PROVO, Utah — Trevor Herget’s perfect hitting percentage and Trent Moser’s 11 kills fueled No. 8 BYU men’s volleyball (25-18, 25-19, 25-19) over Saint Francis with a 3-0 sweep on Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse
By sweeping the Red Flash in the series, the Cougars have posted a 2-0 start for the fourth straight season. Just like Friday night, BYU asserted its dominance by not allowing Saint Francis to win a single set.
Moser took charge of the BYU attack by posting a team-high 11 kills on 22 attacks. Connor Oldani added six kills and matched his career-high with four total blocks. Gavin Chambers, just like Oldani, fortified the Cougar defense with four blocks of his own. Tyler and Trevor Herget combined for three aces, while Trevor posted five kills on five attacks.
The Cougars outhit the Red Flash .387 to .165 and held an advantage in the blocks and service error departments. BYU had seven blocks to Saint Francis’s two and it committed 14 service errors to the Red Flash’s 20.
Set 1
It started out as a seesaw battle between both squads, resulting in a 6-6 tie to begin the match. Moser had two kills in that span. Then, a Cougar 7-1 run, highlighted by a Tyler Herget ace and a shared block for Chambers and Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga, helped BYU pull away with a 13-7 lead.
The Cougars steadily built their lead to 10, 24-14, thanks to three Moser kills, an AJ Cottle, Oldani and Tufuga kill and a solo block each for Oldani and Cottle. The Red Flash responded with two kills and two aces to cut the lead to six, but it was to no avail. Saint Francis committed a service error on set point to give BYU a 1-0 match lead.
Set 2
The Cougars jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the set, with Moser and Tufuga each dealing a kill. After exchanging points, BYU tacked on a 4-0 run that included a kill by Moser and an ace and a kill by Tyler Herget to force a Red Flash timeout and go up 13-7.
Out of the timeout, BYU did not look back and extended its lead to eight, 22-14. A Moser kill and a Tyler Herget solo block on top of eight Saint Francis errors in that stretch contributed to the Cougar momentum. Despite the Red Flash answering with two kills of its own, BYU put an end to the set as back-to-back kills by Trevor Herget and Moser gave it the 25-19 set win. The Cougars match lead increased to 2-0.
Set 3
The Cougars started some new personnel in the third set, with Kyle Zediker and Bernardo Adam getting the start. The Red Flash punched first as their first two scores were back-to-back kills, registering their first lead since 3-2 in the first set. It did not take long for the Cougars to counter, with Cottle and Trevor Herget each posting a kill to tie it up 4-4.
Both teams went on to tie each other eight times, with an eventual 13-13 draw. Then, Moser got two consecutive kills, his ninth and 10th of the match, to put BYU up two going into a media timeout.
From there, the Cougar attack continued to pour it on. Trevor Herget recorded his fifth kill to keep his hitting percentage at a perfect 1.000, and with Moser and Oldani kills, BYU extended the lead to four. To cap off the night, Trevor Herget’s ace and Moser’s 11th and final kill of the match closed the books on the weekend and a two-game, season-opening series against Saint Francis. BYU wins 3-0.
Up Next
The Cougars are at home again next weekend for two matches against UC San Diego on Friday and Saturday night.