Utah volleyball didn’t just beat BYU last Friday night; the Utes found the version of themselves they’ve been searching for all season. Down two sets at home, Utah mounted a stunning comeback to win the next three and take the rivalry match, a performance head coach Beth Launiere called “the signature win we really, really needed.”
“We’ve talked for weeks about just keeping our heads down and doing the work,” Launiere said. “Good things come when you stay with it. It’s been hard to believe that at times, but everyone in our program kept working. This was the payoff.”
The comeback started with something Utah hasn’t always had this year: a sense of calm. Even after giving away a late lead in the second set, a moment that could have buried a team fighting inconsistency, Launiere said no one on the bench believed the night was over.
“I honestly felt calm the whole time,” she said. “I don’t think anybody thought being down 0-2 meant we were out of it. Once we started rolling in set three, it was just about finishing sets. We got better and more confident as the match went on.”
Once Utah took the third set, momentum flipped sharply. BYU, which came in ranked No. 23, struggled with Utah’s serve pressure and couldn’t slow the Utes’ rhythm offensively. Launiere pointed to the serving numbers as one of the biggest factors: seven aces to just eight errors in a five-set match.
“That’s just phenomenal numbers,” she said. “Serving has been keeping us in matches lately. Every aspect of our offense has been cooking, honestly.”
The one area Utah still believes can grow is floor defense. The block “finally came alive,” Launiere said, but she wants to see the same consistency behind it.
“Our floor defense still has to get there,” she said. “We’ve been working on it every day, and it’s starting to show, but that’s the next step for us.”
While the rivalry atmosphere can often tilt tight moments, Utah didn’t lean into the emotion. Launiere told her team early in the week that BYU’s record or momentum didn’t matter.
“I told them I didn’t care about BYU, not one bit,” she said. “It was 100% about us. You don’t have to hype it up. It’s BYU. Everyone knows. Everyone has a little extra pop in their step for this match. The key was to stay focused on who we are.”
The win comes at a crucial time for Utah, with a brutal end-of-season stretch ahead. Utah sits at No. 52 in the RPI and needs to finish above .500 to enter NCAA Tournament consideration. That path runs through Kansas, Arizona, Texas Tech and a rematch with BYU.
“Kansas is a very good team, long, good defensively. Arizona’s rolling and fighting for the tournament, too,” Launiere said. “I don’t think we’re a team anybody wants to play right now. If we get some wins here and finish the season right, I think we might be in that conversation.”
When asked what she wants people to know about her team after Friday’s comeback, her answer came quickly.
“Resilience,” she said. “This group has faced adversity. They’ve kept working, stuck together and kept communicating. I think they’ve shown a lot of resilience through all of it.”
And on Friday night, that resilience paid off, carrying Utah through a rivalry match they had every reason to lose, and a win they may look back on as a turning point in their season.
