The last three weeks have not gone as planned for BYU.
After spending a weekend on the road, BYU returned home to face Grand Canyon on Friday and fell in four sets to the Antelopes, a loss that extended the Cougars’ winless streak to six.
On February 5, BYU lost to Ball State. The Cougars followed that up with a pair of defeats each to UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, making the Cougars desperate for a victory Friday.
That win evaded BYU yet again.
The loss was disappointingly familiar for BYU as it fell to Grand Canyon to start MPSF league play (conference play began last weekend for the Antelopes who faced off against Pepperdine at home. Grand Canyon split the two-match series with its visitors, with each school winning 3-1).
The Cougars now have won just two total sets in their last three matches as the Antelopes replicated last week’s win with a 3-1 victory over BYU.
When asked what it’s going to take for the Cougars to break their losing streak, freshman outside hitter Miks Ramanis said, “Good energy, a lot of work ethic, and we just got to keep growing. That’s all we’ve got to do, just focus up, keep our minds on the same focus and we’ll just keep going.”
BYU was locked in for the first set against Grand Canyon, taking it 25-21, marking the first time the Cougars have won the initial set in their last four tries. The Antelopes scored the first point, but never held a lead over the Cougars again. BYU led by as many as six points, overcoming its seven service errors to come out on top.
Then things went downhill. The Cougars only committed one service error in the second set but fell 25-19. In stark contrast to the first set, Grand Canyon only trailed once, a 4-5 deficit that the Antelopes overcame moments later to cruise past the Cougars and tie the match up going into the break.
The third set was close at the start with the two teams combining for seven ties before the Antelopes ran away with another 25-19 win. Grand Canyon leveled things at 11 before taking the lead for good.
The Antelopes extended their advantage as the set wore on, ultimately settling on a six-point victory.
Grand Canyon finished things off in a tightly contested fourth set, beating BYU 25-22. The Antelopes scored the final three points, getting to set point on a Karter Rogers service ace before a BYU attack error gave Grand Canyon the win.
The Antelopes’ victory marks just the third time in school history that they have beaten the Cougars, and the first time they have done so in Provo.
BYU and Grand Canyon met five times last season, with the Cougars winning every match but one. That setback came exactly one year ago, when the Antelopes swept BYU in Phoenix.
The loss was just one of two times the Cougars would get swept on the season, the only other coming against Hawaii in the NCAA title match. The defeat motivated the Cougars, who then rattled off 12 consecutive wins.
BYU is hopeful February 25 of this year will again be a turning point for its team.
“We just need to clean up our simple errors,” Ramanis said Friday following his 14-kill match. “We had a lot of simple mistakes tonight. If we clean those up, it’ll be a different game, but we just got to refocus up.”
The Cougars will get a shot at cleaning things up against the Antelopes Saturday at 7 p.m. The match will again be played in BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse and broadcast live on BYUtv.