PROVO, Utah (June 21, 2011)—Finishing fourth in its final year of Mountain West Conference play, the BYU women’s volleyball team went 9-7 in conference and 14-16 overall in 2010, despite a slow start in the beginning of the season. The record pushed the Cougars to 1,060 all-time wins in 42 years, putting BYU in sixth among NCAA Division I teams for number of wins.
The team participated in one road tournament and hosted the BYU Invitational and the BYU Nike Invitational in 2010 before cranking out two five-match winning streaks in the regular season. The team launched its first streak to begin October with three conference wins and two wins against in-state rivals. The second win streak took out five conference opponents to close the season.
Tournament Play
Kicking off the 2010 campaign, the Cougars traveled to Illinois to compete in the State Farm Illini Classic. BYU fell in its first two matches to No. 6 Illinois, 3-1, and Middle Tennessee, 3-1. In their last match of the tournament, the Cougars rallied after being down two sets to record a win over South Carolina for BYU’s first win of the season. Five Cougars tallied double-digit kills and three earned double doubles in the five-set match. Christina Measom was named to the All-Tournament Team after leading the squad with 15 kills against South Carolina and 12 against Middle Tennessee.
After falling short to No. 7 Nebraska in their first game of the Nike Invitational, the Cougars made another comeback victory against Idaho State, defeating the Bengals in five sets. Senior Kiana Rogers recorded her third double-double as well as a career high 22 digs.
BYU fell to Cal Poly in a close five-set battle in its third and final game of the tournament. Despite the loss, four Cougars had career nights. Junior Christie Carpenter recorded a career high 14 digs. Senior transfer Stephanie Snow posted two career highs, with 13 kills and a .619 hitting percentage. Freshman Kathryn LeCheminant tied her career high of six blocks. Freshman Jessica Jardine reached a career high of six kills and three digs.
Hosting back-to-back tournaments, the Cougars next welcomed Wichita State, Loyola Marymount and the University of Houston to the Smith Fieldhouse for the BYU Molten Classic.
The Cougars defeated future WCC opponent Loyola Marymount in a five-set thriller to open play at the tournament. In her first start as a Cougar, freshman right side hitter Jennifer Hamson recorded the first double-double performance of her career.
Although BYU fell short to the Houston Cougars and Wichita State, Hamson and Snow were named to the classic’s all-tournament team.
Regular Season
After losses to No. 6 Hawaii, No. 18 Colorado State, Wyoming and Utah, the Cougars ended their eight-game losing streak with their first sweep of the season over San Diego State.
The win over San Diego State gave BYU momentum to tally not only a five-game win streak against UVU, Weber State, Air Force and UNLV, but also five straight sweeps. BYU’s sweep of UVU came in front of a packed house with a record-breaking 2,206 attendance.
Snow was named the MWC Player of the Week after leading BYU’s offensive attack in the victories against San Diego State and UVU.
BYU bounced back from a loss to New Mexico that ended its five-game win streak to top TCU on the road. The Cougars went on to fall to Utah in a thrilling five-setter.
The Cougars split the 2010 season series with San Diego State in a close 2-3 loss at home. Tied 2-2, the Cougars kept the score within one throughout the entire fifth set but eventually fell 16-14. Measom recorded a career-high kills with 16 in the nail-bitter.
The pair of losses to Utah and San Diego State didn’t hold the Cougars back from finishing the season strong. BYU went on to another five-game win streak with wins over UNLV, Air Force, TCU, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Measom led BYU in its second win over TCU this season with a career-high 18 kills. Carpenter reached her fifth double-double of the season, making 14 kills and 13 digs.
The win against New Mexico came in the last home match of the season and in the final game at the Smith Fieldhouse for seniors Measom, Rogers, Snow and Brook Soon.
Meason was honored with her first career MWC Player of the Week award for her performance against TCU and New Mexico. For the week, Measom averaged 4.00 kills, 0.63 blocks and 4.600 points per set, while hitting .433 (32-6-60) over eight sets. She also had two aces and seven digs.
Snow and Nicole Warner led the Cougars in the win over Wyoming. Snow posted 15 kills on .619 hitting while Warner earned a career-high 13 total blocks with one solo block and 12 blocking assists.
The second five-game win streak of the season was brought to an end with a loss to No. 14 Colorado State in the final game for BYU in 2010. In her final game as a Cougar, Rogers recorded her 13th double-double of the season.
For her senior season, and first on the BYU team, Snow earned MWC Newcomer of the Year, as well as being named to the All-MWC Team.
The Cougars may not have continued the streak of finishing the season with an overall winning record, but they accomplished a streak that hasn’t been done since 2001 – winning five straight sweeps.
Kimberli Boswell, Nicole Warner and Jennifer Hamson were honored for the academic performance throughout the year by receiving the MWC Scholar Athlete Award.
Athletes Graduating
The Cougars lose valuable talent on the court in Snow, Rogers and Measom for next season. Snow led the MWC in hitting percentage at .384 in conference play. Snow also led BYU in kills with 324. Rogers ranked fifth in the MWC for her 10.21 assists per set in conference play and carried BYU with a team-high 1147 assists and 32 service aces. Measom made a solid contribution to the Cougars, recording 214 kills, 40 digs and 54 blocks her senior season.
Nicole Warner came in second in the MWC for blocks, with 1.51 blocks per set played in conference games.
BYU’s Walk-on of the Year Kendalyn Hartsock averaged 3.92 digs per set in conference games, giving her the third place finish in the MWC. Hartsock’s 411 digs on the season was a team-high for BYU.
New Recruits
BYU welcomes five freshman recruits and a transfer athlete for the 2011 season.
Katelyn Vaughn, El Dorado Hills, Calif., is an outside hitter who was on Volleyball Magazine’s Top-25 Underclassmen to watch and Under Armour Girls’ High School All-American Volleyball watch list. She is Oak Ridge High School’s all-time career kill leader with over 1,362 kills.
Outside hitter Kimberly Dahl, from Pleasant Grove, Utah, was named to Deseret News All-State first team in 2009 and was the Salt Lake Tribune 5A MVP in 2010. Dahl led her team to a 5A State Championship in 2009 and second place finishes in 2008 and 2010.
Orem, Utah resident Hannah Robison, who attended Orem High School, was nominated for the ESPN Gatorade Athlete of the Year in 2010. Robison was named in the Top-100 national high school recruits of 2010.
Mariah Katoa, a Layton High School graduate from Layton, Utah, was named second-team All-State as a junior and first team All-State as a senior.
Tia Withers played for Sunset High School in Beaverton, Ore., and took her team to a third-place finish in the state championships two years in a row. She earned places on the first team All-Metro League for three years. Withers also played beach volleyball, winning five consecutive age group championships in women’s doubles at the Annual Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament and two consecutive titles in the USAV Beach Juniors Tour Pacific Open Doubles Championships.
Kemi McFarland, who transferred from Salt Lake Community College after helping the Bruins to a to a 28-8 record and undefeated home record in 2010, recorded 251 assists last season. McFarland went to the state championships with Pleasant Grove High School in 2009 and was named to the 2008 and 2009 all-state first teams.