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PROVO — If former BYU star Taysom Hill can define his position as simply "football," Whitney Bower might want to trademark the same for volleyball.
The senior setter totaled 40 assists, seven kills and 11 digs to push the No. 9 Cougars to a 25-21, 22-25, 25-7, 25-22, 15-12 win over Texas Tech in front of an announced crowd of 4,033 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.
Oh, and a career-high eight blocks for the 5-foot-9 setter from Nampa, Idaho.
"I know I'm kind of undersized, so I think to myself, play big, because I'm not small," she said with a dry wit. "A lot of times, because I'm smaller, they like to hit over me. So I'm lucky I have really assertive middles that come in to reach, and make my job a lot easier."
Whitney McEwan-Llarenas had a career-high 16 kills, six digs and four blocks for the Cougars (15-3, 4-2 Big 12), Erin Livingston added 12 kills and five digs, and teammates Mia Lee and Hannah Billeter also posted career highs with 11 blocks and 18 digs, respectively.
Kamaile Hiapo added 13 digs for BYU.
Brynn Williams had 16 kills and 13 digs to lead Texas Tech (8-11, 1-6 Big 12), which got 13 kills and seven blocks from Caitlin Dugan in the first match between the two teams in 25 years.
The wait was worth every minute for the new conference foes.
They won't have to wait nearly as long for the sixth all-time meeting, either. The two teams go again Saturday in the Fieldhouse, where the Cougars improved to 6-0 on the year after going 1-2 in three straight road matches against No. 10 Texas and Oklahoma.
"It definitely makes you appreciate how much you love the Fieldhouse and the fans," Bower said, "going away where it's a lot harder to get wins. We love our fans, we love the support from everyone, and it's the best feeling to be back on our home court."
Texas Tech opened the first set with more attacks than BYU 34-27. But the hosts held the Red Raiders to just .118 hitting as Lee put down four of her team's first five blocks, and the Cougars hit .333 en route to a 25-21 early advantage.
"They definitely camped out on our pins a little bit more, which left space for our middles," Bower said. "It worked out, our middles had career highs, and I'm proud of them and how assertive they were."
The Cougars continued their torrid pace through the second set, led by Bower and a SportsCenter Top 10-level pancake that paced a furious rally en route to an 8-2 start.
Watch this👀👀👀
— BYU Women's Volleyball (@BYUwvolleyball) October 14, 2023
📺 https://t.co/jG141skYXppic.twitter.com/9HCBTuX7Hs
But Texas Tech took a 10-9 edge on Williams' kill, and held the lead through Caitlin Dugan's kill to go up 23-21 before Emily Merrick clinched the 25-22 win.
Back-and-forth went the match until the decisive fifth set, which neither team led by more than two until Bower floated back-to-back passes to McEwan-Llarenas and Livingston during a 3-0 run to go up 13-10.
Texas Tech pulled a pair back with a block by Dugan. But Livingston set up match point with a kill to the back row, and Lee finished off the Cougars' first five-set match of the season with her career-best 11th block.
"A lot of pressure comes with five-setters, but I thought that we played pretty free and pretty fearless and assertive," Bower said. "I think it's moving forward, too. But I'm proud of the way we handled that."
First serve Saturday is scheduled for 7 p.m. MDT on ESPN+.
