The Smith Fieldhouse saw a season-high attendance with a sold-out crowd of 5,024 fans on Saturday, setting the mark for the seventh-highest home attendance in the last decade.

Leading the offense for BYU (10-6) was Miks Ramanis who finished with 12 kills on a .216 hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Tyler Herget recorded a career high with 12 digs and four blocks on the night.

The Bruins (12-4) finished with a .296 team clip, holding BYU to its second lowest clip of the season at .198. UCLA also won it from the service line with eight total aces compared to BYU’s three.

BYU dropped the first set, then rallied to win the next two and had chances to rally and win the match in four, but a service error gave the Bruins the 25-23 win and forced the fifth set.

Despite staying tied up at the beginning of the set, UCLA’s Ethan Champlin tallied six more kills for the Bruins in set five. Browne helped the Cougars stay in it with three kills, but the Bruins persevered, winning 15-10.

After having next week off, the Cougars will continue conference play by traveling to California for a pair of matches against Stanford starting on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. PST in Maples Pavilion.

Cougar women’s basketball loses at Iowa State

Lauren Gustin notched her 22nd-straight double-double in BYU’s 74-49 loss to Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday night.

The Cougars’ shooting struggles continued Saturday as BYU went 19-of-61 from the field for 31.1 percent and 21.7 percent from behind the arc on 5-of-23 from downtown. On the other end of the court, the Cyclones were an efficient 30-of-61 from the floor and 10-for-23 from deep for 49.2 and 43.5 percent, respectively.

Lauren Gustin scored 22 points on 10-of-20 shooting while grabbing 11 rebounds with four coming on the offensive glass to lead BYU. The senior also recorded two assists on the night. Gustin’s double-double is her 27th of the season which leads the country by seven.

Amari Whiting notched her 17th game scoring in double figures as the freshman poured in 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting from the field. Whiting also grabbed four rebounds, dished three assists and snatched two steals in the loss.

Saturday’s shooting performance by BYU marked the fourth-straight game in which the Cougars shot less than 30 percent from distance and the third-straight game under 40 percent from the field. BYU is 0-6 on the year when shooting under 40 percent from the floor.

The Cougars now return home to face the Houston Cougars on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. MT. The game between BYU and Houston will be Senior Night for Lauren Gustin and Kaylee Smiler and will be broadcast on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. Fans can also tune in to BYU Radio 107.9, BYURadio.org and the BYU Radio App for live play-by-play with Jason Shepherd.

BYU softball sweeps Cal-Poly, Rutgers

BYU softball combined for 28 runs between two run-rule wins over Cal Poly and Rutgers as it concluded action at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic on Saturday night.

The Cougars (12-3, 0-0 Big 12) saw their offense ignited at Big League Dreams Sports Park, tallying 26 total hits and 25 RBI with five long bombs, including four in game one against the Mustangs, with two coming on grand slams.

Four total home runs in the first game, including grand slams by Lily Owens and Huntyr Ava, fueled the Cougars to a 19-5 five-inning run-rule win over Cal-Poly at Des Moines Field.

The Cougars then continued their offensive barrage as they scored six runs in the first two innings at Fenway Field to pull away from the Scarlet Knights en route to their second run-rule win of the night, 9-1 in five innings.

The Cougars will head to Northern California next week for the Capital Classic, hosted by Sacramento State and UC Davis. Outside of the two host teams, BYU will also play UC Santa Barbara and Utah State.

Cougar men’s track sets school record

BYU men’s track and field saw a new program record of 3:05.22 in the 4×400-meter on day two of the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday night.

“It feels great to see what my guys accomplished today,” said sprints/hurdles coach Kyle Grossarth. “They were prepared. They showed yesterday in their individual events that they were ready to run fast in the relay today. They did a great job, and now we just hope that this gets us into nationals.”

