No. 17 BYU’s volleyball team kept rolling Saturday night, and the Cougars’ football front seven picked up conference recognition a day later.
The volleyball team handled West Virginia in straight sets, 25-14, 25-19, 25-12, inside the Smith Fieldhouse to move to 13-1 overall and 5-0 in Big 12 play. It was BYU’s ninth match this season hitting .300 or better, and the Cougars are 9-0 in those matches.
The win came with contributions all over the floor. Kelli Jo Burgess had seven blocks, Alex Bower finished with 20 assists and Elli Mortensen led the Cougars with 11 kills. BYU also turned in another sharp defensive outing, limiting West Virginia to a .033 hitting percentage after holding Houston to .094 in the previous match.
BYU had to work a little in the opening set before taking control. The score was tied 5-5 through the first 10 points, but the Cougars began stretching the lead after a Claire Little Chambers kill and two West Virginia hitting errors.
Freshman middle blocker Brooke Hardy added a big block to push BYU ahead by four, and back-to-back double blocks from Kate Prior and Burgess made it 19-12. After a West Virginia timeout, Bower served an ace to make it 23-12, and Mortensen finished the set with a kill for the 1-0 lead.
The second set started even better for BYU. Hardy helped spark a 5-1 opening run with a block, and Kaylie Kofe added an ace.
Bower followed with her second ace of the night to put the Cougars up 9-5. A quick set from Bower set up Burgess for another kill, forcing West Virginia to burn a timeout.
Later, Kofe fed Mortensen for a back-line kill that made it 19-12.
West Virginia made one push, ripping off a 4-0 run to close within 22-17 and force BYU’s first timeout of the match. But Prior ended that threat with her fourth kill of the night, and the Cougars took a two-set lead.
BYU closed the night in the third set with the same kind of pressure. The Cougars grabbed their first lead at 5-4 after a strong block by Little Chambers, then built on it with a 4-0 surge featuring kills from Mortensen and Prior.
Hardy finished off a tough sequence off the tape, and Mortensen served back-to-back aces to help BYU move ahead 19-10. West Virginia eventually hit into the net at 24-12, sealing the sweep.
BYU now turns quickly to Utah, heading to Salt Lake City to face its in-state opponent at the Huntsman Center on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. MT on ESPN+.
On the football side, BYU’s defensive line was named the Big 12 Defensive Line of the Week after last Friday’s 24-10 win over Iowa State. The Cougars held the Cyclones to 200 total yards, including just 49 in the first half. That marked Iowa State’s lowest output since it managed 188 yards at Iowa in 2018.
Iowa State came in averaging 197.4 rushing yards per game, but BYU limited the Cyclones to 94 on the ground. The defensive line finished with 18 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and a sack.
No. 8 BYU will host No.
2 Notre Dame at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. MDT.
It will be the first matchup between two Top-10 teams in Provo in BYU program history. The game will air on ABC, with Greg Wrubell handling live play-by-play on BYU Radio.
In Other News...
BYU Red Zone Failure Just Got Even More Frustrating
A late-game red-zone trip against Iowa State turned into another reminder of how thin the margin can be for BYU when communication breaks down at the wrong moment. On a critical fourth down, quarterback Bear Bachmeier misheard offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and checked into the wrong play, and the Cougars came away empty after a turnover on downs.
Aaron Roderick later acknowledged the miscommunication and said he took responsibility for a failed fourth-down call earlier in the game, which only added to the frustration around a drive that had real stakes. Iowa State head coach Jimmy Rogers also said his team dealt with headset communication issues in the third and fourth quarters, a detail that underscored how messy the game got when both sides were fighting not just the opponent, but the equipment and the noise around it. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Has A Huge Chance To Change The Big 12 Race
BYUs rise to the top of the Week 6 Big 12 power rankings has put the Cougars in a spot they could hardly have imagined a few weeks ago. With Utah sitting right behind at No. 2, the conference picture suddenly feels crowded at the top, and the recent results around the league have only sharpened the focus on how quickly the race can change.
The next stretch matters just as much as the current standings, because the rankings are built not only on what teams have already done but on what they still have in front of them. Three reporters ballots helped shape the order, and BYU now has a chance to turn a strong start into something more lasting if it can handle the challenges ahead in Big 12 play. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Vs Notre Dame Just Became A Massive Home Stage For The Cougars
A rare November spotlight is about to hit Provo, and the secondary market says fans know it. The BYU-Notre Dame game has become the priciest ticket in a crowded weekend slate of top 25 matchups, with a get-in price of $450 and some seats listed for more than $13,000 on SeatGeek. For a program that has spent plenty of time fighting for national respect, this is the kind of stage that makes LaVell Edwards Stadium feel bigger than ever.
The stakes explain the demand. This is BYUs first top 10 matchup at home, and it arrives with real College Football Playoff implications attached. Other marquee games around the country are drawing strong prices too, including Ohio State-Indiana and Alabama-Tennessee, but this one stands out because it puts the Cougars at the center of the weekend conversation. For BYU, it is more than a big ticket market - it is a chance to turn a home crowd into a postseason argument. [Read more 🡒]