alt=Brandon GurneyPROVO — BYU had its moments in Friday’s match versus San Diego, but ultimately fizzled when it mattered most to take a tough five set loss (18-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-17, 15-10) in front of 4,405 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Subpar serving and receiving led to poor passing, which BYU coach Heather Olmstead cited as the biggest culprit in her team’s loss, the No. 9-ranked Cougars’ first in just over a month’s time.
“We struggled passing, and when we couldn’t pass we lost those sets,” Olmstead said.
A pretty simple diagnosis, sure, but entirely accurate as the Cougars proved inconsistent from set to set in establishing a good flow and the type of momentum they usually show forth at home.
All the sporadic play seemed to come to a climax in the fifth set, leading to uninspired play and poor scoring opportunities as the Toreros led throughout, taking an early 7-4 lead in the final set before cruising to a 15-10 set win.
“We had three kills, and when you don’t kill the ball, you’re not going to win,” Olmstead said of her team’s paltry kill total in the fifth.
Of course, San Diego is no slouch and typically is the team in the West Coast Conference that provides the most problems for the Cougars most years.
The first set saw the both teams battle back and forth before the Toreros earned some breathing room late to earn themselves a 21-16 lead before taking the set 25-18.
The Cougars looked like a completely different team in the second to finish off strong late for a 25-20 set win before things reverted back to the Toreros side in the third to put the Cougars without much room for error in order to forge a comeback.
The good news is the Cougars did respond in the fourth, putting forth what could well be argued their best set of the match in building a commanding 12-3 lead early and then cruising to an easy 25-17 set win.
It all led up to a fifth set where relatively nothing went right, with the Cougars largely dependent upon San Diego hitting errors for points.
Although taking any loss is tough, OImstead fully recognized just how good San Diego is as a program and took some positives away.
“Our ability to hang in tough when we really weren’t playing well against a good San Diego team — I really liked that,” Olmstead said. “But I’m disappointed we didn’t play a little bit cleaner.”
Leading the way for the Cougars was Madelyn Robinson and her team-high 18 kills, followed by McKenna Miller who contributed 13. Leading the way for the Toreros was Thana Fayad and her match-high 19 kills.
With the loss, BYU falls to 16-3 on the year and 7-1 in WCC play. The Cougars will now hit the road for matches versus Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine before returning home to take on Saint Mary’s.