APTOS, Calif. – The No. 1 BYU women’s volleyball team defeated Pacific (25-17, 25-19, 25-17) to earn its 27th-straight win Saturday afternoon.
Earning their 21st sweep in 27 matchups this season, the Cougars (27-0, 17-0) received contributions from up and down the roster in the victory. Nine different players had a kill, 11 had at least one dig and eight players registered a block or more.
Ranked No. 1 in the nation with an average hitting percentage of .331, BYU hit .383 in the match. Meanwhile, the Cougars held Pacific (12-16, 7-10) to a .118 mark; BYU was No. 2 in the nation in opponent hitting percentage at .135 coming into the weekend.
The match was moved from Pacific’s campus in Stockton to Cabrillo College in Aptos because of poor air quality due to the recent fires in the state.
“We want to thank Cabrillo College for hosting us today; they really made us feel at home,” BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. “Everyone was ready to play today and we had great energy. I’m proud of the team’s ability to stay focused this weekend.”
Senior Roni Jones-Perry led all players with 16 kills on a .519 hitting percentage. Junior Mary Lake had nine digs and a pair of aces while senior Lyndie Haddock-Eppich again filled the stat sheet with 35 assists, six digs, four blocks and three kills. Junior Kennedy Eschenberg hit a team-high .625, going 6-for-8 with two blocks.
With the score 6-5 early in the first set, a kill by Eschenberg and back-to-back aces by Lake eased the BYU lead out to 9-5. The Cougars made their move a short time later, scoring eight unanswered points in a team effort that included a kill by Madelyn Robinson, an ace by Danelle Stetler, two kills by Gneiting and a block by Gneiting and Haddock-Eppich to give BYU a 17-8 lead. BYU hit .440 in the set as a team with Gneiting and Jones-Perry collecting four kills apiece.
Down 6-3, BYU went on another 8-0 run to take an 11-6 lead thanks in part to back-to-back kills by Robinson and defense at the net. The Tigers continued to fight, but Jones-Perry’s three kills gave BYU the final three points the Cougars needed to take the set, 25-19.
Pacific and BYU battled in a close third set. Five different Cougars had at least one block, led by three from Emily Lewis-Bushman, a career high. Jones-Perry added four kills in the frame which ended on a kill by Haddock-Eppich, 25-17.
BYU will look to finish the regular season undefeated for the first time in program history at Loyola Marymount on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. PT. The game will be streamed live on TheW.tv.