MERCED, Calif. — No. 6 BYU men’s volleyball picked up a 3-0 ( … ) victory over UC Merced Friday night in the first all-time meeting between the two teams.
The Cougars bounced back after two losses in Hawai’i last week. BYU has now won 10 of its last 12 and is 14-4 this season and 1-0 in conference play.
BYU had a balanced attack Friday with three players racking up seven kills each and eight total players who had three kills or more in the match.
Tennison Lighthall had a career-high seven kills, hitting .875. Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga and Connor Oldani were the other two Cougars with seven kills.
Tyler Herget had a season-high three aces, leading the Cougars who had nine total aces in the match.
AJ Cottle led the Cougars with two blocks.
BYU outhit UC Merced .463 to .102.
Set 1
In a packed home arena, it was the Bobcats taking an early lead in the match and feeding off of the momentum from the home crowd.
The Cougars eventually took their first lead at 9-8 on a Tafuga kill and took their first two-point lead at 16-14 on a monster kill from Oldani on a long, cross-court set by Tafuga.
The Cougars would not trail in the match after this point.
BYU eventually stretched out the lead more and won the set on Gavin Chambers’ first kill of the night, taking the win 25-19.
Set 2
BYU went up 4-1 and then 9-4 and never looked back.
With a comfortable lead midway through the set, the Cougars started subbing out their starters. A total of 14 different BYU players would end up playing in the match.
Lighthall started heating up late in the set, clinching the 25-12 victory on a kill.
Set 3
Lighthall opened the third set the same way he ended the second, with a kill, leading to a 9-0 run to start the set.
The Cougars wouldn’t look back as Cole Hauser, Max Philippe and Trevor Herget took over the BYU attack.
Lighthall ended the set with back-to-back aces to finish off the 25-13 set victory.
Up Next
The Cougars face Jessop tomorrow night to conclude this week’s California road trip.