SAN FRANCISCO – Junior outside hitter McKenna MIller helped No. 1 BYU women’s volleyball cruise past San Francisco in three sets (25-12, 25-20, 25-21) Thursday night at War Memorial Gym to remain undefeated.
"I liked our fight tonight,” BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. "We stuck together and kept competing.”
Miller led the Cougars with 11 kills while adding four aces. Lyndie Haddock-Eppich had a double-double of 27 assists and 11 digs while Mary Lake contributed 19 digs. Heather Gneiting and Kennedy Eschenberg each put up four blocks and Roni Jones-Perry had nine kills and seven digs in the win.
A kill from Jones-Perry gave BYU (17-0, 7-0 WCC) a 6-5 lead, but San Francisco (8-10, 1-6 WCC) scored four-straight points to go up 9-6. The Cougars then countered with a 5-0 run of their own to retake the lead at 11-9. Kills from Jones-Perry, Madi Robinson and Miller helped BYU go up 22-12 following a 9-0 rally. The Cougars then won the set 25-12 on an attack error from the Dons.
BYU took a 7-3 advantage to start the second set off of a Haddock-Eppich kill. A Gneiting ace extended the Cougar lead at 10-6, but a 6-1 run by San Francisco pushed the Dons back in front at 12-11. A BYU attack error kept San Francisco ahead at 16-15, but a Gneiting kill helped the Cougars rattle off three unanswered points to take a 19-17 advantage. A Miller kill then ended the set for BYU at 25-20.
The Dons took a 4-1 lead at the beginning of the third set, capitalizing off of several Cougar errors. Back-to-back Miller aces pushed BYU in front at 9-6, and a kill from Lacy Haddock made it 14-10. San Francisco tied the set again at 14-14 following a kill. The teams remained within a point of each other until a Jones-Perry kill made it 20-18. The Cougars scored the last three points of the match, including two blocks from Eschenberg, to take the set, 25-21.
BYU returns to action at the Leavey Event Center Saturday, Oct. 13, at 1 p.m. PDT, facing off against Santa Clara. The match will be streamed live on TheW.tv. Live stats can be found on the BYU women’s volleyball schedule page.