Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — First-year BYU men’s volleyball coach Shawn Olmstead has set quite the standard in his first season.
The preseason No. 1 team in the country, BYU enters the NCAA Tournament as the field’s top overall seed, having won regular-season and tournament titles in the vaunted Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The 26-3 Cougars enter the tourney in University Park, Pennsylvania, for the third time in four years.
And the league took note.
Olmstead was named the MPSF coach of the year, the conference announced Wednesday, becoming the fourth BYU men’s volleyball coach to receive the honor. His immediate predecessor, Chris McGown, won the award in 2013, McGown’s father Carl was tabbed coach of the year in 1999 and 2001, and Tom Peterson won the award in 2003.
BYU’s 26 wins are the second-most in school history in the rally scoring era — three shy of the 2004 team that won 29 games en route to the national title. Olmstead, who played on the last BYU title-winning team, also presides over the top hitting team in the nation with a .363 clip and the top blocking team in the country that averages 3.13 blocks per set.
The news comes two weeks after BYU placed three players to the all-MPSF first team in opposite Ben Patch and outside hitters Jake Langlois and Brenden Sander. In addition, sophomore middle blocker Price Jarman and setter Leo Durkin took home all-MPSF second-team honors and senior middle blocker Michael Hatch was an all-MPSF honorable mention.
BYU opens the NCAA Tournament in the national semifinals next Thursday against the play-in winner of Long Beach State and Erskine College.
