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BYU's Lulu Uluave dives on the floor for a ball during a Big 12 women's volleyball match against Arizona State in the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU volleyball players celebrate a point during a Big 12 women's volleyball match against Arizona State at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 31, 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 Arizona State at the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU fans are dressed up for Halloween at a Big 12 women's volleyball match in the Smith Fieldhouse on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The good thing about young teams is they get older.

The growth shown by the No. 20 BYU women’s volleyball team was evident Thursday night in the Smith Fieldhouse against No. 13 Arizona State, which swept the Cougars in Tempe earlier this month.

BYU pushed the Sun Devils to five sets — the first time ASU has gone to five this season — but the visitors dominated the fourth and fifth sets to earn a 25-23, 17-25, 23-25, 25-14, 15-7 victory.

After winning the middle two sets, the Cougars trailed just 12-10 in Set 4. But Arizona State, one of the most experienced teams in the country with five super senior starters, outscored BYU 28-11 from that point on to win the match.

“I thought their serving was great and our passing broke down,” Cougar coach Heather Olmstead said. “I thought we still hit good enough to be in the match with not great passing. I liked our fight in the third set. I think that showed a lot of character and grittiness from our team, and then our discipline broke down in multiple areas. We weren’t quite clean enough to keep up with them.”

Sophomore Claire Little led BYU with 20 kills, hitting .308. Kjersti Strong added 11 kills and three blocks.

” I think that we are a very different team from when we played them the first time,” Strong said. “We’ve worked so hard. Everyone’s been coming in and getting as many reps as they needed to get better. I think we also have a lot more trust and faith in each other, building that team chemistry and having everyone really believe. We had a deep want to win that game. Obviously there’s so much more work to do, but I feel like we’ve made big strides.”

Freshman Alex Bower led the offense with 45 assists and also contributed 15 digs.

For most of the match, BYU had a higher hitting percentage than ASU. But the Sun Devils were just a little bit better in key areas (11 service errors to 13 for BYU, nine blocks compared to the Cougars’ seven, 69 digs to BYU’s 60). Arizona State eventually hit .258 to the Cougars’ .236.

BYU did a good job on ASU’s leading hitter, Geli Cyr, holding her to a .188 hitting percentage and 15 kills. But teammates Shania Cromartie (16 kills) and middle Savannah Kjolhede (12 kills and zero errors on 18 swings) were tough on BYU all night.

“We’re not happy with that,” Olmstead said. “We want to win, but we’ve got to be better. We got to execute better. We know that we need to execute in the fifth set, and we’re learning that, but it’s never going to come easily. Claire was hammering some balls and our middles scored when they could, but I thought Arizona State played great defense. They were scrappy, and their serve and pass game was really good. We’ve just got to execute when it matters.”

Little had seven kills and no errors on 11 swings (.636) in the first set but Cyr found the back line on a swing for a hard-fought 25-23 Sun Devils victory.

The Cougars hit .364 in Set 2, running out to a 16-6 lead on a Little kill. BYU won easily 25-17, a tie for the worst set loss of the season for Arizona State.

BYU rallied from an 11-6 deficit in the third set and finally took the lead at 22-21 on a Little swing. A brilliant dig from Lulu Uluave set up a Kemevor kill and got the Cougars to set point at 24-21. The Sun Devils closed to 24-23 but Kemavor’s hard swing got a piece of the ASU block for the 25-23 victory and a 2-1 lead in the match.

Arizona State (21-2 overall, 9-1 Big 12) grabbed momentum midway though Set 4 and never let it go.

The Cougars (13-7, 6-4) are now 2-6 in five-set matches this season.

“I think our team is super tough,” Strong said. “We’re super relentless. We’ve been in a lot of five setters this year. I know the team really feels like there are things that we could have executed better. ASU is a great team, but we’re also a great team, and I know that we went into it super excited for the opportunity to play them, and we’re bummed it didn’t go our way. This means we just need to get back in the gym and work on things.”

BYU will attempt to avenge another earlier loss on Saturday, taking on Arizona in the Fieldhouse at 1 p.m. MT. The Wildcats took a five-set victory against the Cougars on Oct. 6.