BYU volleyball beat Pepperdine on the road in a four-set victory (25-20, 25-21, 16-25, 25-16) Oct. 3 to remain undefeated in conference play.
“I was proud of the heart and fight we showed at times tonight,” head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “I thought it was a team effort in a lot of ways.”
Sophomore outside hitter Alexa Gray led the match with 17 kills, junior Camry Godfrey with 42 assists and libero Ciara Parker with a season high of 26 digs. The Cougars excelled with their passing which allowed the ball to be set perfectly for the kill.
“It was my teammates that really helped me with the digs,” Parker said. “My blockers got a lot of good touches tonight.”
BYU took an early lead 9-4 after a pair of kills from freshman Amy Boswell and a couple Pepperdine attack errors. The Waves hung close with the Cougars after a few successful blocks.
Thanks to the Cougars’ passing, Kathryn LeCheminant killed five of six attacks in the first set. She also posed a threat with her strong blocks in the middle and led the Cougars to set victory 25-20.
“I think it was a total team effort by all of us,” LeCheminant said. “We had some great passing and when we passed well, we were in sync.”
In the second set the Cougars and the Waves traded points and the game was tied 6-6. Pepperdine took the lead at 14-10 until BYU made a 5-0 run after two Gray kills to take a slight 16-15 advantage. The Waves fought back with a 20-20 tie. The Cougars were determined however and didn’t back down taking the second set 25-21.
BYU entered set three slowly and Pepperdine took an early 5-3 lead. The Cougars tried to keep up and were down one point at 13-12. After a 6-1 Pepperdine run that put BYU down 18-13, Coach Olmstead called a timeout. But it was too little to late as the Waves stormed ahead taking the set 25-16.
“I think we just settled down in the fourth set and took a step back after losing the third. We remembered that we just had to play our game. We had to play BYU volleyball. We stepped up our game and regained composure to win,” LeCheminant said.
The Cougars were determined to finish the match at four sets taking an 8-4 lead. Junior outside hitter Tambre Haddock added to their lead with four kills in the set pushing the Cougars ahead 18-13. Gray ended the set with a kill on the outside to conclude the match 25-16.
“We decided in the fourth set that we needed to focus on working together as a team. We worked on the things that we wanted to get accomplished. I thought everyone stepped up and played really well in the victory,” Parker said.
