Utah tied its best start in school history at 10-0 after beating Utah State in Logan on Wednesday. The Utes swept the Aggies in straight sets, 3-0, as they prepared for their anticipated matchup with rival, BYU.
The Utes were led once again by senior outside hitter Schofield-Olsen, as she notched a match-high 15 kills. Shelby Dalton, Bailey Bateman and Eliza Katoa each added seven more kills for the Utes. Launiere rotated all three setters once again and said after the game to expect to see that all year. Kalee Kirby led the three setters with 18 assists.
Both teams played well at the beginning of the first set, with a few lead changes and multiple tie scores. The Aggies saw their last lead at 6-5, before Utah went away with the set and never looked back, winning 25-20. The second set was just as close, but this time, the Utes led from wire-to-wire, taking the set 25-23. In the third set, Utah was on cruise control as they led from the first serve to the last kill by Katoa, winning the set 25-19 and clinching the match.
“I thought we played spectacular,” Schofield-Olsen said. “It’s amazing to see how much we’re improving game to game. Usually, Utah State takes us to five sets. It was great to just get in and get it done. Now we are on our way home at a decent hour.”
In 2013, the Utes were in the same position as they are now — a 10-0 start right before going up against the Cougars. Last season’s match ended in a five-set thriller at the Huntsman Center in BYU’s favor. This time around, it may be even harder for Utah to get by its rival in a déjà vu type of match.
Entering Friday’s tilt, the Cougars are ranked 12th in the country, despite losing two matches to ranked opponents. No. 5 Washington was the first team to knock off BYU in five sets, and last weekend it was No. 14 Colorado State’s turn to take down the Cougars.
If Utah hopes to keep up with the team down south, the players will have to contain their excitement. With a roster that contains six seniors who have never beaten BYU, the Utes are eager to get on the court Friday night.
“I think pulling together as a team and just focusing on us and not really worrying about what they’re doing on the other side of the net, not worrying about the crowd either,” said senior Chelsey Schofield-Olsen. “We just have to focus on our game and what we can do.”
Despite saying there is no other match she’d rather play in, head coach Beth Launiere is hoping that her squad stays focused heading into the match.
“We don’t talk about [the match against BYU] being bigger than it is, everybody knows it,” Launiere said. “So we just do the work and get ready to play it.”
The Cougars won’t go down quietly, however. BYU’s Jennifer Hamson will be looking to rain on Utah’s parade as the 6-foot-7-inch senior from Pleasant Grove was an AVCA All-American two years ago when she last played volleyball for the Cougars in her junior year.
Last year, Hamson stepped away from volleyball to focus on her second sport, basketball. As good as she is at spiking a volleyball, Hamson may be an even better basketball player, as she won WCC Player of the Year in the 2013-14 season. Following BYU’s basketball season, Hamson was drafted in the second round of the WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks, despite the team knowing she would finish her volleyball career at BYU before moving on to her professional career.
The Cougars are glad she came back, too. Hamson leads the team in kills with 123, good enough for an average of 3.73 per set.
“She’s very, very good, and she has the ability to take over a match,” Launiere said. “It’s gonna take a huge team effort, and we may not contain her. We gotta do a lot of things well, and she still might go off, but I still think that we can win the match.”
Schofield-Olsen, who has played Hamson multiple times throughout their careers, said that even though Hamson is a force on the court, she can still be stopped.
“Part of stopping her is getting in her head,” Schofield-Olsen said. “We need to stick it to them, and being more physical than they are, we can get them.”
Even though Schofield-Olsen is on the best stretch of her career, the Utes will need their much talked-about depth on Friday night in Provo. First set is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. MT at the Smith Field House.
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