USD volleyball falls to No. 1 BYU

Toreros battle, but come up short against top-ranked Cougars

Anderson Haigler/Sports Editor/The USD Vista

It was a battle of two West Coast Conference women’s volleyball powerhouses. At one end of the court stood the top-ranked Brigham Young University Cougars. At the other were the young but surging Toreros, who had won each of their last four WCC matches. The Jenny Craig Pavilion (JCP) was packed, the Bull Pit was alive, and the stage was set for USD to take on their fourth-ranked opponent of the season, this time going toe-to-toe with the team sitting atop the list. The Toreros fought valiantly against the No. 1 team in the country, losing a tight first set and winning the second in dramatic fashion. But as the match moved on, BYU proved to be too much for the Toreros, flexing their figurative muscles by dealing them a 3-1 defeat.

Early on, USD rose to the level of competition the Cougars brought to the match. Throughout the first set, the Toreros traded the lead back and forth with BYU after taking a 1-0 lead to start the frame. The majority of USD’s points in the opening stages, though, were not of their own creation — each of the the Toreros’ first five scores were on attack or service errors by the Cougars, good for a 5-4 advantage. Shortly after, senior outside hitter Lauren Fuller notched her first kill of the evening to extend their lead to two points, their largest of the set. That lead, however, did not last long. BYU quickly stormed back, tying the contest at six before going on to take a 10-9 advantage. 

As the middle portion of the set progressed, neither team was able to pull ahead and take a meaningful lead. The Toreros and Cougars traded the lead four times, with tie scores at 11, 13, 14, and 15. At the 15-point mark, though, a controversial call by a referee resulted in lengthy arguments from players and coaches on both sides and a replay review, ultimately causing a delay of more than 10 minutes. USD women’s volleyball head coach Jennifer Petrie explained the situation.

“They called – our setter was back row at the time, and she had contacted the ball above the height of the net and their blocker touched it,” Petrie said. “At the end of the day if you’re back row on a team you can’t touch the ball and then have another opponent touch it after.”

Both Petrie and her coaching staff as well as her players were visibly displeased with the referee’s call throughout the challenge, which first swung their way but was eventually overturned. While replay review is commonplace in NCAA volleyball games, the review process in question may have been unusually lengthy.

“It was pretty long, I have to say,” Petrie said. “Because initially the refs had decided that it was a judgement call and went the other way, and that took a long time in itself, before we even got to the challenge part.”

According to Petrie, the break in the game’s action had an impact on the course of the set beyond the scorecard.

“Absolutely,” Petrie said. “I think any time you have that long of a break it can take an athlete out of their game.”

The interruption appeared to do just that to the Toreros. When the dust settled, what was once a one-point lead for the Toreros turned into a one-point disadvantage, giving BYU a 16-15 edge. Any momentum USD may have had was gone, and the Cougars took their newfound  lead and ran with it. They rattled off four consecutive points following the challenge, making the score 19-16 in favor of the visitors. The Toreros labored to climb their way back into the set, coming within two points of the Cougars’ lead twice, but the back-and-forth nature of the frame had all but dissipated. The first set belonged to BYU, winning by a score of 25-21.

The second set was by far the most competitive of the match’s four. Though BYU struck first, jumping out to a 1-0 lead to start it, USD quickly scored three points on three consecutive kills from junior middle blocker Megan Jacobsen, making the score 3-1 in favor of the Toreros. Their early lead would be one they would cling to for nearly the set’s entirety. They maintained it early on behind a team effort on offense, with Jacobsen doing much of the heavy lifting. Sophomore Roxie Wiblin also chipped in with three kills, one of which was a service ace. 

As the set grew longer, the Toreros’ lead over BYU grew greater. They began to pull away from the Cougars near the midpoint of the frame, extending their lead to be as large as eight points at times. They led by the same margin as the set wound to a close. Up 20-12, it appeared that the Toreros were nearing a relatively easy set victory. BYU, however, was far from finished. The remainder of the set consisted of USD desperately fending off the Cougars’ fervent comeback. After the 20 point mark, USD slowly inched closer to victory, with kills from first-year outside hitter Katie Lukes and Jacobsen pushing them to within one point of a win. But at the same time that the Toreros were attempting to close out the set, BYU was scoring points of their own, and doing so quickly. What was once a comfortable eight point lead for USD evaporated into the JCP’s rafters, culminating into a 24-24 tie. 

Tensions both within the Toreros and within the crowd were high. As USD attempted to put the finishing touches on their near win, a crowd of 1,382 was living and dying with each pass and attack, and a high-stakes atmosphere was certainly present. Adding to the raucous environment was the strikingly large contingent of BYU fans in the arena. Nearly the entire visitors’ half of the pavilion’s seats was occupied by Cougar fans, who traveled extraordinarily well for a school that is located over 700 miles from Alcala Park. Armed with handmade signs, flags, and a willingness to get loud on enemy turf, the Cougar faithful made the JCP feel like an away venue for the Toreros at times. Late in the second set they were joined by the BYU women’s soccer team, who also traveled to USD for a game against the Toreros — and showed little hesitation in leading chants in support of their fellow student athletes. 

Not to be outdone, the USD Bull Pit was in full force. Clad in Hawaiian shirts as prescribed by their theme for the night, the USD student section was as loud and as large as they have been in the last couple years. With blue USD spirit towels waved high, they matched the visiting fans each time they got loud, even engaging in good-natured back-and-forth chants with them, leading to a truly festive environment. As each rally and attempt at victory bounced back and forth, the section began chants of “U-S-D” in sync with their team’s play as they utilized their three passes before sending an attack over the net. Of course, these chants were quickly met with the Cougar fans’ chant of their own, modifying the Toreros’ popular refrain to “B-Y-U.”

