record of 27–4. Oregon finished its season second in the Pac-12.

BYU freshman outside hitter Kimberly Dahl said Oregon is a great team, but the Cougars are ready and feel good about the upcoming match.

“We’re in a really good spot, and we’re continuing to get better and better,” Dahl said. “We just need to ride with that and have confidence. I know if we’re playing our best we can beat them, so we just have to believe in ourselves.”

The Cougars closed off their season at home last week by taking down New Mexico State and Oklahoma with 3–0 sweeps in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. The wins left the Cougars undefeated at home through 14 matches, and moved the Cougars into the region semifinal match in Nebraska against Oregon.

BYU Head Coach Shawn Olmstead said the match against Oregon is a big one for the Cougars and the team is working hard to focus on performing their best.

“Now we’re at the point where the next match could be our last one,” Olmstead said. “So it’s definitely the biggest match we’ve had all year because of the implications. It’s a chance for us to improve and that’s the way we feel, just get better and better. Then we’ll be able to ideally move on in this tournament.”

Freshman libero Ciara Parker said the Cougars are extremely excited about traveling to Omaha to take on Oregon.

“Omaha is a place none of us have ever been before, and it’s some of our biggest dreams to be a part of this,” Parker said. “So we’re really really excited to get to go and have the opportunity to compete and hopefully keep going forward at this point.”

BYU and Oregon play at the CenturyLink Center on Friday at 4 p.m. CST on ESPN3. Following the match No. 4 seeded Nebraska will face off against No. 13 seeded Washington. The winners of the two matches will then face off in the Omaha Regional Final Saturday at 5:30 p.m. CST on ESPNU.

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