No. 14 Cougars hit .412 in sweep of Utes

SALT LAKE CITY — No. 14 BYU women’s volleyball earned its fourth sweep in a row with a 3-0 win at Utah (25-20, 25-17, 25-16) at the Huntsman Center on Thursday night.

BOX SCORE

The Cougars (14-1, 6-0 Big 12) extended their match winning streak to 11 as they hit .412 in the match and held the Utes to a .244 clip. Claire Little Chambers (15 kills, hitting .364) and Elli Mortensen (11 kills, hitting .476) led the way offensively.

Sophia Callahan (seven, .429), Kate Prior (five), Brooke Hardy (five) and Kelli Jo Burgess (four) contributed as well, with Lulu Po’uha landing a libero kill in the match.

Kaylie Kofe and Alex Bower finished with 17 and 16 assists, respectively, with Kofe finishing a dig shy of a double-double with a match-high nine.

Burgess posted a match-high seven blocks as BYU out-blocked Utah, eight to four, with the Cougars also recording two more aces (5-3) than the Utes.

Set 1
BYU opened the match on an Elli Mortensen ace. Kills by Claire Little Chambers, Sophia Callahan, Kelli Jo Burgess and Brooke Hardy then paced the Cougars to an 8-5 lead.

Three straight Utah aces had the Utes taking the lead on a 4-0 run before a Kate Prior kill snapped the streak. Rallying from a 15-14 deficit at the technical timeout, BYU took an 18-17 lead and never looked back.

Four blocks involving Burgess, including a solo stuff, forced both Ute timeouts as the Cougars closed the set on a 6-2 run, taking it 25-20.

Set 2
Both teams hit above .300 in a second set where BYU raced out to an 8-4 lead after a 3-0 run fueled by a  Burgess-Mortensen double block and Po’uha ace.

Trading points from there, the Cougars took a 15-11 advantage into the technical timeout with a Callahan kill off the block. The two teams went back-and-forth once more before a Prior-Burgess double block forced an Utah timeout at 20-16.

Three kills between Little Chambers and Mortensen over the next four points brought up the Utes’ second timeout with BYU in front 23-17. Callahan scored off hands and a Utah error gave the Cougars the second, 25-17.

Set 3
Hitting an error-free .533 through the technical timeout, BYU led 15-11 thanks to a pair of 3-0 runs capped off by an Alex Bower ace and Mortensen kill.

A Little Chambers ace out of the break started a stretch of alternating points before an overpass kill by the pin forced the Utes’ first timeout with the Cougars leading 21-16.

Little Chambers scored twice more off the block and Utah took its second timeout at 23-16. After a Ute error, Prior and Burgess teamed up for a sweep-sealing double block, 25-16.

Up Next
BYU will head to Tucson for a match at Arizona on Saturday, October 17 at 6 p.m. MST on ESPN+.