McKenna Miller spikes the ball in last season's game against Utah. (Ari Davis)
BYU women's volleyball suffered its first loss of the season, losing to Baylor in the final match of the Outrigger Resorts Challenge in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Saturday, Sept. 9. The Cougars lost in five sets: 21-25, 22-25, 25-18, 28-26, 15-10.
BYU started strong in the three-game event, beating Hawaii in five sets on Thursday: 25-18, 25-12, 16-25, 15-25, 15-7.
Junior Veronica Jones-Perry led the team with 27 individual kills, a career high. Junior Lyndie Haddock had 44 assists and 10 digs. Overall, the Cougars finished with 66 kills and 63 digs.
Friday's game also ended with a bang as BYU swept Nevada in three sets: 25-18, 25-22, 25-18. Senior Cosy Burnett had a season-high 14 kills and a match-high five blocks. Senior Alohi Robins-Hardy led the team with 18 and 20 assists.
The Cougars played aggressively and won the first two sets, but ultimately lost the last three by very close margins.
Sophomore Mckenna Miller lead with a season-high of 24 kills alongside junior Lyndie Haddock with 47 assists and 12 digs. Jones-Perry earned her first career double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs.
The Cougars fell to 8-1 on the season with the loss and their ranking dropped to No. 14 in the latest poll.
Coach Heather Olmstead said the team learned some important lessons in the match.
'We had opportunities to close it and didn't get it done,' Olmstead said. 'Baylor played fantastic defense and made it really hard for us to get kills. We'll keep working hard to get better.'
The Cougars have three more non-conference games, beginning at No. 16 Utah on Thursday, Sept. 14. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. MDT and can be seen on the Pac-12 Network.
BYU will then host Weber State the following evening at 7 p.m. MDT. That game will be televised on BYUtv.
The Cougars will finish out the week with a match at UVU on Saturday, Sept. 16.
Following this week's action, the Cougars open conference play on the road. They'll play at Santa Clara on Thursday, Sept. 21, then travel to San Francisco on Sept. 23. Both games will be televised on TheW.tv.