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BYU Women’s Volleyball: Thursday’s Final Four is must-watch for Cougar fans

By Shaun Gordon

ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 06: A NCAA logo is seen outside the Georgia Dome before the 2013 NCAA Men's Final Four Semifinal between the Louisville Cardinals and the Wichita State Shockers on April 6, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 06: A NCAA logo is seen outside the Georgia Dome before the 2013 NCAA Men's Final Four Semifinal between the Louisville Cardinals and the Wichita State Shockers on April 6, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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BYU Women’s Volleyball takes on Stanford in a battle of the two best teams in the sport this year. It’s an even battle that’s must-watch for Cougar fans.

This is one of very few times in which the sequel should be better than the original.

No. 4 seed BYU Women’s Volleyball takes on No. 1 seed Stanford in the Final Four on Thursday, and the Cardinal will be looking for revenge.

Why? Because the Cougars handed them their only loss of the season way back on August 31st. That was a five-set thriller in the Smith Fieldhouse, and the two teams looked like the best in the sport at that point in the season.

Fast forward three and a half months, and the two teams are still the two best teams in college volleyball. Stanford hasn’t lost since that night in Provo, and BYU’s only slip-up came in the regular-season finale at Loyola Marymount.

Both teams have coasted through the NCAA tournament so far. Stanford has only lost two sets in their first four games, while BYU has only lost one.

And the two squads are nearly perfect mirror images of each other. Just take a look at how Stanford’s stats compare to BYU’s (with national ranks in parentheses):

  • Hitting Percentage – BYU .315 (No. 1), Stanford .310 (No. 3)
  • Opp. Hitting Percentage – BYU .139 (No. 2), Stanford .164 (No. 24)
  • Kills/Set – Stanford 15.0 (No. 3), BYU 14.3 (No. 11)
  • Assists/Set – Stanford 14.1 (No. 3), BYU 13.5 (No. 10)
  • Aces/Set – BYU/Stanford 1.4
  • Digs/Set – Stanford 13.4, BYU 13.1
  • Blocks/Set – Stanford 3.4 (No. 1), BYU 3.0 (No. 5)

The Cougars have been able to adjust to the loss of All-American McKenna Miller, and they’re playing great volleyball in her absence.

That’s not to say that BYU wouldn’t love to have Miller on Thursday night. She would add even more punch against the nation’s No. 1 team, but her injury hasn’t doomed the Cougars.

If there’s any one women’s college volleyball game for Cougar fans to watch, this is the one. It’s the two best teams this year going head-to-head. It’s the volleyball version of Alabama/Clemson in football or Duke/Kansas in basketball.

It’s only unfortunate that these two teams had to meet in the national semifinal rather than the championship game. It would have been the most fitting ending to the season.

Instead, these two titans will square off for the right to play for the title on Saturday, while the loser will have fallen just short of their season’s trajectory.

But championship game or not, this game has it all:

  • The best of the best squaring off.
  • One team looking for revenge.
  • The season on the line for both teams.

If that’s not must-watch TV, I don’t know what is.

Next. BYU Football: Scouting the Schedule - Western Michigan. dark

NCAA National Semifinal

No. 4 BYU vs. No. 1 Stanford – Thursday, December 13th at 5:00pm MT (ESPN)

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