BYU volleyball swept Cal Baptist in three sets (33-31, 25-18, 25-20) Monday night at the Lancers’ home court, finishing up the last of three matches this weekend. This game makes the Cougars’ overall series lead against Cal Baptist 16-3.
“I thought we had really good energy tonight,” said BYU head coach Chris McGown. “It’s been a long trip. This was our third match in four nights, so to be able to rally and have some good energy out there on the floor I thought was big.”
Taylor Sander had 17 kills and two aces on the night. Josue Rivera and Michael Hatch led with four blocks each. The Lancers took a 6-3 lead in the first set and the Cougars fought back, tying it up at 14. BYU took a two-point lead after a kill by Rivera and an attack error by the Lancers.
After Cal Baptist matched the Cougars point by point, BYU got ahead with a kill by Carson Heninger at 23-22. Cal Baptist retaliated and tied with the Cougars at 23, 24, 25 and 26 before gaining a lead. BYU continued the tie four more times before Tyler Heap delivered an ace at 31-30. An attack error gave the Cougars the set at 33-31.
BYU took the lead in the second set at 8-3. The Cougars kept their energy up, and Sander increased their lead with a kill at 15-10. BYU took the set on another attack error by the Lancers.
The Cougars led again in the third set, but Cal Baptist battled back with a 4-0 run, tying the teams at 11. Leading by a narrow margin, the Cougars shut down the Lancers with a block by Matt Underwood and Michael Hatch at 22-19. Sander finished the match with two kills, ending the game 25-20.
“We got some nice contributions from some other guys that came off the bench and played hard. I thought we had a nice game plan against them, and we executed it pretty well,” McGown said.
The Cougars take a well-deserved break before going up against Pacific on Feb. 14.
