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Jordan Christiansen
| Posted: 17 Sep 2019 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020
No. 12 BYU Readies for Two Big Road Matches
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PROVO, Utah – No. 12 BYU women's volleyball is set to play two big road matches this week as the Cougars travel to No. 18 Utah on Thursday, Sept. 19, and No. 2 Stanford on Saturday, Sept. 21, to finish their non-conference schedule.
Through three weeks, BYU is 7-2 overall with its only losses coming to No. 8 Marquette and No. 3 Texas, both in four sets.
BYU and Utah will begin at 6 p.m. MT at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City with the match aired live on the Pac-12 Network. The Cougars lead the series 72-28 all-time and have won the last three matches and eight of the last nine. BYU has come out of Salt Lake City with a win in their last four trips, having not lost there since 2010. The Cougars swept the Utes twice in 2018, first in September, then again in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
BYU and Stanford, who will play at noon PT on the Pac-12 Network, also have a rich history. BYU is 5-9 all-time against the Cardinal, winning the first meeting in 1981 before losing seven of the next eight in the 1980s and 90s, including four NCAA Tournament matchups in 1983, 85, 86 and 87. Since 2000, BYU leads the series 3-2, including a split last year when the Cougars beat No. 1 Stanford 3-2 in Provo in September before the Cardinal defeated BYU in the NCAA Final Four.
Senior McKenna Miller has reached double-digit kills in every match for BYU this season and leads the team with 116 kills. Freshman Whitney Bower is 12th in the nation with 21 aces on the year at setter and recently became the first player in BYU rally scoring era history to record at least four kills, three aces, 10 assists and 10 digs in a single match after totaling four kills, fives aces, 42 assists and 15 digs in last week's victory against VCU.
The Cougars are holding teams to a low .176 hitting percentage behind senior libero Mary Lake who leads the team averaging 3.7 digs per set, and middles Heather Gneiting and Kennedy Eschenberg who have 35 and 30 blocks, respectively, so far this year.
