PROVO — Volleyball matches involve a lot of momentum, and for the No. 2-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team, it built a surge of energy midway through the second set. From there the Cougars kept rolling, getting by visiting USC in straight sets (25-18, 25-15, 25-19) in front of a typically loud Smith Fieldhouse crowd.
Down 11-10 to the Trojans in the second set, the Cougars ripped off 10 straight points — a scoring streak tough to muster in the the side-out scoring era of volleyball. The players came together and flowed to a big 20-11 lead and never looked back.
Wil Stanley had the serve for all 10 of the points on the run, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
“Wil made some really good decisions, along with our coaches to get the serve in certain spots so we could kind of get our block in place and make some earlier reads” said BYU coach Shawn Olmstead. “We began making some good touches and were a little better than we were at the start of that set in transition.”
As for the block, it accounted for 14 total blocks to USC’s six. Leading the way in that category was middle blocker Branden Oberender, who accounted for seven block assists, playing in place of the injured Felipe de Brito Ferreira. Gabi Garcia Fernandez added five blocks to go along with his eight kills on a .467 hitting percentage.
As a team, the Cougars swung at a .433 percentage to the Trojans’ .155, with Davide Gardini adding nine kills and Alex Ah Sue another five, matching Miki Jauhiainen’s total.
As for Ah Sue, he was able to see a lot of playing time with coaches opting to rest Fernandez throughout the third set, with the sophomore responding well.
“Alex was in from the start (of the third set) and did a remarkable job,” Olmstead said. “He was one of our better attackers, and I think he was our best, so Alex can do that, and he got a couple of aces, as well.”
In short, most everything ran smoothly for the Cougars on Saturday, much like it has all season long as exemplified by their gleaming 15-0 record.
“We’ve got to stay focused and we’re staying together — doing things together every day,” Olmstead said with regards to keeping up the team’s momentum. “I think we just have to be creative to keep the kids engaged and to keep present in the moment.”
Next up for the Cougars is a home match versus Stanford next Saturday before heading out on the road for five straight matches, beginning with a double-header versus No. 1 Hawaii the weekend after taking on Stanford.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/32tLSVP
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