No. 5 seed BYU was the only lower seed to advance in the first round of the MPSF tournament Wednesday evening, toppling No. 4 seed Stanford in four sets at the Smith Fieldhouse.
The Cougars made the most of being this year’s designated host for the league’s postseason play, getting some revenge on the Cardinal from a pair of road losses last month and earning the victory on set scores of 25-18, 25-14, 23-25, 25-21.
“(Tonight was) an opportunity to make up for earlier in the season,” BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “That was just a really funky weekend. … I’m not making excuses, but I knew that when this was coming, … that’s what (my team) wanted more than anything because when we played them there, it just wasn’t us.”
The Cougars got the last laugh Wednesday, playing much better than their first two contests against the Cardinal right from the get-go.
“(Our) hot start was months incoming,” BYU freshman middle blocker AJ Cottle said following a night that saw him tally nine blocks and 10 kills while hitting .769.
“After (losing to) Stanford, that left a sour taste in our mouth. … We were more excited to play this game, I think, than any other game this season.”
It was all BYU early on Wednesday evening. The Cougars ran away with the first set, taking a lead by as many as eight points and never trailing en route to a comfortable 7-point win.
BYU gained control midway through the set on a 5-0 run that included three straight blocks for a 13-7 advantage.
The Cougars grew their lead from there until Stanford fought back, cutting things to 21-18 before four straight BYU points ended the set.
In the second set things got even more lopsided as the Cougars coasted to another win. This time it was a 6-0 run that gave them a 12-5 lead and all the momentum for a victory.
The Cardinal had no answer for BYU, as the Cougars hit a whopping .600 and cruised with ease past Stanford.
Olmstead credited Cottle for powering his team’s impressive second set.
“We finally really got AJ rolling,” he said. “We (said), ‘Ride AJ’ … because what that’s going to do is just make them start paying a ton of attention (to him) and then we can go from there and open things up and have one on ones at the pins. And that’s what we got, and that’s why we were so good.”
Things did not go as well for the Cougars in the third as the Cardinal gave BYU a much more competitive set, ultimately eking out a two point victory to keep their season alive.
Stanford, which entered the set with 15 total kills in the match, pushed the right buttons and more than doubled its tally by picking up 16 kills. A late Cardinal surge saw the school score four in a row to take a 21-23 lead and ultimately hang on for the win.
BYU took care of business in the fourth set, holding Stanford at bay to take the match.
The Cougars went ahead early, holding an edge for most of the set and keeping the Cardinal from ever finding the momentum they had in the third.
The win sends BYU to the tournament’s semifinal round Thursday night, where the Cougars will face No. 1 seed UCLA. The Cougars lost twice to the Bruins last week in Los Angeles, both in four sets.
“We got to … come out the way we came out tonight,” Olmstead said when asked about playing UCLA again. “Then we’ll go toe to toe with them and see if we can make a few adjustments and get them a little rattled here in Provo.”
