No. 7 BYU will try to create something special this week when it competes for what would be its first MPSF tournament volleyball title in four years.
The Cougars feel they might have figured things out over the final stretch of the regular season, giving them hope that their postseason fortunes will make a turn for the better this year. The school has just one win in the league tournament since 2021, but enters the week with plenty to play for.
The Cougars are unlikely to make the NCAA tournament without a showing that ends with a championship this week.
“Unfortunately, we’ve … had too many losses,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “We’ve got to just continue to grind. Stay the course. Continue to practice every single day at the level we can … so we can ideally put those all together for the conference tournament.”
BYU hopes things can come together at the right time after an up-and-down season that saw the Cougars compete with some of the best teams in the country before barely falling short multiple times. When the regular season came to a close, BYU had too many what-ifs for a squad that took No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Hawaii, No. 4 UC Irvine and No. 5 USC each to a fifth set before losing.
“You don’t want to be the team that … that’s happening to kind of over and over again,” Olmstead said. “That is something we’re discussing (and) we’re trying to help the guys … learn from those moments.”
BYU may have turned a corner in its final regular-season series though, earning arguably its best victories of the year over the weekend with two wins over No. 8 Pepperdine in Provo.
Following the matches with the Waves, Olmstead was asked if his team is playing its best volleyball at the right time.
“I really think we are,” he said. “The guys really embraced this weekend. They knew that (Pepperdine) needed those wins just as bad as us. They really did. So I was proud of the guys to be able to … go back to back.”
“We’ve got to just continue to grind. Stay the course. Continue to practice every single day at the level we can.”
— BYU coach Shawn Olmstead
The Cougars’ wins over the Waves propelled them to a third-place MPSF finish, just ahead of Pepperdine, which finished fourth. The Waves will host the MPSF tournament this week in Malibu but are on the opposite side of the bracket from the Cougars.
The triumphs over Pepperdine give the Provo school a double bye to the tournament quarterfinals, where it awaits the winner of No. 6 seed Stanford and No. 7 seed Menlo. The victor will play BYU Thursday evening.
Ultimately, the last weekend of the regular season was an emotional one for the Cougars as they honored the seniors and longtime BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe, who recently announced his retirement. The school made it a memorable pair of nights, picking up important wins that had implications on MPSF tournament seeding.
“It’s fun to be able to celebrate all those guys,” Olmstead said. “I appreciate all of them. … And then you got Tom. … Tom’s been an (incredible) athletic director.”
The BYU coach was not worried about the emotions of Senior Night carrying over into the MPSF tournament though. When asked about that potentially becoming a distraction, Olmstead said, “It won’t. … The emotions of this will be done.”
The Cougars will be looking to make this week another one filled with positive emotions. They know that it will take a special effort to do so, needing to capitalize on each moment out on the court.
“At the end of the day, we’re working … towards (a good showing at) the conference tournament,” Olmstead said. “Every match that we’ve got … (we’ll) try to fight and claw and find a way to play as long as we can.”
Survive and advance is the name of the game for BYU this week.
