CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — No. 8 BYU men’s volleyball took down the Harvard Crimson in a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 29-27, 25-19) Saturday night at the Harvard Invitational.
Averaging a .315 hitting percentage coming into the weekend, the Cougars hit .488 on Saturday, above .500 for most of the match.
Tyler Herget spread the ball to diversity of BYU attackers, racking up 39 assists in the three sets.
Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga had 12 kills on 15 swings, with no errors, hitting .800 in the match. He also had three aces, all in the first set.
Trent Moser added 13 kills for BYU. Connor Oldani had a team-high 14 kills.
Gavin Chambers led the Cougars with one solo block and six block assists.
Set 1
BYU started the match with a 5-1 lead to grab an early cushion off of two Harvard errors, an Oldani tool and a Tufuga kill and ace.
Harvard called a timeout at 9-3, and after that point the Crimson would cut into the BYU lead, getting within two at 10-8 and eventually within one 17-16 and again at 21-20.
The Cougars got to set point at 24-21 on Tufuga's third ace of the opening set.
A Moser kill finished the set at 25-21.
Both Moser and Tufuga had five kills in the set. Oldani was right behind them with four. BYU hit .591 in the set.
Set 2
In the second set it was Harvard this time getting out to an early lead at 2-0 and at 5-4. The Cougars then racked four straight points, featuring kills from Tufuga and Chambers, to take the lead.
Harvard went back in front at 11-10. BYU went back ahead at 14-13.
In a key moment late in the set, Harvard appears to take a 20-18 lead on an attack error but after a review, the point went to BYU, to make it 19-19, on Tufuga's ninth kill of the night.
Four plays later, it looked like BYU went ahead 22-20 on an attack error, but after another challenge, it was ruled there was a touch on BYU, making the score 22-21.
Play after that point went down to the wire, eventually going into deuce points. On the Cougars’ fifth set point, they eventually won it on a Crimson attack error, after a BYU challenge, at 29-27.
The set had 18 ties and five lead changes.
Set 3
BYU jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the third set, featuring a varied offensive attack with two kills a piece from Moser, Oldani and Tufuga.
The Cougars would not allow the Crimson within three points for the rest of the match, building the lead in the set all the way to 21-10 on a Chambers kill.
After BYU made some substitutions, Harvard made a late run to make it 21-15.
The Cougars would eventually win the set 25-19 on a Harvard service error to give BYU the match victory.
Up Next
The Cougars will finish their swing of road matches this weekend on Monday at Merrimack. The match will stat at 4 p.m. Mountain Time and will be available on ESPN+.