Kansas
No. 17 Kansas spoils senior night for No. 13 BYU with 3-1 upset
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PROVO — Friday night in the Smith Fieldhouse was supposed to be about celebrating a four-woman senior class of BYU women’s volleyball that includes the Cougars’ all-time assist leader in the rally scoring era in Whitney Bower.
But Kansas tried to make the matchup of two of the top-three teams in the Big 12 all about the visitors, as top-25 opponents tend to do.
Reagan Cooper poured in 25 kills, and Ayah Elnady added 18 kills as the 17th-ranked Jayhawks stunned No. 13 BYU 23-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-22 in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,412 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.
On a night dedicated to the Cougars’ four seniors of Bower, Whitney McEwan-Llarenas, Aria McComber and Kamaile Hiapo, BYU was led by another massive performance by junior Erin Livingston, who had 21 kills and six digs.
Bower dished out 48 assists with nine digs and three blocks, and Mia Lee and McEwan-Llarenas each added 11 kills and four blocks for the Cougars, who got 12 digs and four assists from Hiapo and nine digs and five assists from McComber.
But it was Cooper, Elnady and an attack directed by Camryn Turner (49 assists) that snapped BYU’s four-match winning streak and handed the Cougars a fifth loss in conference play — the most since 2011, and as many as the past four seasons, combined.
Welcome to the Big 12, where four teams are ranked in the latest AVCA coaches top 25 and three more (Kansas State, Iowa State and TCU) are receiving votes.
“These are the matches you want to be in at the end of the year; they mean something, and we’re all fighting for seeding and for the tournament,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “We’re just trying to control what we can control and play the best volleyball we can at the end of the year. I thought we played OK, but I think, ultimately, Kansas played better than us. I thought they served in, and our passing was good enough; we just needed to score in some other spots on the net and get them more pressure. We’ll learn from that next week as we go on the road and play two matches.”
The loss could have costly implications on the Cougars’ NCAA Tournament hopes as both teams battled for a top-16 seed that would allow them to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
But that’s also part of a move to a Power Five conference, where these kinds of games — especially in the final weeks of the regular season — mean so much more down the stretch. For Kansas, the chance to improve their resume with top-25 road win is too much to pass up.
BYU hopes the match, even in a loss, represents a similar rallying cry with the postseason so near.
“It definitely exposes your weaknesses, because they are such a good team. They came out firing on all cylinders,” Bower said. “If anything, it just makes us better moving forward. … Instead of playing someone that gives you more free balls, this team was hitting the 10-foot line. It’s definitely good preparation moving forward for the tournament.”
BYU’s attack was nearly flawless in the first set, hitting .424 and leading by as much as six before Kansas (20-5, 11-4 Big 12) rallied back with four blocks, tying the set three times in the final stages and taking the Jayhawks’ first lead at 23-22 on a kill by Elnady.
But Livingston, who had a match-high eight kills in the first set, put down back-to-back kills before BYU clinched the 25-23 lead with a 3-0 spurt capped by a block by Lee and Kate Prior.
Kansas used the momentum of a close loss to jump out to a 12-6 advantage early when Elnady rose high over the net for a putback blast in the second set.
The Jayhawks laid down nine kills before their first error and held the Cougars to .143 en route to a 22-15 lead. McEwan-Llarenas capped a 4-0 spurt to pull BYU within four, but Kansas evened the match with a 25-20 win on a kill by Cooper.
After trailing by as much as 11-6 early in the third set, the Jayhawks tied up the match three times before Mykayla Myers won a joust at the net to give Kansas a 21-20 edge. Cooper then finished off her 10th kill of the set as Kansas polished off a 25-23 win for a 2-1 lead.
Elnady capped a 4-0 run to lift Kansas to an 18-15 advantage as the Jayhawks tried to close out the match in a potentially decisive fourth set.
The Cougars fought back, scoring four in a row to tie the match at 20-all before the Jayhawks closed out the match.
BYU (22-6, 11-5 Big 12) wraps up the regular season with a pair of road matches at West Virginia and TCU before the NCAA selection draw Sunday, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m. MST on ESPN.