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BYU women’s volleyball earns trip to Sweet 16 with 3-1 victory vs. Utah

By Darnell Dickson - | Dec 4, 2021

The BYU women's volleyball team celebrates after defeating Utah 3-1 in the second round of the NCAA women's volleyball tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)

If being battled-tested means anything in the NCAA Tournament, the BYU women’s volleyball team is ready for a big run.

The No. 11 seeded Cougars had to scrap and claw in Saturday’s second round against rival Utah but finally came out on top of a 3-1 slugfest (17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23) in front of a hanging-from-the-rafters crowd of 4,729 at the Smith Fieldhouse.

“No matter what, this was, for the seniors, our last match in the Fieldhouse,” BYU’s Kennedy Eschenberg said. “I just think like what a moment to be able to play Utah and have it be close, have it be a fight and have that feeling of just being gritty and playing together, it’s amazing. And all the fans were incredible.”

Utah (22-9) sailed to a 25-17 win in the first set but the other three sets – all BYU wins – were down-to-the-wire affairs.

What swung the pendulum of momentum in the Cougars’ favor?

Opinion differ, BYU coach Heather Olmstead said.

“Some of us say that it was when Heather Gneiting stuffed the ball straight down (vs. Utah All-American Dani Drews) in the second set,” Olmstead said. “I don’t know what the score was, but I feel like a big momentum shift was when Tayler Hifo first went in (third set) and got some big time digs. She went in and served her serve and got some digs and points scored for us.”

Eschenberg was diplomatic on the whole thing.

You know, I think we talked about maybe it’s the same place so it works out but I think both,” she said. “There was just some huge moments and I think those are two huge moments and it was cool.”

Utah hit .300 in the first set but BYU started slowing down the Utes offense in the second, posting four team blocks. The Cougars took the lead at 16-15 after a Taylen Ballard-Nixon kill and stayed in front, reaching set point on a kill from Gneiting. Ballard-Nixon got the winner on sharp-angle kill and BYU took a 25-22 victory to tie the match at 1-1.

The Cougars went on a 6-0 run with Hifo at the service line in Set 3 and sped to a 16-9 lead. BYU led by as many as eight but had to hold off a furious Utah rally that closed to within 24-23. Finally, Whitney Bower fed Gneiting on the slide attack for the winner at 25-24 and a 2-1 lead in the match.

Set 4 was close throughout with BYU clinging to a small lead most of the way. Utah finally pulled even at 22-22 on a block from Amelia Van Der Werff and Madi Robinson. Gneiting and Bower teamed up for a block of Robinson to get to match point at 24-23. On Koerber’s serve, the Utes had a miscommunication and Drews’ pass to the Cougars’ side went out of bounds for the 25-23 BYU victory, which set off a huge celebration on the BYU sideline.

“I think we joked about it because I get emotional a lot,” said Eschenberg, who decided to come back for an additional COVID year after the spring season. “But I got emotional after the game and I think it was just that amazing feeling. It was just gratitude that we had this opportunity to come back and I’m going to keep it short so I won’t start crying but it was just amazing.”

Drews and Robinson were dynamic for Utah (22-9) with 18 and 17 kills, respectively. The Utes swept BYU out of the tournament in the second round in 2019 at the Fieldhouse but couldn’t produce the same result on Saturday.

“It says a lot about volleyball in the state of Utah,” Utah coach Beth Launiere said. “It was just a great, competitive volleyball match with the amount of fans that were here. A couple of points here and there they were a little bit better tonight and we wish them well.”

West Coast Conference Player of the Year Kenzie Koerber had an off night for BYU and produced just six kills to go along with six errors, hitting .000. Erin Livingston (13 kills, .286) and Ballard-Nixon (12 kills, .333) picked up the slack and Eschenberg had nine kills and zero errors (.600) in the middle. Gneiting totaled seven block assists and Madi Allen finished with 10 digs for the Cougars. Bowers orchestrated everything from her setter position and contributed 42 assists, five digs, three kills and four blocks.

BYU (30-1) moves on to Pittsburgh Regional to face No. 6 Purdue, which pulled off a reverse sweep against Dayton for a 3-2 victory in the second round.

The Cougars have advanced to at least the Sweet 16 six of the past seven years under Olmstead.

BYU’s Madi Allen (in blue) drops to her knees upon completion of a 3-1 victory against Utah in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)

BYU’s Taylen Ballard-Nixon attacks the ball during an NCAA second round volleyball match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)

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