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BYU's Suli Davis, Claire Little Chambers and head coach Heather Olmstead in the post-game news conference after losing to Cal Poly in five sets in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Los Angeles, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Lulu Uluave (5) passes the ball against Cal Poly in the first round of the NCAA women's volleyball tournament at Los Angeles, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU players celebrate a point in an NCAA first round women's volleyball match against Cal Poly in Los Angeles, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Alex Bower sets the ball against Cal Poly in the first round of the NCAA women's volleyball tournament at Los Angeles, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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For a dozen years, the BYU women’s volleyball team advanced in the NCAA Tournament like clockwork.

Suddenly, the Cougars can’t get out of the first round.

For the second straight season BYU — from a conference (the Big 12) that put ten teams into the NCAA’s — lost to a program from a non-power conference. Last year the Cougars were swept out of the tournament by Loyola Chicago from the Atlantic 10. On Thursday, it was Cal Poly from the Big West that got to do the happy dance after knocking off No. 5 seed BYU in five sets (25-19, 17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 15-10) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles.

BYU’s biggest problem against the Mustangs was defense, or the extreme lack of it. Cal Poly hit .313 for the match (the Cougars held opponents to .208 this season) with 20 kills from Kendall Beshear (.383), 15 kills from Emma Fredrick and 11 kills from Chloe Leluge.

The Mustangs also enjoyed a huge advantage in blocks (21-10), digs (72-65) and aces (7-4).

“We were doing everything we could,” Cougar head coach Heather Olmstead said. “Our passing wasn’t perfect but we got better as the match went on. Offensively, we couldn’t quite keep up with Cal Poly, and thought they were pretty scrappy on defense so it was a hard time getting kills. The kills that we did get were pretty good. We just had a few too many errors.”

BYU was never really in the match last year against Loyola Chicago but battled into the fifth set on Thursday before falling apart.

An ace from Hannah Billeter brought the Cougars within one, 7-6, in the fifth set. But it was pretty much all Cal Poly after that. A 4-0 run for the Mustangs made it 11-6 and the Cougars never got closer than three points the rest of the way.

Freshman Suli Davis led BYU with 18 kills but hit just .189 with eight errors. Brielle Kemavor had 15 kills (.344) and Claire Little Chambers — who left the match in the fourth set with an injury but returned later — had 14 kills (.364) and 14 digs. Setter Alex Bower finished with 48 assists and 11 digs and Lulu Uluave led the Cougars with 19 digs.

Cal Poly won the first set 25-19, cutting through BYU’s defense without committing a single hitting error. The Cougars managed to win Sets 2 and 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. In Set 4, the Cougars trailed by just one at 21-20. Little Chambers went down and Cal Poly dominated the rest of the set, winning 25-20 to set up the fifth set.

“We’ve battled through a lot of adversity and played a really great Big 12 Conference season,” Olmstead said. “It’s not how we wanted to end our season, but I’m super grateful for these girls, these players and the way that they battled and tuck together through a lot of highs and lows.”

BYU, which lost starting middle blockers Mia Lee and Abby Hoybjerg and libero Emma Barbara to injuries, graduates just three seniors (Billeter, middle blocker Elena Wallace and setter Macy Marshall).

“Suli’s got her own stuff going on, and they’ve just battled through so much this year,” Olmstead said. “I’m so proud of every single player on this team that’s fought through adversity and injury. Claire, she really wanted to play (after her injury). I had to trust her. You never want to do anything that’s not OK. But she asked to go in and wanted to play for the team. She’s been amazing for the group all year, so that’s who we were going to go with.

“Both Claire and Suli have been phenomenal as well. Alex has set a great offense all year. We’ve had every different lineup we could think of and everyone stepped up at different times.”

The Cougars could return all of its starters and adds a recruiting class that includes former Pitt middle blocker Rachel Jepsen, who will join BYU in 2026 after returning from a church mission to Paris, France.