Sept. 30, 2017 Box Score | Photo Gallery
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The No. 17 USD Volleyball team (10-4, 3-1) fell to No. 9 BYU 3-1 Saturday afternoon inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The match was tightly-contested throughout, especially the first two sets, but the Cougars were able to outlast the Toreros for a 23-25, 25-23, 20-25, 18-25 win.
Four Toreros had double-digit kills, led by Jayden Kennedy's 14. Roxie Wiblin (13), Lauren Fuller (12) and Addie Picha (10) also had 10 or more kills. Lizzy Tardieu continued her breakout season with a career-high 24 digs. Kristen Gengenbacher totaled 55 kills and also had eight digs.
The Toreros had a hitting percentage of .250, but the Cougars hit .341. USD had 51 digs to BYU's 49, but the Cougars out-blocked the Toreros 12-4.
The first set was back-and-forth, featuring 11 ties. After BYU took a 23-21 lead, Coach Petrie took a timeout. Lauren Fuller would pull the Toreros within one with a kill, prompting the Cougars to take a timeout. Showing the importance of the match, each coach would call one more timeout in the waning moments of the first set before BYU eventually took the set 25-23.
The second set was just as close and also ended 25-23, except this time the Toreros got the win. Their .286 hitting percentage in the set was their best of the day. The third set was tied 6-6, but then BYU went on a 6-2 run and never surrendered the lead again. The Cougars hit .469 as a team in the fourth and final set on their way to a 25-18 win.
BYU was led by McKenna Miller's 14 kills. Veronica Jones-Perry (13) and Cosy Burnett (11) also notched double-digit kills. Lyndie Haddock had 42 assists and Mary Lake led the Cougars with 15 digs.
These two schools, the only ranked teams in the WCC, play again October 27th at BYU.
