Who better to help convince the Utah volleyball team that it could beat BYU than the Cougar killer himself, Ron McBride?
A pregame pep talk from McBride and some deep introspection after last week's poor showing in the Utah Centennial Classic propelled the Utes to a three-game sweep against their 16th-ranked arch rival."We were looking forward to this," said sophomore Brenda Barton, who had 15 kills for the Utes. "We are always scared of BYU, but this time we just decided to come in and compete."
It was Cougars who had trouble competing in the first Utah victory over BYU since 1985, when the Utes defeated them twice. The Cougars' only solid lead came in the first game when they held a 7-3 edge, but Utah scored in a flurry with Barton serving and won that game 15-10. The Utes easily won the next game 15-6 and polished off their sweep with a hard fought 15-9 third game.
The difference for the Utes was purely mental, said Ute coach Beth Launiere, who had never defeated BYU in her six seasons at the helm.
"We had that look of joy and got in that zone where things were just coming easily for us," she said. "McBride told us we were going to win it in three - he was very motivational."
BYU's coach Elaine Michaelis' team had the difficulty of playing the inspired Utah team with her best passer hurt and a short warm-up time because of traffic delays, but she offered no excuses.
"The whole of the credit goes to Utah. Their attack was great. We didn't overlook Utah, they came out and played with conviction," she said.