PROVO — There is a old Japanese proverb: “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
The U volleyball team fell Friday night to BYU, 3-0, giving the Cougars their first regular season sweep since 1999. Fifteen minutes after the game, Utah was in the process of standing itself back up.
“I think we’re going to come out fighting again,” said Utah middle blocker Lori Baird. “Anything can happen, we’ve just got to be ready.”
Despite getting swept by the Cougars in three games for the first time since 2001, Utah took away many positives from the loss.
Baird had yet another strong performance and finished with 11 kills and a 0.360 hitting percentage. Whitney Webb also got back on track with a 13-kill performance. Chelsey Sandberg managed to step her game up from the middle blocker position and finished with a match-high six blocks.
The Utes (11-14, 7-7 MWC) were literally just a play or two away from making things much more interesting in each of the three games. But in the end, the Cougars had an answer for everything the Utes hit at them.
“I want to give credit to BYU,” said U head coach Beth Launiere. “I think that they played a very good match. I think credit is due where it is due. We tend to hold teams a bit better than that, but they had their offense going.”
In game one, Utah took away a sideout opportunity from BYU when Karolina Bartkowiak spiked home a Keisha Fisher assist to make the score 25-23. But instead of Kate Robison getting another chance to disrupt the BYU offense with her knuckling serve, an errant attempt gave the Cougars a point and the Utes never got the serve back.
In game two, Utah methodically worked itself back from a 17-11 deficit and eventually tied the game at 23 when BYU’s Bryn Porter was rejected by a blocking trio of Sandberg, Webb and Robison. But after Porter gave the Cougars a two-point cushion with a kill and a service ace, the rivals essentially traded sideouts until BYU posted its second-straight 30-27 victory.
In game three, the Utes rallied from a 27-20 deficit by scoring four straight points. But the Cougars put an end to the run with a timeout and a 3-1 finish to the game to preserve the sweep.
“I thought we competed hard,” Launiere said. “I’m very proud of our team for competing the way we compete, even in a lot of losses. We had some of our best offensive numbers tonight.”
Chelsea Goodman led the Cougars with 17 kills, five digs and 2 blocks, but it was Rachel Dyer who turned in the most impressive offensive display.
The junior middle blocker, with her textbook slide shot, was nearly perfect on the night as she finished with 13 kills, a 0.571 hitting percentage and just one attack error.
With the win, the Cougars sewed up a Top-3 spot in the conference tournament, which will run during Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas, Nev. The Cougar volleyball team also gave BYU three more points toward the Deseret Duel.
Utah will guarantee itself a meeting with TCU in the MWC tournament and either the fourth or the fifth seed, if the Utes can beat either UNLV or San Diego State during their two-game homestand this upcoming weekend.
“I think there are more wins ahead of us,” Launiere said. “We’re going to go after it.”