BYU bucks trend, beats Utah in five sets – Deseret News

No. 24 BYU earned a tough 3-2 victory over No. 20 Utah at Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday night, extending its winning streak over the Utes to five straight games.

The Cougars’ victory came after set scores of 25-21, 25-27, 23-25, 25-23 and 15-12.

“They were so brave and just showed so much resilience and mental toughness to… persevere,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “It was one good piece after another.”

At the start of the game, BYU was down 5-1 in the fifth set. On Saturday it didn’t seem to be the case.

“Every single point counts from start to finish,” said BYU sophomore outside hitter Claire Little, who led her team with 18 kills. “We just take one point at a time.” That helped us a lot.”

The game marked the first time the rival schools met as ranked opponents since their 2021 NCAA Tournament contest at Smith Fieldhouse, where the Cougars ended the Utes’ season.

Saturday marked the first time the teams met in conference competition since 2010 (Utah beat BYU in both contests that year). Despite the Cougars’ recent success against the Utes, the Provo school lost its last six contests against its rival the last time they competed in a conference.

A lot has changed since then, and BYU proved that on the court Saturday. The Cougars never trailed in the first set, extending their lead to as many as five points.

Although the Cougars remained in control, Utah stayed close, tying the game five times. However, every time the Utes threatened to take the lead, BYU responded, eventually scoring five of the final six points after Utah cut the score to 20 apiece.

The Utes were dominant early in the next set, throttling the Cougars to take an eight-point lead while only needing four points to close. But BYU didn’t have it easy and stormed back to tie the score at 23, 24 and 25.

From there, Utah managed just enough, earning a hard-fought point before a service ace from veteran outside attacker Lauren Jardine finished the job.

After leading most of the third set, the Utes allowed the Cougars to make another comeback, tying the game at 11:00 p.m. as BYU scored three straight points late to tie the game.

However, Utah shortened the comeback and secured the 2-1 set lead with the next two points.

“We had a little bit of a difficult passing period in the second and third sets,” Olmstead said. “In the fourth set we started getting better passes.”

Along with better passing, the Cougars became the attackers in the fourth set and slowly distanced themselves from the Utes as the set progressed.

The lead wasn’t secure, however, as Utah tightened the game this time, getting within a point of BYU before the home team slammed the door and forced a decisive fifth set.

The Cougars made the most of the final set, getting four service aces and this time pulling off a comeback to win the match. After falling behind early, BYU defeated Utah 6-1 to close out the night, handing the Utes just their third loss of the season.

After so many close losses this season, Olmstead feels like her team has begun to turn things around.

“You just learn from previous experiences,” she said. “We just ask them to lean into those moments and draw on that experience. … They’re getting better every day.”

Both teams will resume Big 12 road play next week when Utah takes on Kansas State on Thursday and BYU takes on Colorado on Friday.