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(From left) BYU's Eden Bower, Mia Lee and Erin Livingston celebrate a point during a women's college volleyball match against Loyola Marymount on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Kamaile Hiapo (left) gets a hug from head coach Heather Olmstead after the No. 9 Cougars swept Loyola Marymount at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Kamaile Hiapo makes a play during a women's college volleyball match against Loyola Marymount at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Whitney Bower makes a defensive play in a women's college volleyball match against Loyola Marymount at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU freshman Mia Lee attacks the ball during a women's college volleyball match against Loyola Marymount at the Smith Fieldhouse on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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In its first home match as a Big 12 program, the No. 9 BYU women’s volleyball did what it’s done the past 12 years: Beat up on a West Coast Conference team.

Newcomer Kamaile “Mi Mi” Hiapo, a transfer libero from Arizona, electrified the home crowd with her digging and hustle in a defensive struggle with former WCC foe Loyola Marymount on Wednesday and the Cougars finished with a sweep (25-22, 25-16, 25-19) in front of 3,304 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.

BYU posted a 183-26 record in the WCC (88%) in 12 seasons and won or shared eight conference titles, so it was familiar with LMU. The Lions lost to then-No. 1 Texas to open the 2023 season but held the Longhorns to a .165 hitting percentage, then topped Long Beach State, which beat Texas. So LMU was a worthy opponent.

Hiapo was the difference, finishing with nine digs and seven assists, keeping the ball alive for important BYU points all night, even picking up a rarity for a libero: A kill on a free ball in the third set.

“Believe it or not, it’s not my first career kill,” said the 5-foot-7 Hiapo, who played pin hitter in high school. “In my freshman year at UVA I hit for a couple of games because all of our bigs got hurt. I got seven kills and block against Stanford. My job now is just passing and digging. If I don’t do that, what am I doing? I’m just standing around on the court so I just wanted to get involved.

“Tonight, I think everyone was doing their jobs and really, they made my job easy. I just make sure everybody else is doing their thing, which is BYU volleyball. We had to stick to our game plan. The coaches are really good at giving us a detailed scout where we can get in a rhythm of things. Once we started following the scout a realize LMU was doing things the coaches told us, we can flow better and communicate better.”

After a slow start, BYU ended up with a .258 hitting percentage for the match, led by Erin Livingston with 12 kills (.276) and Kate Prior with seven (.333). Whitney Bower had 22 assists, six digs and four block assists.

“I thought we just stayed focused,” Cougar coach Heather Olmstead said. “And we really turned on our serving. The whole match we were pretty dialed in. We knew they were going to get their blocks so we just wanted to cover as much as we could and just be as scrappy as we could. We hung in and persevered and just willed ourselves to that first set win. I think that gave us a lot of energy and confidence.”

Amethyst Harper led Loyola Marymount (1-2) with 11 kills, with the Lions hitting .229 for the match and posting ten blocks.

Loyola Marymount’s serving got BYU off balance early in the set, which led to a 14-10 advantage for the visitors. The Cougars rallied behind a couple of Livingston kills to close to 17-16. After a Lions time out, BYU freshman Mia Lee began to dominate. She teamed up with Livingston for a block to tie the score at 17 and also added a kill and a solo block for a 19-17 advantage. Another Livingston-Lee team up block and a Livingston ace gave the home team a 21-19 lead. LMU closed to 23-21, but a service error gave BYU set point. Livingston chased down a ball and Kate Prior pinged the ball of the block for the 25-22 win.

BYU hit just .115 in Set 1, LMU and .148 as the two teams combined for 15 hitting errors.

BYU was much smoother offensively in Set 2, hitting .379. The Cougars surged ahead at 10-7 after some fine net play, including a solo block from Bower. BYU maintained control throughout the rest of the set, grabbing a 19-12 lead on an Aria McComber ace and leading 22-15 when Bower scored on a dump play. Another terrific dig by Hiapo set up Eden Bower to tip the ball to the back line for set points at 24-16. Livingston ended it was a wicked ace serve down the line.

Hiapo put on a show in Set 3, dashing all over the court to keep rallies alive. Her hustle led to an Eden Bower kill and a 13-11 Cougar lead, setting off the home crowd with one of the largest cheers of the night. Later, BYU was scrambling around defensively and the free ball came to Hiapo, who tooled a flat-footed swing off the LMU block for a 19-14 advantage.

At match point, Eden Bower blasted a Lions overpass down for the winner at 25-19 and the sweep.

BYU (4-0) will next host the doTerra Classic with matchups against McNeese and UC Davis slated for Thursday and Saturday night.

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