Three for three: Former Cougars come back to Fieldhouse with LOVB Salt Lake
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- Former BYU All-Americans Alexa Gray (left) and Roni Jones-Perry are teammates with LOVB Salt Lake in 2026.
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- Starters for LOVB Salt Lake (in yellow) are introduced before a match against LOVB Nebraska in the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.
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- Former BYU All-American Roni Jones-Perry (in yellow) takes a swing during a match with LOVB Salt Lake in 2026.
Former BYU women’s volleyball All-Americans Roni Jones-Perry, Mary Lake and Alex Gray found themselves in familiar territory.
All three are members of LOVB Salt Lake, now in its second season in the League One Volleyball professional league. Jones-Perry and Lake played for the club in the inaugural season (2025) and Gray, one of the top outside hitters in the world, joined the team this year.
LOVB Salt Lake made a visit to the former BYU players’ old stomping grounds on Feb. 7, taking on LOVB Nebraska at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo. It’s been unseasonably warm in the Utah Valley this winter and that kept some prospective fans outside but an energetic crowd showed up to watch the former Cougars.
In fact, Lake, who is backing up the world’s top libero (Manami Kojima) and contributes as a serving specialist, said she recognized several BYU volleyball supporters among the crowd.
“We have some big fans that I got to say ‘hi’ to,” Lake said. “And just to connect and be down here, it was really fun. I live an hour away (in north Salt Lake), and so I love when my husband and I can come down to BYU and just be reminded of all the good times we had.”
Lake helped lead the Cougars to a Final Four appearance in 2018 and is still the school’s all-time leader in digs (1,898).
“Oh, my gosh, I woke up this morning and I thought to myself, never in a million years would be back at the Smith Fieldhouse,” she said. “But it was so great driving into the Y Law parking and seeing the mountains, feeling the atmosphere of the school. I felt like I was back. It was so awesome.”
Jones-Perry said playing in the Fieldhouse again was almost a surreal experience.
“I thought about it a lot during the week,” she said. “Leading up to it, I had a lot of friends and family ask me, ‘Hey, are you excited? What are you thinking about it?’ I don’t think it felt super real until we were here, started warming up pregame and getting into it. It was really special for me. There were some fans in the stands that I recognized from my BYU days, not friends or family, just people who were, tried and true Cougar fans. So it was really cool seeing them there. I love this gym, so it was really cool to be back here.”
Gray, who has played with Team Canada and in Turkey and Italy since leaving Provo in 2015, was a two-time West Coast Conference MVP while wearing the blue and white. Said she very nearly joined LOVB Salt Lake last season but the timing wasn’t quite right.
Shawn Olmstead, who coached Gray at BYU before changing jobs to take over the men’s program, said Gray was a shy young woman when he recruited her out of Canada, joking that the only words her heard her say was “Yes” when he offered her a scholarship.
“Yeah, I think I’ve grown a lot over the past 10 years,” Gray said. “Playing overseas has really changed me. You have to be out of your shell, especially when you don’t speak the language and everything’s new, so asking questions and just making effort to talk to teammates. But I’ve had a great experience overseas, and I’m just happy to be back in Utah. It feels like home. I’m so excited to be back in the Fieldhouse.”
Gray is the team leader in in points (141) and had 21 kills in the match leading up to the match in the Fieldhouse. She didn’t play against LOVB Nebraska, taking advantage of a rest day. But LOVB Salt Lake still rolled, winning 25-23, 25-22, 18-25, 25-15 with Jones-Perry — the home crowd consistently chanted “RJP! RJP! RJP!” whenever she touched the ball — had 10 kills.
LOVB is currently in first place with an 8-1 record, two games in front of LOVB Houston. The two teams play in Texas on Saturday.
“We worked really hard in the offseason,” Lake said. “The coaches have been working us hard, which is good, and we’ve got some awesome players. Having Alexa is a game-changer, and the addition of Maddie Bugg, our second setter, they’ve really make a big difference.”
Lake, Jones-Perry and Gray had just a bit of an overlap during their BYU careers. Previous to her freshman season, Lake was going through rehab for a high school injury in Provo as Gray was preparing to play overseas. Jones-Perry and Gray played one season (2015) together.
“Alexa is a player I’ve always looked up to,” Jones Perry said. “It’s been cool to watch her career unfold and to know we kind of came from the same place here at BYU. It’s just extra special that she’s back here now, too, and I get to look up to her on the court and be a teammate.”
Gray added: “It’s the feelings that I had here is what I remember, just feeling at home and feeling like there’s something bigger than yourself that you’re working towards. And just the camaraderie of the team here at BYU. We were really tight, and, yeah, it was fun to play here.”
