PROVO, Utah – The BYU women’s volleyball team remained unbeaten at home beating Portland 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-12) Thursday. With the win, the Cougars improved to 6-0 on Elaine Michaelis Court. 

The Cougars pushed their record to 17-1, 5-1 WCC. Portland falls to 6-15, 0-7 WCC on the season.

“We started out a little slow tonight,” head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “I told them to just keep the pressure on Portland and just let the points come to them. We calmed down and things just started to unfold and that’s when we started to score more and play better.”

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Heather Hannemann notched her fifth double-double of the season with 28 assists and 12 digs. Alexa Gray and Jennifer Hamson led the Cougars with 10 kills each.

Christina Harris led the Pilots with 10 kills and Monica Jordan finished with 18 assists.  

Portland jumped out to the early 10-5 lead in the first set, capitalizing on a couple of errors by the Cougars and forcing BYU to call a timeout. After the timeout, the Cougars responded with a 7-2 run led by the serving of Ciara Parker and three kills by Kimberly Dahl to tie the score at 13. The home team continued to press, keeping ahead of Portland by at least three points. Kathryn LeCheminant finished off the scoring with a block to win the set 25-22.

The back and forth battle continued early in the second set with both teams committing service errors, leaving the score knotted at 6-6. Three kills by Nicole Warner sparked a 6-1 run to push the lead to 12-7. Portland fought back to bring the score to 15-11 before BYU went on a 10-1 run to win the set, highlighted by four kills by Hamson and three kills by Gray.

Hannemann continued her dominant serving into the third set to open with an early 6-0 lead. The Cougars went on another 8-2 run to force the Pilots to take another timeout. After BYU pushed the lead to 20-2, Portland fought back, going on a 9-4 run before Gray closed out the set with a block to finish the match.

The next match is Saturday at home at 7:30 p.m. against San Francisco on Elaine Michaelis Court on BYUtv.

PROVO, Utah—After two weeks on the road, the No. 16 BYU women’s volleyball team returns to the Smith Fieldhouse for matchups with Portland Thursday at 7 p.m. and San Francisco Saturday at 7:30 p.m. MDT.

BYUtv will broadcast the San Francisco match. Please note the start time for Saturday’s match has been pushed back by half an hour to accommodate TV.

Junior Jennifer Hamson leads the Cougars (16-1, 4-1) and the West Coast Conference with 4.05 kills per set. With a 1.58 digs average and a 1.20 blocks average, the 6-foot-7 opposite hitter is No. 20 in NCAA Division I volleyball in points per set. Hamson is aided by freshman outside hitter Alexa Gray, who averages 3.42 kills.

Senior Nicole Warner is No. 1 in NCAA Division I volleyball for blocks per set with 1.73. In WCC play, Warner averages 2.21 blocks. Also in the top 20 in NCAA stats, senior Heather Hannemann ranks No. 11 for assists per set with 11.69.

BYU is No. 2 in Division I volleyball for hitting percentage (.318) and No. 11 for blocks per set with 2.95. BYU is tied for No. 3 with Penn State for win-loss percentage (16-1, .941) behind only Washington (15-0, 1.000) and Central Arkansas (19-1, .950). The Cougars are also No. 20 in kills per set with 14.36.

The team is undefeated at home (5-0) and looks to continue that unbeaten streak this week.

Portland

BYU swept the series with Portland last season, putting the Cougars at 2-0 in the overall series. They last met in the teams’ final match of the season, and BYU won 3-0.

Portland hopes to end a seven-match losing streak and pick up its first conference win. The Pilots are 6-14 on the season and 0-6 in league play.

Ariel Usher and Autumn Wedan lead Portland with 3.04 and 3.07 kills per set, respectively. Two Pilots rank in the top 10 in WCC stat categories, with Monica Jordan at No. 8 for assists per set (5.55) and Rachel Fleming at No. 8 for blocks per set (.90).

San Francisco

The Cougars face San Francisco for the second time this season after defeating the Dons 3-1 on Sept. 27. BYU now leads the overall series 5-0.

San Francisco is 12-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play. Last week the Dons defeated Gonzaga 3-2 before sweeping Portland.

Jocelyn Levig heads the San Francisco offense with 3.72 kills per set, helped out by Ester De Vries’ 3.53 kills per set. Leanna Ludes directs traffic with a 10.31 assists average and Valentina Zaloznik leads in blocks with .65 per set.

How to follow

Live stats are available for the Portland match. 

Fans can catch the San Francisco match on BYUtv or www.byutvsports.com. Live stats will also be available.

Check out BYU women’s volleyball’s promo video on the BYU Cougars YouTube page.