Career night from Connor Oldani helps BYU cruise past UCSD in top 10 matchup

In a top 10 matchup with No. 10 UC San Diego, No. 8 BYU was hardly tested Friday night at the Smith Fieldhouse, picking up its third sweep in as many matches on the young season.

The Cougars, who had looked a bit rusty in their home opener seven days prior, showed no remains of that in their comfortable 25-21, 25-19 and 25-19 win.

“Last week was not bad,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said, “but we see it every day, a whole (other) level. We see a better level than even (today).”

In the win, BYU remained almost untouchable throughout the evening.

“Last week we really wanted to get the middle of the court established early,” Olmstead said. “This week, we worked a lot … (on) extending the court.”

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The Cougars’ plan worked to near perfection. They couldn’t have had a much better attacking first set, as they hit .700 as a team with no errors.

BYU sophomore outside hitter Connor Oldani led the way for the Cougars, earning seven kills on seven swings. The Grand Canyon transfer also contributed a service ace to BYU’s tally of three in the initial set, the last one coming for the team’s 25th point, from freshman middle blocker AJ Cottle.

“Our hitters made a lot of good attacking, smart plays,” Olmstead said. “They didn’t try to overdo it. Everything was pretty high and in the corners, and that allowed us to get a lot of deflections and just make good swings.”

BYU continued its smart play in the second set, pulling away early before four straight UC San Diego points evened the match at 9.

Cougar junior opposite hitter Teilon-Jonathan Tufuga helped his team get right back in control with some powerful serving, however, that resulted in a BYU overpass kill, an ace and its own 4-0 run.

The Cougars controlled things from there, with Oldani finding his groove again by getting three of BYU’s final four kills as it finished strong to close out the set.

Oldani credited his teammate, senior setter Tyler Herget, for helping him to get going.

“He kept looking at me, telling me, ‘Hey you’re getting the ball,’ and I think that kind of confidence that he had in me was super big to how I played today.”

The impressive night turned into a career night for Oldani in the third set, when the Phoenix native took his kill count to 16 — a match high.

“I had no idea,” Oldani said when asked if he knew how many kills he had in the moment. “Normally I always keep track of that in my head, and I realized today I got to stop thinking about all that and just go out and play.”

Ultimately, he lost count long before he reached 16 and an astounding .750 hitting percentage, forgetting his total after his sixth kill.

UC San Diego likely wishes it could forget all of Friday evening, as it fell in a somewhat uncompetitive third set after trailing by as many as eight points.

Everything seemed to go right for BYU Friday. Not only did the Cougars end the night hitting .460 as a team, but they also finished with a 75.4 sideout percentage.

The Cougars will try to replicate their performance against the Tritons when the schools face off for a second night in a row Saturday evening in Provo.

The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.