Jacobsen discussed the environment on Friday night.

“The crowd was great,” Jacobsen said. “Excitement on either side gets us going, so it’s awesome.”

Petrie weighed in on the atmosphere.

“It was electric, it was fun, there were a lot of good volleyball fans in there,” Petrie said. 

With their eight-point lead now whittled away to a tie, the Toreros found themselves in a precarious position: score two more points to win or risk squandering an otherwise well-played set against the best in the nation. USD chose the first option. After allowing the Cougars to tie it on a pair of attack errors, the Toreros took advantage of BYU’s own mistakes. A bad serve by BYU senior Lyndie Haddock-Eppich gave USD their lead back by a score of 25-24. Following the score, junior libero Megan Priest subbed into the game for the Toreros. Seconds later, she watched an attack from BYU outside hitter Madelyn Robinson land wide, earning the Toreros a dramatic 26-24 set victory over the Cougars. Or so they thought. Halfway into the locker room for the game’s intermission and in the midst of a jubilant celebration, the Toreros were called back to the court after BYU head women’s volleyball coach Heather Olmstead opted to challenge the final point. Minutes later, after another delay and lengthy deliberation, the celebration resumed after the call on the court was upheld, and USD’s set victory was made official. Petrie described her team’s performance in the second set.

“I think we handled the ball really well, we served really tough tonight,” Petrie said. “Which was one of the things we focused on, because in order to keep them on their heels a little bit, their first contact had to be off the net, and we did a good job of that. The first couple games we really took them out of their offense a little bit.”

Petrie said she was impressed with her team’s defense as well. 

“We did a nice job defensively,” Petrie said. “It allowed us to release our blocks when we needed to, get a nice double block up, and touches on balls.”

Jacobsen, who had a team-high six kills in the second set, assessed her team’s mid-game success.

“I think our passers were doing an awesome job,” Jacobsen said. “It made it so all the hitters were available, our setters were getting balls located well.”

The celebration for the Toreros was short lived.  They battled with BYU in the third set following the break, but lost ground on the Cougars halfway through. After trailing by just four with a score of 19-15, the USD offense stalled out, managing just one more point in the rest of the set as BYU went on to win a 25-16 decision. Though they matched the Cougars with 12 kills, their play in the third set was plagued by errors, committing 11 errors to BYU’s two. Accuracy on hitting may have also been a factor: the Toreros hit .033, while the Cougars hit a robust .476 in the set. 

They didn’t fare much better in the final frame. Up 2-1 in the match, BYU showed why they are top ranked more than they previously had in the game. The Cougar offense exploded for four service aces amidst 12 total kills as the USD offense struggled to get going, mustering just four total kills and hitting just -.214 in the set. BYU would go on to win the set by a score of 25-10, and the match by a 3-1 decision. 

Though the Toreros didn’t finish as strongly as they would’ve liked, there were positive elements of their defeat to the first-place Cougars. They are one of just three teams to win a set against BYU (16-0, 6-0 WCC)  this year, joining Duke University, No.19 Marquette University, and Stanford University as the only teams to not lose in straight sets to the Cougars. Petrie described her team’s performance.

“I think that we battled pretty hard, and we came out really strong,” Petrie said. “You have to hand it to BYU, they just play with a lot of grit and a lot of heart, and they’ve got some really, really talented volleyball players — and it was hard to match that player-for-player. I was proud of what we accomplished in the first couple games, and it kind of gives us an idea of where we need to be.”

One aspect of her team’s play that she would like to see improve is consistency. 

“The thing that I was really hoping for and looking for is that we have to not just have streaks,” Petrie said. “You have to put together a full match. And that’s what we’re still trying to gain from some of our athletes, they can play from point one to the last point of the match. We’re just a little streaky right now, and we need someone to carry us a little more.”

Petrie mentioned that her team may have been a bit tired in the set’s final portions. 

“(The Toreros) started to wear down a little bit, you could tell that physically we started to wear down a little bit towards the end. I wish that they had held up a little bit better, especially at home.”

Jacobsen discussed how her team stacked up against the Cougars.

“I thought it was pretty hard fought, but, I mean props to BYU, they played great and they’re an awesome team, tough to beat,” Jacobsen said. 

She stated that her team was excited to take on an opponent as formidable as BYU.

“To be honest it’s kind of a nothing to lose situation, so we went out fighting, going for every ball, but it’s tough, it’s definitely tough.”

Petrie shared her player’s sentiment regarding playing top-ranked competition.

“Playing the number one team in the country is the best thing in the world,” Petrie said. “It gives you an opportunity that not a lot of teams get throughout their season to play a number one ranked team. So I continue to tell (her players) to relish this chance to see what you’re made of, and how you can compete with that.”

The loss moves USD to 7-9 overall, and 4-2 in conference play. Next week they will go on the road to take on Santa Clara University in another conference matchup. Petrie said that she and her team are looking forward to the trip.

“I’m excited to get on the road again,” Petrie said. “We’ve been at home a lot, which has been great, but there’s something about also being on the road where there’s less distractions than you have at home, your friends, your school. Once you get on the road you can really focus into the task at hand, and we really need into that mode right now where we just think about volleyball for a little bit.”

USD returns home on Oct. 18 for another conference match against Pepperdine University at 8 p.m. in the JCP.