Oregon State
2-6
Brigham Young
8-1
Oregon State Volleyball Falls at No. 9 BYU, 3-1
September 13, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
OSU (2-6) hit .343 through the first two sets, splitting the two frames with BYU (8-1) by scores of 21-25 and 25-23. BYU hit .310 in the final two frames while the Beavers hit .130 over that span, as the Cougars took the final two sets, 25-19 and 25-15.
The Beavers hit .237 for the match, while the Cougars finished the match with a .291 hitting percentage.
“It's always tough to lose, but the positive is that we came to play from the outset,” Oregon State head coach Taras Liskevych said. “What a difference we saw in our outsides today, and in what the team hit compared to hitting 'zero' the other night. The key to the match was how our blocking and passing fell apart a little bit after the first two sets. They had seven aces to two misses, and we only had three aces with four misses. That was kind of the tone for particularly that fourth set, where they really went after us serving and we just didn't sustain our passing.”
BYU held statistical edges in kills (70-47), assists (65-46) and digs (67-42). OSU held the edge in total blocks, 8.5-4, out-blocking a Cougar team that finished No. 1 nationally last season in blocking.
Redshirt junior outside hitter Katelyn Driscoll led the Beavers offensively, recording 12 kills on .308 hitting with four digs and a pair of blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Mary-Kate Marshall matched her 12 kills (.225) and added six digs. Junior outside hitter Lila Toner buried eight kills (.280) with nine digs and four total blocks.
In her first collegiate start, redshirt freshman outside hitter Kory Cheshire posted seven kills, while redshirt senior middle blocker Haley Clarke hit .333 en route to five kills. Redshirt junior setter Dana Backlund matched her career high with 39 assists, while tallying eight digs and a pair of service aces. Freshman libero Kayla Ellis registered a team-high 12 digs.
The first six points of the match were split down the middle before BYU held its first lead at 4-3. The two teams traded points from there, with the Beavers wrestling away the lead at 14-13, and BYU taking it back at 15-14. The Cougars went on a 3-1 run to extend its lead to 18-15, and held the advantage to take the opening frame, 25-21.
BYU opened the second frame with a 7-2 run, but OSU responded with a 7-2 run to knot the game up at nine apiece. Out of a BYU timeout, the Beavers took the next six points to seize a 15-9 advantage in the frame. Continuing the trend of runs in the second set, the Cougars used a 6-1 run to cut the Beavers' lead to 16-15. However, the Cougars could not overcome the OSU's 13-2 mid-set run, as the Beavers tied up the match with a 25-23 win in the second set.
The Cougars took an early lead in the third set, opening with a 3-1 run. The Beavers tied the score at three points and eight points apiece, but the Cougars went on a 6-0 run to go up 14-8 in the frame. The Beavers brought the score within two at 18-16 and 20-18, but the Cougars went on a 5-1 run to take a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-19 third set win.
“I thought there was a key point in the third set when we came back, 18-20, and they took a timeout,” Liskevych said. “We needed to push through with a few points, but there was a key rally where Lila hit a great ball down the line and they dug it. Their digging was exceptional tonight. I felt that we intimidated them with our blocking early, but as good as our blocking was, it also needed to be better tonight.”
For the second time in the match, BYU opened a set with a 7-2 lead, and extended its early advantage to as large as 10 at 17-7 midway through the fourth frame. The Beavers were unable to recover momentum from the early surge, as they fell in the fourth set, 25-15, and the match, 3-1.
The Oregon State volleyball team returns to action next weekend with a pair of road contests in California. The Beavers face UC-Irvine in Irvine, Calif. on Friday, Sept. 18, and Long Beach State in Long Beach, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 19. Each matchup is set to begin at 7 p.m. PT.
For more information on the Oregon State volleyball team, follow the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/BeavsVolleyball, by Facebook at Facebook.com/OregonStateVolleyball or on Instagram at Instagram.com/OregonStateVolleyball.
