PROVO, Utah — No. 16 BYU women’s volleyball swept Fairfield 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-11) for its second sweep of the dōTERRA Classic on Friday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Sophomore Claire Little led the Cougars with 16 kills, three service aces, six digs and a career-best hitting percentage of .762, topping her previous best of .550 recorded earlier in the day against Southeastern Louisiana. Freshman Elli Mortensen had 12 kills, four service aces and three digs. Mortensen’s four aces are tied for the 5th-most aces by a freshman in the rally-scoring era at BYU.
Sophomore Brielle Kemavor added eight kills and Kjersti Strong chipped in five blocks and four kills. Freshman setter Alex Bower recorded 41 assists and ten digs.
BYU hit .488 on the match, recording 46 total kills compared to Fairfield’s 25 and also holding the Stags to a .100 hitting percentage.
Set 1
The Stags opened the match with a 3-0 run off of three BYU errors. Back-to-back kills by BYU’s Mortensen and Little tied the set 5-5. The Stags later answered with three-straight kills, forcing a Cougar timeout at 12-8, Fairfield. Out of the timeout, the Cougars outscored Fairfield 6-3 and forced the Stags’ first timeout ahead by just one point at 15-14.
Fairfield took another timeout after a BYU 5-2 run. After the timeout, Bower recorded a service ace, increasing the Cougars’ lead to 20-16. Despite six service errors, the Cougars closed out the set 25-18. Mortensen and Little combined for 10 of the Cougars’ 15 kills in the opening frame of play. As a team, BYU recorded a hitting percentage of .500.
Set 2
BYU started the second set on a 4-0 run sparked by a service ace from Little. After a 4-3 Stags run, Mortensen served two straight aces and increased the Cougars’ lead to 9-4, pressuring Fairfield to take their first timeout of the set. The Stags later scored three straight points forcing BYU to take a timeout of their own tied 12-12.
The Cougars came back after timeout with a 6-2 run, highlighted by two kills from Little and a service ace by Mortensen to give the team a 19-15 lead. Little closed out the set 25-17 with two service aces.
In set two, BYU recorded 14 kills, six service aces and one block. Little was credited for six kills and three aces as Mortensen tallied three aces of her own.
Set 3
Fairfield took the first two points of set three. The Cougars quickly followed with five points, including a service ace from Hannah Billeter. Strong recorded two consecutive blocks, putting BYU up 9-4.
BYU then went on a 8-1 run, with five kills from Little to put the team ahead at 17-6. A Mortensen shot down the line closed out the Cougars’ final set, giving them the win 25-11. BYU had seventeen kills in the third set: five by Little, four by Mortensen and three by Strong.
Up next, the Cougars will face the High Point Panthers in their third and final match of the dōTERRA Classic on Saturday, August 31 at 7 p.m. MDT in the Smith Fieldhouse.