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#13 BYU vs #4 Texas

3rd Round - NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship

Story by BYU December 10th, 2016

Cougars return to the Sweet 16

No. 13 seed BYU women's volleyball traveled to Austin, Texas, Wednesday to prepare for its regional semifinal match against No. 4 seed Texas on Friday. The Cougars left the Smith Fieldhouse in the morning to catch their flight at the Salt Lake City International Airport. The team spent most of the flight and evening time working on homework and studying for finals. Following a bus ride into town, the squad checked into its hotel for the night. The team held a press conference Thursday and held a practice in Gregory Gym at the University of Texas.

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Set 1

The two teams were close the whole first set with four lead changes and 14 ties. BYU’s two senior middle blockers got it started for the road team in the first set, with Boswell and Howard earning two kills each for the Cougars’ first four points. Miller and Howard’s block capped off two-straight points to go up 12-11. After trading points, Miller powered the ball through the block to get BYU’s first three-point lead, 20-17. However, the Longhorns scored three unanswered to even the score at 20 apiece. The Cougars struggled down the stretch, giving up four-straight to allow the Longhorns to win the first set 25-23.

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Set 2

The second set was all Texas. An early 8-3 Longhorns lead forced the Cougars to take a timeout. Miller came out of the break with a kill, but then Texas scored three more. Behind two kills from Veronica Jones-Perry, BYU scored three-straight to close in on the lead, 11-7. The Longhorns never allowed the Cougars to score more than one at a time to close out the set. Howard scored two kills down the stretch, but Texas closed it out with a 25-14 win.

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Set 3

BYU brought back the fight in the third set. Lacy Haddock hammered home a kill after a long rally to spark a 3-0 run to take a 5-3 lead. The Longhorns tied the game at 14-all, but Haddock found the deep corner on her attack to keep the lead at 15-14. BYU allowed Texas to score five unanswered points, taking the 21-18 lead. Behind a kill and a block from Howard, the Cougars fought off a match point with three-straight points to take the 25-24 lead, capped off with an ace from Haddock. BYU took the third set 26-24 after a Texas error.

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Set 4

Riding the momentum from the third-set victory, the Cougars jumped out to an early lead in the fourth. BYU went up 5-3 after Haddock killed the ball on a rally that lasted just over one minute. Texas then went on a 3-0 run to tie it at 6-6 until Boswell killed the ball to take back the lead. The teams had been trading points for a while when BYU scored four-straight points behind two kills from Jones-Perry to push the lead to 18-12. Despite the big lead, the Longhorns fought back with a 4-1 run to get within two, 23-21, forcing a timeout from the Cougars. Boswell slammed the ball from the middle to take the fourth set 25-22, forcing a decisive fifth set.

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Set 5

In the decisive fifth set, BYU jumped out to an early 5-0 lead with two aces from Mary Lake. An off-speed kill by Veronica Jones-Perry made it a 10-5 advantage over Texas. The Longhorns went on a 7-1 run to tie the game 12-12. Kills from Whitney Young Howard and Amy Boswell made it match point at 14-12, but Texas scored four straight to win the set 16-14 and the match.

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Footnote: Photos by Jaren Wilkey/BYU
Gregory Gym, Austin, Texas