HONOLULU, Hawai’i — No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball fell to 13-4 this season after a second loss to No. 3 Hawai’i this week.
It was the first time the Cougars have lost in three sets this season, with all four losses this season coming to the No. 3 and No. 4 teams in the nation.
Trevor Herget led the Cougars offensively with 10 kills after registering a career-high 12 kills in Wednesday’s match.
Connor Oldani added nine kills for BYU with just one error on a team-high 25 kills.
AJ Cottle led BYU with five total blocks.
BYU hit .183 in the match, compared to .446 for Hawai’i.
Set 1
The Cougars got out to an early lead on a kill from Oldani and block from Cottle and Herget, but Hawai’i came roaring back, eventually taking a 12-7 lead to force a BYU timeout. BYU was hitting -.067 at that point.
Hawai’i would maintain at least a four-point lead for the remainder of the set, stretching to a set-high nine-point lead at 21-12.
The Rainbow Warriors eventually took the first set 25-18 on their fourth set point.
UH had only two hitting errors in the first set, compared to BYU’s six. BYU hit .172 to UH’s .500.
Set 2
The second set started with a BYU challenge that reversed the first point in BYU’s favor. After that, UH tallied four straight points to force the Cougars to play catch-up once again.
A kill and block by Cottle on back-to-back points got BYU back within one at 6-5 and the two teams traded points after that, keeping things tight.
A kill by Herget made it 9-9.
After being held to just one kill in the first set, Trent Moser’s second kill of the match put the Cougars up 11-10.
BYU got to the media timeout up 15-14.
Neither team could grab a two-point lead late until UH went up 19-17. The Rainbow Warriors would stretch the lead to three at 22-19 and would finish off the set at 25-21 to go up 2-0 in the match.
There were 10 ties and six lead changes mostly through the middle portion of the the second set.
Set 3
BYU went up 2-0 in the third set off kills from Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga and Cottle.
It was UH this time playing catch up, tying things up at 2-2, 7-7 and 8-8 before taking its first lead at 9-8.
The Cougars went back in front at 11-10, but it would be their final lead of the match, with UH scoring three straight points after that and finishing the match on a 15-5 run, winning the set 25-16.
Up Next
The Cougars remain on the road with two matches in California next week against UC Merced on Friday and Jessup on Saturday.