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PROVO — The BYU women’s volleyball team entered Thursday’s rivalry match with a No. 9 national ranking, the nation’s longest home winning streak, and a 55-1 record at home since 2012.
Utah, meanwhile, entered the match on a three-match winning streak, outscoring opponents 9-1 in that span.
And the Utes were on top, 2-0, as both teams headed to the mid-match locker room break, looking for their first win in the series since 2010.
Utah’s Adora Anae set a program record with 31 kills, tallying a match-high 73 swings to lead the Utes to a 27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25, 15-13 upset win over No. 9 BYU at the Smith Fieldhouse.
“It was a long match,” Anae told reporters after the match. “We had to stick with it. But I think our team is really mentally tough. We all deserve this win.”
Berkeley Oblad and Carly Trueman added 11 kills each for the Utes (8-2), who got 57 assists from Bailey Choy in handing BYU (9-1) its first loss of the season.
McKenna Miller led BYU with 24 kills, and Veronica Jones-Perry added 20 kills for the Cougars. Setter Lyndie Haddock dished out 47 assists for BYU, which got 21 digs from Mary Lake.
“Since last year when we lost to BYU, we made a commitment to work every day,” Anae said. “This was on our dashboard. We wanted to check it off tonight, and we committed to ourself the whole year round to beat them twice.”
Utah grabbed a 7-4 lead in the decisive fifth set on Eliza Katoa’s ace, the Utes’ seventh of the match. But Makenna Santiago’s ace pulled the Cougars back within one, and Boswell went up for another block to tie the set, 8-8.
Haddock’s setter dump gave the Cougars an 11-9 lead, their largest of the final set and all the momentum.
But momentum is a funny thing.
“At that point, it was so much about our execution and being on the offense and having an offensive mindset,” Utah coach Beth Launiere said. “We had to have an offensive mind, and I told them to go for it; to swing for kills. I knew if we could get Adora to the front row, that would be great — and that’s what happened.”
Anae scored three-straight points to finish the match with a 15-13 win in the final set.
“She has the ability to carry us at times,” Launiere said of Anae. “Last year she carried us a lot, and this year we are more balanced. But I told my setter, don’t be afraid to set her every ball. She did a great job for us.”
Utah's first set win, 27-25, snapped a nine-set losing streak to its rival, the first set win since 2013. Then the Utes went on to rally from a 16-12 deficit in the second set, flipping the advantage to 2-0 behind eight blocks and a 21-18 win in the second set.
Katoa and Oblad combined on the Utes’ eighth block of the set to give Utah a 25-20 win in set two and a 2-0 advantage.
Utah took advantage out of the break, too. Katoa slammed a kill to give the Utes an 18-15 lead, silencing the sold-out crowd in the Smith Fieldhouse.
But the Cougars responded with a 5-1 run to pull within 20-19 on Miller’s kill and force Utah into a timeout. BYU tied the match on an attack error, and Whitney Howard posted a huge block to give the Cougars a lead, 22-21, before the final few points went back and forth.
Jones-Perry brought up set point, laying down a perfectly placed ball from Haddock to go up 24-22. After a brief setback, Jones-Perry gave the Cougars their first set of the night with a 25-23 victory in set three.
Utah jumped out to a 7-2 lead early, but BYU rallied for five-straight points — helped in large part by several errors on the Utah side of the net — to tie the fourth set, 7-7.
Amy Boswell capped a 9-0 run to give BYU a 17-9 lead, and Miller laid down a kill to go up 22-13 and BYU held Utah to a minus-.050 hitting percentage en route to the 25-17 win on the set.
“It’s tough to win down here,” Launiere said. “It’s hard, hard, hard to win down here. That (2-0 lead) was critical, and just what we needed.”
