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BYU Women’s Volleyball survives slow start, rivalry rematch next

By Shaun Gordon

ATHENS - AUGUST 21: Shadow image of celebration by the USA team during their men's indoor Volleyball preliminary match against Australia on August 21, 2004 during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games at the Peace and Friendship Stadium part of the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
ATHENS - AUGUST 21: Shadow image of celebration by the USA team during their men's indoor Volleyball preliminary match against Australia on August 21, 2004 during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games at the Peace and Friendship Stadium part of the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images) /
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It wasn’t pretty, but BYU Women’s Volleyball won their match against Stony Brook in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Up next: Utah.

BYU Women’s Volleyball faced stiff competition in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, at least in the first set.

The Cougars overcame an error-filled start to take down Stony Brook in the first round of the tournament, sweeping the Sea Wolves 25-20, 25-13, 25-12.

After BYU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set, Stony Brook took over and led for much of the set. But the Cougars used a late 7-1 run to cap off the set win.

The Sea Wolves only led once more in the match (3-2 in the third set). The Cougars cut down on their errors and Stony Brook hit -.250 and .000 in the second and third sets.

Veronica Jones-Perry led the Cougars with 17 kills, and Lyndie Haddock-Eppich had a team-best .400 hitting percentage.  Mary Lake led BYU with 13 digs.

It was far from BYU’s best performance. For a team that averaged .318 hitting on the season, the Cougars didn’t hit better than .278 in any set.

But BYU did enough to win, and win pretty easily. The competition will only get harder from here, though.

And that’ll start on Saturday night, when BYU takes on rival Utah in the second round. The Utes swept Denver on Friday afternoon, setting up the rematch with the Cougars.

The two teams met for the first time this season on September 13th in the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU beat Utah in straight sets, and none of them were particularly close.

But anything can happen in a rematch, and anything can happen when BYU and Utah go head-to-head.

If the Cougars can take down the Utes once again they’ll advance to their seventh Sweet Sixteen appearance in a row. And this time they’d host both the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight.

Next. BYU Women's Volleyball sweeps WCC awards. dark

NCAA Tournament Second Round (Smith Fieldhouse)

  • Utah vs. BYU – Saturday, December 1 at 7:00pm
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