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BYU men's volleyball coach Shawn Olmstead gives instructions during a time out against UC San Diego during the 2022 season.

Ryan Campbell/BYU Photo

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The BYU men's volleyball team celebrates scoring a point against UC San Diego during the 2022 season.

Ryan Campbell/BYU Photo

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BYU's Davide Gardini takes a swing against Long Beach State during the 2022 season.

Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo

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The BYU men’s volleyball team made their return travel plans for after the conclusion of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, hopeful of putting together a run. The Cougars nearly pulled off an upset in the quarterfinals, pushing No. 2 seed Pepperdine to five sets before being eliminated.

With a couple of days to kill, the assistant coaches and the players took the opportunity to go to Universal Studios. Head coach Shawn Olmstead did what he normally does to unwind.

He ran.

Olmstead ran for 20 miles in the Los Angeles mountains, which gave him some time to process the 2022 season.

He concluded that while the Cougars fell short of their intended team goals, he had no disputes with their commitment and effort.

“I never saw that they weren’t giving all they could give,” Olmstead said. “So the losing was harder on the guys than it was on me. The guys battled, and what more can you ask as a head coach then that they give everything they have?”

BYU finished the season with an 8-17 record, out of the top 15 in the rankings for the first time since the early 1990’s. After getting to six Final Fours over the past ten seasons, it was a tough year.

The Cougars were 4-6 in five set matches in 2022, proof positive of how close they were to making the 2002 season more memorable.

“I learned a lot about these young guys,” Olmstead said. “I learned a lot about their heart and their grit. With a record like that they could have checked out a long time ago. But this team did not give up. We almost never had a bad practice and they did everything we asked.

“We had a lot of firsts this year. We’ve never been in so any five-set matches and close matches. We had the opportunity to capitalize on those situations and we learned a lot about that.”

Another first was Olmstead sending out lineups with so many young players after a large group of experienced starters moved on after the 2021 season.

The inexperience showed up in some key moments.

“We know we have to capitalize in those moments and put the throttle down,” Olmstead said. “We’ve been able to learn and grow from that. There’s no denying we got better and played our best volleyball at the end of the season. We beat a top 5 team down the stretch in Pepperdine and played UCLA well.”

The biggest loss from the 2022 roster will be senior Davide Gardini, who earned first team AVCA All-American honors for the third straight season. His 4.11 kills per game (.342) and 33 aces will be very difficult to replace.

Olmstead plans on the return of freshman outside hitter Miks Ramanis (2.82 kills per set, .250) and freshman middle blocker Teon Taylor (59 blocks), who both earned All-MPSF honors. Sophomores Kupono Brown (2.63 kps, .294), Gavin Julien (80 blocks) and freshmen Anthony Cherfan and Luke Benson were all included in various lineups during the season and gained valuable experience. Transfer Bartosz Slawinski played most of the most reps at setter but freshman Noa Haine took over late in the season. Libero Mitchel Worthington opted to take advantage of an additional COVID year and will also return in 2023. Libero and serving specialist Jon Stanley will be a senior next season.

Olmstead said he expects all of his youngsters to return next season but the transfer portal craze has hit men’s college volleyball and nothing is for certain.

So far the Cougars have signed Trenton Moser, a 6-foot-8 pin hitter from Arizona and expect a handful of returned missionaries — including Cooper Jarman, the younger brother of former BYU All-American Price Jarman — to fill out the roster in developmental roles.

Olmstead left this week on a recruiting trip to South America. He said he will visit with former Cougar Felipe de Brito Ferreira, who has been invited to train with the Brazilian national team.

“We were very fortunate to have the guys we had the previous three years,” Omstead said. “Those guys were all about those moments where the score was tied at 20-all and here comes Gabi (Garcia Fernandez), Felipe or Wil Stanley to make plays. Those guys were a load for the other teams to handle. This season we had some young guys who weren’t as experienced but I am excited they got to go through those moments. We’re going to learn and grow from that.”

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