PROVO – No. 9 BYU women's volleyball claimed its second sweep of the day Friday night, defeating Utah Valley (25-21, 25-21, 25-20) in front of 2,887 fans.
Junior Taylen Ballard-Nixon had a career-high 12 kills at a .435 percentage. Senior McKenna Miller also had 12 kills while junior Kennedy Eschenberg added 11 for BYU (2-0).
"We did a good job problem solving tonight," BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. "Overall, we passed well and that helped us offensively. I loved the way Taylen and Kennedy played; they were fearless when we needed it. "
Set 1
The Cougars created a six-point lead at 14-8 after back-to-back kills by Eschenberg. But UVU battled back, taking a 21-20 lead. The Cougars answered with five answered points with kills by Eschenberg, Miller and Eschenberg again before Whitney Bower finished the set with an ace.
Set 2
The set went back and forth with eight ties in the frame overall. Besides an early 4-1 BYU lead, neither team led by more than two points the rest of the set. BYU finally scored three of the last four points, including two kills by Heather Gneiting, to finally win it by a 25-21 score.
Set 3
UVU jumped out to a 6-2 lead before the Cougars tied things up at 7-7 on a Ballard-Nixon kill. With the score tied again at 13-13, BYU scored six straight behind Mary Lake's serve to take a 19-13 lead. A final block by Miller, Eschenberg and Kate Grimmer finished off the Wolverines.
BYU will face No. 16 Marquette on Saturday, Aug. 31, at 7 p.m. MT in its final match of the BYU Nike Invitational.