Lessons learned: No. 24 BYU women’s volleyball outlasts No. 20 Utah in five sets
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- The BYU women’s volleyball team celebrates a point in a five-set Big 12 victory against rival Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU’s Claire Little (left) tips over the Utah block during a Big 12 women’s volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU’s Brielle Kemavor (24) takes a swing against Utah in a Big 12 women’s volleyball match at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU player celebrate scoring a point during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU graduate Kjersti Strong hits the ball down the line during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Claire Little blocks a shot during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU freshman Elli Mortensen hits the ball during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU player celebrate scoring a point during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Claire Little goes up for a block during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Claire Little hits the ball during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Brielle Kemavor (24) and freshman Elli Mortensen go up for a block during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU sophomore Brielle Kemavor (24) and freshman Blaykli Bobik go up for a block during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- A BYU player hits the ball during the Big 12 match against Utah at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
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- BYU’s Claire Little takes a swing during the 2024 women’s volleyball season.
Coming into Saturday’s showdown with No. 20 Utah, the 24th-ranked BYU women’s volleyball team had posted a 1-5 record in five-set matches this season.
Those painful lessons are paying off.
The Cougars and Utes went to cinco sets (naturally) in front of 4,820 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse, with Utah taking an 10-7 lead. But BYU seized the momentum and reversed its fifth-set fortunes, finishing off a 3-2 (25-21, 25-27, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12) victory.
“You know, we had a little bit of a mindset switch,” said sophomore outside hitter Claire Little, who had a double-double for Cougars with 16 kills and 12 digs. “We’re doing this for us, every single game we play. It’s just the next match, just for us. Every single point matters from the start to the finish. We’re just doing one point at a time and that helped us a ton.”
A bad pass led to an easy Utah point and a 10-7 deficit in the fifth set, but the Cougars stayed strong and eventually tied the set at 11 on a combo block from Blaykli Bobik and Kjersti Strong.
At 12-12, Strong and Alex Bower combined on a block to push the Cougars in front 13-12. BYU didn’t have any ace serves in the first four sets but had four in the fifth, including two from Hannah Billeter. Her second ace was a big one, forging a 14-12 BYU lead and match point. The Utes attack went wide and the Cougars had their big victory.
“I think we were just so gritty,” Cougar coach Heather Olmstead said. “We just showed so much resilience and mental fortitude to just stick with it. When we were down (in the fifth set), we could have said, ‘Here we go again.’ We just looked each other in the eye and said, ‘Not this time.’ We just executed, one play after another.”
Freshman Elli Mortensen added 15 kills for BYU. Brielle Kemavor (9 kills, 10 block assists) and Strong (eight kills, five block assists) were key in the middle for the Cougars. Bower had 41 assists, nine digs and three blocks and libero Lulu Uluave led the team with 17 digs.
Utah (15-3 overall, 5-2 Big 12) had five players with double figure kills, topped by Kamryn Gibadlo (16) and Emrie Satuala (14).
After winning the first set 25-21 and hitting .315, the Cougars had to play from behind for much of the rest of the match.
“We’re a fighting team,” Little said. “We’ve shown that every single match, win or lose. This team wants to fight. We don’t care what the score is. We want to fight because we’re doing this for us. We’re going to fight every single point. We’re going to compete like that.”
BYU trailed by eight (14-6) in the second set before pushing Utah to extras in a 27-25 loss. Set 3 was more of the same, with the Utes leading by as many as six points (14-8) before the Cougars stormed back and tied things up at 23. Utah got big kills from Gibadlo and Kamry Bailey to win 25-23 and took a two to one lead in the match.
BYU got a boost off the bench from Macey Short, who put pressure on Utah from the service line in the fourth set. Tied at 15, Little took advantage of Short’s good serves to notch four kills in a 5-0 run that left the Cougars up 20-15. The Utes closed to 23-22 and appeared to tie the set on a Mortensen swing that went long, but a challenge from Olmstead revealed a Utah tip and it was a 24-22 BYU advantage. At set point, Strong blasted a slide attack down the line for the winner to force the fifth and final set.
In addition to the rivalry win against the Utes, the Cougars also earned their first Big 12 road win of the season on Wednesday at Iowa State.
“This team is learning from previous experiences,” Olmstead said. “We’re just asking them to lean into those moments and draw on that experience. The road win in Iowa was great for us.”
BYU (12-6, 5-3) will travel to Colorado for a match against the Buffaloes in Boulder on Friday.
