Roll continues for No. 9 BYU women’s volleyball team
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- The BYU women’s volleyball team celebrates a point during a West Coast Conference women’s volleyball match against Portland at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)
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- BYU’s Heather Gneiting (2) blocks an attack by Portland during a West Coast Conference women’s volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)
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- BYU’s Kenzie Koerber attacks the ball in a West Coast Conference women’s volleyball match against Portland in the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021 (BYU Courtesy Photo)
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- BYU’s Gretchen Reinert digs a ball during a West Coast Conference women’s volleyball match in the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (BYU Courtesy Photo)
The ninth-ranked BYU women’s volleyball team is putting teams away early and often.
The Cougars won their eighth straight match by sweep – that’s 24 straight sets, for those keeping score at home – by drilling Portland 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-10) in front of a crowd of 2,624 at the Smith Fieldhouse, many of them dressed in pink to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
BYU (5-0 WCC, 15-1 overall) has won 14 of its 15 victories by sweep, tying for eighth in program history with the record – 24 by the 2018 team that went to the Final Four – looming down the road.
The Cougars were terrific on offense, hitting .430 after coming into the match third in the country in that category (.325). But BYU was equally as dominating on defense, holding the Pilots to .027 and forcing Portland into a negative hitting percentage in two of the three sets.
For the second time this season, graduate transfer Gretchen Reinert wore the libero jersey in spearheading the Cougar defense, along with setter Whitney Bower. Maddie Allen and Aria McComber also rotated in the stabilize the passing.
“I think it’s really cool that we have a team where pretty much everybody is consistent with serve receive,” Reinert said. “That helps us a lot. I think we’re all doing well and we’re all passing well and that’s what we need for our team right now.”
BYU is second in the country in opponent hitting percentage (.114).
Having two big middle blockers – 6-foot-5 Kennedy Eschenberg and 6-4 Heather Gneiting – also help to hold down the opponent’s offensive attack.
“We have a huge block up there and that really helps us get great touches in the back row, which allows us to convert easily and keeps the other team with a low hitting percentage,” Reinert said. “We really think our blockers do a great job and then we just pick up everything behind them.”
Taylen Ballard-Nixon led the Cougars with 13 kills and hit .476 with Kenzie Koerber finishing at nine with zero errors (.600) and Gneiting ending up with six kills and three block assists. BYU also logged six team blocks, 38 digs and 41 assists from Bower.
Portland’s only scores early on came on BYU errors, and the Cougars subsequently led 17-5 in the first set. BYU got to 22-8 on a Whitney Llarenas kill but the Pilots broke out of their funk and scored seven straight points to close to 22-15. Heather Gneiting sent down a kill to get to set point and two serves later, Portland service error gave BYU a 25-16 victory.
The Cougars hit .455 in Set 1 and three players – Taylen Ballard-Nixon, Gneiting and Kenze Koerber – had four kills apiece. BYU also notched four service aces.
BYU went on a 7-1 run powered by Gneiting’s blocking and attacking, taking an 18-11 lead in Set 2. After a long rally, Koerber got the kill to push the Cougar advantage to 23-15. Gretchen Reinert’s hustle on defense led to a kill from Ballard-Nixon for set point and Portland attacked long on the next serve for a 25-15 BYU win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Cougars showed off in Set 3 as well, outscoring the Pilots 9-0 as Ballard-Nixon got hot on the offensive side to take a 21-9 lead. Another Ballard-Nixon kill pushed BYU to match point and Morgan Bower came off the bench for the ace to close things out at 25-10.
As for the 24-set winning streak, Reinert said, “We think every team in the WCC is coming to challenge us and we’re going to take every team seriously because we need that. Sometimes we need that pressure so we don’t look to sweep every teams. We play to get wins.”
The Cougars stay at home this Saturday with a 1 p.m. MT match against Gonzaga in the Smith Fieldhouse.
