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PROVO — Heather Olmstead knew exactly where she sat in her BYU women's volleyball career before Saturday afternoon's match against Pepperdine in the Smith Fieldhouse.
Not that the tenured head coach sought it out, though.
"Jarom Jordan keeps tweeting about it," Olmstead quipped, referring to the BYUtv play-by-play broadcaster. "I'm not on social media, but it always gets sent to me by my best friends."
Erin Livingston poured in 13 kills with six digs, and Whitney Llarenas added a career-high 13 kills as No. 16 BYU held off No. 17 Pepperdine 25-12, 18-25, 25-21, 25-22 Saturday afternoon in front of an announced crowd of 3,004 fans.
Whitney Bower dished out 41 assists with 13 digs, three kills and three blocks, and Heather Gneiting supplied 12 kills, six blocks and three aces for the Cougars (9-3, 2-0 West Coast Conference).
"It's a credit to the players," Olmstead said, "and to the coordination and just how tight this group is and how they want to win. This was a great match to do it, with a great opponent.
"They're good girls who want to be high performing on the court. And then they get here, and they want to be high performing in academics, too, as well as athletically and spiritually. They want to learn and grow and they want to serve the community and the world, to be a representative of what we have to offer people. They want to just keep getting better, and they show up to work every day."
GAME.
— BYU Sports Nation (@BYUSportsNation) September 24, 2022
Heather Olmstead becomes the fastest coach to 200 wins in D-1 history ❗#BYUWVB | #GoCougspic.twitter.com/iqfPCs4iZa
Those players, and countless others along with several NCAA Tournament runs, helped Olmstead to her 200th career win, believed to be the fastest coach in NCAA Division I women's volleyball history to reach the milestone plateau. Her .888 winning percentage just edges out her brother Shawn, who led the BYU women to a 103-25 record before taking the head coaching job with the BYU men's volleyball program. The Cougars are the only program in the NCAA with three coaches posting a winning percentage of .800 or higher, led by legendary coach Elaine Michaelis' all-time mark of 886-219-5 (.800) from 1969-2001.
"It's super special. We love her, and we love everything that she is with this team," Llarenas said of her coach. "She's super humble, and you wouldn't never notice that she's won 200 wins so fast. It's just a sign of how confident and humble she is. I appreciate being on this team and being a part of it."
BYU hit .409 in the opening set, but struggled offensively until Bower — the 5-foot-9 setter from Nampa, Idaho — rose over the field for a solo block that sent her teammates and the Fieldhouse into a frenzy. The Cougars used the momentum to jump out to a 15-8 lead on a kill by Gneiting moments later, and never looked back en route to the 25-12 first-set victory.
"That was one of the plays of the match, her stuff at the net," Olmstead said of Bower's block. "The energy just shifted in the gym.
"She is the epitome of what we want our players to be like, move like and talk like. She is a leader in all ways of leadership, and she continues to impress me every time I get to coach her and be around her."
5' 9" what?@whitneybower with the BLOCK 💪 pic.twitter.com/0xvWKYGaHh
— BYU Sports Nation (@BYUSportsNation) September 24, 2022
The Waves, ranked in the top-20 of the AVCA coaches' poll for a reason, responded in kind. Meg Brown had two aces as Pepperdine led by as much as 20-13 in the second set, then pushed the Waves to the break with a kill to set up 24-18 en route to the 25-18 victory in the second set.
The Cougars dropped from .409 to .152 as the Waves hit .367 in the second set and fielded an 83% sideout percentage to even the match.
No team led by more than three in the third set, until BYU started to inch away with a 20-18 advantage on back-to-back kills by Llarenas and Livingston late. That gave the Cougars just enough space to finish off the set, getting help from a lengthy challenge to confirm a sideout and a pair of kills from Kate Grimmer and Elyse Stowell for the 25-21 win.
As she's done many times during her career, Livingston took over in the final set, scoring four of the Cougars' final six points to put away the match, 25-22 and lift Olmstead to her 200th career victory. Gneiting had two aces during the stretch, which including a 4-0 comeback bid by Pepperdine.
Rachel Ahrens led Pepperdine with 15 kills, eight digs and three blocks, and Emily Hellmuth added 12 kills and two blocks. Isabel Zelaya dished out 25 assists with six digs for the Waves (9-4, 0-2 WCC).
