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BYU's Erin Livingston (10) takes a swing over the Santa Clara block during a women's volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, October 6, 2022.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The BYU women's volleyball team celebrates a point in a match against Santa Clara at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, October 6, 2022.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Kate Prior blocks a Santa Clara attack during a women's college volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, October 6, 2022.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The BYU volleyball team has been pretty unbeatable in the Smith Fieldhouse during West Coast Conference play.

Thursday night was a great example of why.

The 14th-ranked Cougars overwhelmed Santa Clara in straight sets (25-13, 25-13, 25-12) in front of 3,210 fans suitably impressed with the home team’s superior serving, offense and defense. BYU enjoyed double-digit leads through most of all three sets and cruised easily to its 24th straight league home win.

“They played well,” Cougar coach Heather Olmstead said. “We’ve got a great team and they came in focused today. I just loved the energy in the gym with Breast Cancer Awareness month and our kids wanted to play well. We had a great week of practice so I’m not surprised we played well tonight. I think we worked hard and earned the right to play well in the three days leading up to the match.”

The numbers reflect BYU’s total dominance. The Cougars hit .438 for the match and held Santa Clara to .098, notching a whopping 50 kills to just 19 for the Broncos. BYU finished with 44 digs to Santa Clara’s 23 and nine aces to three for the Broncos.

BYU also sided out at an 80 percent clip and totally controlled the pace of the match from the service line.

Erin Livingston led the Cougars with 16 kills and hit .520.

“We talk a lot about keeping pressure on the other team,” Livingston said. “I think we did that with our serving tonight. Whitney (Bower) did a great job setting the match and we were able to put balls away. We also talk about keeping our energy up and I think we did a really good job of that as a team.”

Heather Gneiting had nine kills and hit .583 and Elyse Stowell had six kills. Bower finished with 37 assists, five kills and eight assists.

Santa Clara started off controlling the tempo in Set 1 and led 5-1 early. BYU tied it up at 8-8 on an off-speed shot from Stowell and then took off with the score tied at 10. The Cougars outscored the Broncos 15-3 from there, getting the visitors off-stride with a strong service game. BYU fired off seven aces in the first set (three from Bower and two from Alyssa Montoya) to run away with a 25-13 win.

Livingston had six kills in the first set on eight swings (.625) and the Cougar defense was on point with 15 digs.

BYU beat up Santa Clara in Set 2 by an identical score, leading from early on and overwhelming the Broncos by hitting .571. A tandem block from Whitney Llarenas and Kate Grimmer gave the Cougars a 10-4 lead. It was 20-8 when Kate Prior came off the bench to notch a kill. Another block from Llarenas and Eden Bower pushed BYU to set point and Sophia Callahan got the game winner a few plays later for a 25-13 win.

Llarenas killed a overpass in Set 3 for a 10-5 BYU led and Whitney Bower won a joust at the net for a 16-9 advantage. In one sequence, Gneiting notched a pair of kills and Bower scored on a dump for a 21-9 lead. At match point, Callahan came up with a powerful swing for the 25-12 win and the sweep.

“I think we did a good job adapting to whatever changes we made,” Olmstead said. “That was probably the theme tonight as we put different people in the game and we just didn’t miss a beat. We just kept being assertive and kept playing BYU volleyball.”

Julia Sangiancomo led Santa Clara (2-3 WCC, 6-11 overall) with 10 kills.

BYU (5-0 WCC, 12-3 overall) will host San Francisco on Saturday at 1 p.m. MT.

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