The men’s relay team finished the four legs in 3:05.22, breaking the previous school record of 3:05.73. Trey Jackson started the Cougars off strong, clocking his portion of the race in 47.14. Josh Taylor received the baton and completed his two laps of the 200m track in 45.25. Abram Schaap then ran the third leg in 46.73 before Eli Hazlett brought the Cougars home in the anchor leg, finishing his split in 46.12.

“The first Big 12 Championship was definitely a big-time experience,” said director of track and field Ed Eyestone. “It’s a whole new level of difficulty in this conference, but I think for our inaugural outing I’m super proud with everyone’s preparation and execution. Each position group contributed greatly, with points coming across the board. We definitely can compete at this level. We look forward to sending some great men and women to compete at nationals in a couple weeks.”

Led by Lexy Halladay-Lowry, who won the 3,000-meters, the BYU women placed fourth overall at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championship.

“I was really pleased having three women score in the mile and then coming back and scoring three women again in the 3,000m,” Cougar assistant director of track and field Diljeet Taylor said. “Then, obviously having our first Big 12 women’s champion with Lexy. That was such a great race for her and a great confidence builder going into NCAA’s.”

Halladay-Lowry set a new Sports Performance Center facility record of 9:03.66 en-route to her individual conference title. The junior from Meridian, Idaho brought home the Cougars’ lone conference championship on the weekend.

The Cougars wrapped up their first Big 12 Indoor Track and Field conference championship outing with 71 points and a fourth-place overall finish.

BYU will return to action at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships March 8-9 in Boston.

Cougar baseball loses series to UC Davis

BYU dropped game three of its three game series with UC Davis, 9-5, on Saturday at Dobbins Stadium in Davis, Calif., giving the Aggies a 2-1 series win.

BYU outhit UC Davis nine to seven in the game but gave up four unearned runs on four errors in the loss.

After beginning the season with an 11-day, seven-game road trip to Arizona and California, the Cougars return to Provo for the season’s home-opener against former WCC foe Gonzaga at Miller Park, Feb. 29-March 2.

The Thursday-Friday games will begin at 3 p.m MST, with the Saturday game slated for 1 p.m. MST. All three games will be broadcast live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ as well as the BYU Radio App and BYU Radio 107.9 FM in the northern Utah market.

No. 39 BYU women’s tennis keeps rolling

No. 39 BYU women’s tennis defeated Cal Poly 5-2 for its fourth consecutive victory, improving to 8-1 on the season and concluding non-conference play.

The Cougars (8-1, 0-0 Big 12) will now turn their attention to Big 12 Conference play for their first season in the league, with No. 71 nationally ranked Bobo Huang improving to 7-0 in singles this season.

Sophomore Tina Li improved to 6-2, and senior Kara Wheatley gained her seventh singles victory of the season, moving to 7-1.

BYU has now won four straight matches and will begin conference play next Thursday in Orlando, Florida, against the Knights.

Cougar men’s tennis wins seventh straight

BYU men’s tennis defeated No. 72 Idaho State 6-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Indoor Tennis Courts, matching the longest program winning streak since 2021 at seven straight. The Cougars improved to 8-3 on the season with singles victories in straight sets by Jack Barnett, Redd Owen and Tygen Goldammer.

“That was a good win against a quality opponent who has several significant wins this season, including a road win last week at Utah,” said BYU head coach Zack Warren. “We came out with really solid energy in doubles, which was a point of emphasis. We’ll look to continue to build on that for the rest of the season. Big thanks to Cougar Nation, they were awesome today. We’re looking forward to seeing our home crowd again on March 21 against Oklahoma State.”

The win extended BYU’s dominance in the series to 22-5 all-time against Idaho State.

The matchup also marked BYU’s first against a ranked opponent this season, and won’t be the last. Big 12 play begins March 21 and will include matches against six schools ranked within the top 40 of the ITA’s latest team rankings (released Feb. 20), including at No. 2 TCU on April 4.

The Cougars will head east next week, with a match on Thursday, Feb. 29 at North Carolina Central slated for 11 a.m. MST. BYU will then travel to Virginia for a match the next day against Radford on Friday, March 1 at 12 p.m. MST.