No. 14 BYU volleyball sweeps Utah in first of 2 meetings between rivals

SALT LAKE CITY — It wasn't Utah's night.

The new-look Utah volleyball team, who has looked good for much of the season under first-year head coach Alyssa D'Errico, welcomed rival BYU to the Huntsman Center Thursday night, looking to upset the No. 14 team in the country.

And for at least the majority of the first set, Utah looked ready for the task.

But BYU was more efficient and rallied behind a late 3-0 run to put pressure on Utah and take a 24-19 lead. Following a Utah timeout, the Utes got a point back, but the Cougars earned the first set victory (25-20) on a center line violation by Utah.

BYU used that first set win to set the tone for the night as the Cougars rolled to a sweep over the home team to stay undefeated in conference play. BYU won the night 25-20, 25-17 and 25-16 in the first of two meetings between the rivals.

"I told the team coming into the match, BYU is playing really good volleyball right now," D'Errico said. "I thought they played really well — kudos to them. I think we did not execute very well on our side of the net, game plan wise, with what we wanted to do. We just missed some assignments."

D'Errico added that "I don't think we showed up and executed" against BYU, and didn't put "a lot of pressure on them."

Utah did well to limit BYU's attack for much of the night, offering a comparable attack, but the home team couldn't capitalize around the net and the Cougars made the Utes pay.

"I don't know if we were shocked by it or if we were surprised by it, but then we just didn't do a good job resetting and expecting the ball to come back," D'Errico said. "Kudos to them again, like they played really well; they made a lot of scrappy plays. We've just got to get better at getting reset and expecting the ball to come back and making good play after good play time and time again."

It was a night where D'Errico said her team couldn't get into a rhythm, while BYU managed to consistently build on little moments. The Cougars stacked multiple 2-point runs with an occasional 3-0 run tossed into the mix. But it was enough to put pressure on Utah as it attempted to dig out of small deficits.

And Utah couldn't get out of that hole all night.

"I hope it's just an alert that there's stuff that we've got to get better at," D'Errico said. "I think, again, there's not an area of the game that I would say that we showed up and played Utah volleyball. ... I don't think our offense was as aggressive as it has been, so I think it's hopefully just a reset for them of like we've got to get back to doing our jobs and doing them at a high level and showing up for each other on the court."

BYU finished the night with 48 kills and a 41.2% hit rate, while Utah had 37 kills and a 24.4% hit rate. Claire Little Chambers led the way for the Cougars with 15 kills on a 36.4% hitting and five digs, with Elli Mortensen adding 11 kills and six digs.

Veteran outside hitter Kamryn Gibadlo led the Utes with 12 kills on 23.5% hitting, with Devyn Wiest added 10 kills on 50% hitting in the loss.

Utah returns to action Saturday in Ames, Iowa, as it takes on Iowa State (1 p.m. MT, ESPN+).

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