PROVO, Utah — The No. 8 Cougars celebrated senior night and their last regular-season match with a 3-1 win (25-19, 25-20, 23-25, 25-17) over No. 7 Pepperdine.
"The stories of this group of seniors are unbelievable," said BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead. "I knew Miks would give his heart, and he might've been our best player over the last two nights. I've never seen that kind of range from him. Some of our players took several finals before the game tonight, and that's not easy. Herget did a really good job of following patterns that we saw with Pepperdine defensively, and I'd like to give credit to our passers as well. Our hitters hit some really good swings tonight too."
BYU took the first two sets of the match, and despite a close 25-23 third-set loss, the team took set four, sweeping the Waves in back-to-back matches.
BYU honored seniors Luke Benson, Noa Haine, Miks Ramanis, Teon Taylor and Keoni Thiim after the match.
Ramanis led all players with a season-high 18 kills and three aces. Benson recorded ten kills and one service ace, going a perfect five-for-five in the first set swinging. Noa Haine appeared in the final seven points of the fourth set, recording three assists. Taylor hit .700 on the night and tallied seven kills, with six blocks. Thiim had seven kills, one assist, one service ace and one dig.
Setter Tyler Herget led the Cougars to a .396 hitting percentage, holding Pepperdine to a .250 clip.
Set One
Benson took BYU’s first point of the first set with a kill, followed by a kill from Taylor. Three more kills from Benson, Herget and Ramanis aided an 8-3 Cougars lead and Pepperdine’s first timeout of the set.The Waves narrowed BYU’s lead with multiple kills, a block and an ace. Ramanis and Benson held Pepperdine at bay with kills of their own, leading to another timeout for the Waves. Ramanis took the set 25-19 with two kills.
The Cougars hit .619 in the first set and recorded 14 kills, 12 assists, four digs and four blocks, while holding the Waves to a hitting percentage of .227. Benson hit a perfect five kills on five swings in the set.
Set Two
Pepperdine took an early 3-1 lead in the second set, but two big serves from Benson followed by two Ramanis kills put BYU up 4-3. After the teams traded points, two kills by Ramanis and a Benson kill put the Cougars up 11-6 and forced a timeout for the Waves. Ramanis served another ace following the timeout, followed by kills from Benson and Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga to maintain BYU’s lead 15-8. Three-straight points for Pepperdine led to the Cougars’ first timeout of the game.
Despite three more consecutive points for the Waves following the timeout, the Cougars held the lead with kills from Ramanis, Niko Hales, Benson and Taylor. Taylor’s kill took BYU to 21-17 and forced another Pepperdine timeout. Kills by Taylor and Ramanis took the Cougars to set point, and Benson served an ace to take the set 25-20.
BYU hit .423 in the second set, with 15 kills, 12 assists, three digs and four service aces.
Set Three
The Waves took the first two points of the third set, but a service ace from Herget gave the Cougars their first lead of the set, 7-6. The two teams grappled for the lead, with neither team being ahead by more than two points. Hales recorded a solo block, putting BYU up 15-14 and forcing Pepperdine’s first timeout of the set. The Waves took three-straight points following their timeout, and the Cougars took a timeout of their own. BYU fought to stay in the game with kills from Ramanis, Thiim and Tufuga. With the score tied 19-19, the Waves took another timeout.
Despite two-straight Pepperdine points, the Cougars held the tie, aided by kills from Thiim and Ramanis. The Waves recorded a kill to put them up 24-23, and BYU took a timeout. Pepperdine took the set 25-23 off another kill, extending the match to a fourth set.
Set Four
BYU took the first three points of the fourth set with the help of two kills from Tufuga. Assisted by a Thiim service ace and kills from Tufuga, Thiim and Ramanis, the Cougars took a 7-2 lead. Ramanis and Taylor recorded one more kill each, and Pepperdine was forced to take its first timeout of the set. After the timeout, BYU gained its largest lead of the set at 13-7 with kills from Taylor, Thiim and Tufuga. The Cougars took their next six points from Waves service errors to gain an 18-13 lead, and Pepperdine took another timeout.
BYU scored five-straight points following the timeout, aided by two kills from Thiim. The Waves stayed in the game with three-straight points of their own, but Thiim tallied another kill to take the Cougars to set point. Ramanis secured a 25-17 win with another kill, and BYU won the match 3-1.
The Cougars recorded 14 kills, 14 assists and ten digs in the fourth set, with a hitting percentage of .346. They held the Waves to only eight kills in the set, as well as a match-low hitting percentage of .154.
Up Next
BYU's seed in the 2025 MPSF Tournament will be officially released this Sunday morning on April 20. Follow the official BYU men's volleyball social media accounts (@byumvolleyball) for accurate information on this year's rankings.