PROVO — Some Homecoming Week this turned out to be for BYU.
Twenty-four hours after the Cougars' dismal effort on the football field, the women's volleyball team fell to archrival Utah, 3-1 (30-25, 30-27, 19-30, 30-20), before a crowd of 2,312 at the Smith Fieldhouse Friday night.
"Obviously we weren't good enough for long enough," said BYU coach Karen Lamb. "They beat us in the serving and passing game. We've got a ways to go."
"We stayed in control and we kept our composure," said Ute coach Beth Launiere. "This was a big win for us."
Entering the night, Lamb called it a "must-win" match for her team. But Utah came out strong and won the first two games.
"We executed very well in the first two games," Launiere said. "We served well and we blocked well. We practiced those things a lot last week in practice."
In game three, BYU dominated, hitting .308, compared to Utah's .081, to force a fourth game. "BYU came out much more aggressive than we did, with a lot more energy, in game three," Launiere said. "They had us on the ropes."
Between games three and four, Launiere huddled with her team and told the players to relax.
"We just talked about getting back to fundamentals — serving, passing, executing — and having fun," she said. "They got kind of stressful. I thought we lost a little bit of confidence. We needed to get confidence and energy back on our side and have fun out there. When players have fun, they play well."
Indeed, the Utes had fun and they rebounded in a big way. Utah jumped out to a 8-0 lead before cruising to a 10-point win. The Utes closed out the match on a kill by senior middle blocker Kim Turner, who finished with a team-high 16 kills. She also added seven blocks and seven digs.
By beating BYU, Utah claimed its third consecutive road victory. The Utes improved to 10-6 overall and 4-1 in the Mountain West Conference. The Cougars saw their record drop to 13-5 and 3-2.
"Utah did a great job. They played well," Lamb said. "They were the better team tonight."
Kimberley Wilson led the Cougars with 18 kills while Lexi Brown added a career-high 16 kills.
With the loss, the Cougars fell to third place behind Utah and Colorado State. "We don't accept that we're going to be third," Lamb said. "We've just got to win the rest of our matches. We knew that coming in tonight that we needed to win the rest of our matches to have a chance at the conference championship."
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com