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BYU's Elli Mortensen (2) and her teammates celebrate a point during a Big 12 women's volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Lulu Uluave (in blue), Claire Little (center) and Hannah Billeter dive for a ball during a Big 12 women's volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Claire Little (12) takes a swing in a Big 12 women's volleyball match against Baylor at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The BYU women’s volleyball team found its offense right where you would expect: On the floor of the Smith Fieldhouse.

The 23rd-ranked Cougars struggled to put the ball away in last week’s two-loss, Arizona road trip but was unstoppable at home on Thursday, hitting a stunning .404 in a dominant sweep (26-24, 25-21, 25-13) of No. 18 Baylor.

BYU hit .168 at Arizona and a season-low .115 two nights later at Arizona State last week, but was a fine-tuned machine against the Bears. After losing to the Sun Devils on Friday, the Cougars took the next two days off. On Monday, the real work began.

“We absolutely just grinded,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “The team knew that we needed to get better. We’ve got to get better in the next two months. We had three days of practice because we were at home. We just hit it hard those three days and we took it seriously.”

Freshman Elli Mortensen posted her career high with 18 kills and hit .467 (18 kills, four errors, 30 swings).

“We had a big mental shift in our practice this week from last week,” Mortensen said. “We were gritty and we had a pissed-off attitude. I think we showed that tonight on the court. I was really proud of our passing. Our passing let everything open up for us. Alex (Bower) did such a good job distributing and it just felt like we had so many options. Everything was just clicking.”

Claire Little added 14 kills, hitting .323. Bower had 41 assists in directing the Cougars offense. Brielle Kemavor led BYU with six block assists and added seven kills, and fellow middle Kjersti Strong had four block assists and seven kills. Freshman libero Lulu Uluave was spectacular in the back row, leading the match with 16 digs.

Elise McGhee led Baylor with 11 kills, but the Bears hit just .219.

Leading two sets to none, BYU took Baylor the woodshed in the third set for the emphatic finish, posting .520 hitting percentage. The Cougars went on a 9-0 run early to take a big lead. Mortensen’s tip for a point made the score 10-4 and Strong’s solo block pushed the BYU advantage to 14-4. The Cougars continued to put the pressure on and got to 21-8 on consecutive kills from Little. Mortensen set her career high with the final winner, a hard smash down the line for the 25-13 victory and the sweep.

Both teams came out hot offensively and the first set was utra-competitive with 13 ties and six lead changes until the Cougars took a 15-13 lead on a Claire Little ace serve. Brielle Kemavor had a kill followed by a solo block and BYU led 22-20. The Cougars reached set point at 24-22, but Baylor scored twice to tie the score. A Bears service error gave BYU set point again and this time Kjersti Strong’s attack found the sideline for the 26-24 win.

Mortensen was electric in the first set, hitting .400 while knocking down six kills. Little had five and Strong four as the Cougars hit .341. Lulu Uluave was effective in the back row, leading BYU with six digs.

BYU’s scorching offense kept up the pace in the second set, hitting .393 and playing from the lead. Back-to-back aces from Hannah Billeter gave the Cougars a 9-7 lead and they maintained that advantage the whole way. Mortensen had a kill and an ace to push the BYU lead to 20-16 and a Kemavor attack gave the home team set point at 24-21. Strong found an open spot for the winning point on a tip and the Cougars took a 2-0 lead in the match.

Now, the trick for Olmstead is to get her young team to duplicate their energy in upcoming matches.

“You have to have that confident humility,” Olmstead said. “We’re confident on our abilities and we know we can play at a certain level, but we’re humble enough to know that we’ve got to get better tomorrow, and we’ve got to bring it Saturday. We’ve got a great team coming into our gym in TCU and they have one of the best outside hitters in the country (Melanie Para) and they’re going to be hungry.”

BYU (10-5 overall, 3-2 Big 12) will host another ranked team, No. 17 TCU, on Saturday. The Horned Frogs were swept by Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday.

Baylor (10-5, 2-2) will play at Utah on Saturday.