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PROVO — Nothing is truly easy for BYU women's volleyball, with hours of practice every week to maintain a top-25 national ranking that is 174-straight polls strong.
But on Thursday night in an all-AVCA Top 25 matchup in Big 12 play and the backside of a two-match skid, everything felt easier.
At least, it got to be that way.
Elli Mortensen tied a career high with 17 kills, and Claire Little added 14 kills, seven digs and four blocks as No. 23 BYU snapped a two-match losing skid with a 26-24, 25-21, 25-11 sweep of No. 18 Baylor in front of an announced crowd of 4,031 fans Thursday at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Alex Bower dished out 41 assists with four digs and two blocks for the Cougars (10-5, 3-2 Big 12). Brielle Kemavor added seven kills and six blocks, and Kjersti Strong had seven kills and four blocks.
"Elli did a great job attacking the line," BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. "Alex did a great job setting the set out to the antenna where they could hit line, and they took advantage of it. They cracked some balls down the line, which was really cool.
"They also took some big swings out of system. She was comfortable tonight, and that's how she can play."
Elise McGhee led Baylor with 11 kills, and Jackie Barrett Frazier distributed 27 assists for the Bears (10-5, 202 Big 12).
With a rare linear television broadcast on FS1 and an equally rare losing skid in Arizona in the rear-view mirror, BYU unleashed its offense by unleashing its passing.
"We just challenged them to focus extremely hard on the ball that was coming at them, and get the ball in the middle of the court," Olmstead said. "I thought Lulu did a fantastic job at libero, which was a new switch for us, but I thought she was fearless from the very first set. She wasn't perfect, but I thought she did a fantastic job leading that back row, and Hannah came in and did her job, as well."
The ease of operations — bump, set, spike, repeat — made everything feel easy, from the back row of Lulu Uluave (16 digs) and Hannah Billeter (3 aces, 3 digs) to Bower to the offensive threats. It wasn't, of course, but one might be forgiven for believing so.
At least, after the first set.
"Our passing let everything open for us offensively," said Mortensen, the freshman from Corner Canyon who hit a career-best .500. "We were staying assertive; I think that was the difference. There was no passiveness on the court. Everyone was doing their job, and we came out on top."
Neither team led by more than three in the opening set, but Mortensen put down six kills and Kemavor had a solo block as part of a 3-0 run to go up 23-20.
Allie Sczech pulled the Bears within 23-22. But Little's fifth kill of the set pulled the Cougars back in front, and Strong put the first one away 26-24.
Both teams hit fairly evenly in the opening set, with BYU putting down 19 kills with just five errors and the Bears supplying 15 kills with four errors, with three blocks apiece.
The Cougars hit .370 in the second set, held Baylor to .300 and set up set-point with Bower's stunning dish to Kemavor en route to the 25-21 win.
Strong got going in the latter stages of the match to help BYU finish off the Bears. The senior graduate transfer from Saint Mary's finished with four of the Cougars' 10 blocks, including a menacing solo stuff en route to a 20-8 lead in the decisive third set.
On a night when she compiled her 300th collegiate career block, Strong — who won a state title at Skyridge High in 2019 and returned to Utah County after stops in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Ephraim and Moraga, California, as the Gaels' all-time hitting percentage leader — proved the perfect complement to Kemavor.
The Cougars hit as high as .617 in the final set before finishing with 14 kills on 24 swings (and just two errors) and finishing at .404 while holding Baylor to .032 in the final set.
BYU is back at the Smith Fieldhouse to host No. 17 TCU, which lost 3-0 to Utah, on Saturday night (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).
"We've been playing great competition," Mortensen said. "But I think this proved to us that we are just as good as everyone else, and we can hang with any team."
