SAN FRANCISCO—The BYU women’s volleyball team secured the No. 3 position in the West Coast Conference with a 3-1 (25-19, 25-14, 23-25, 25-23) defeat of San Francisco Thursday night on the Dons’ home court.

“It was an exciting win for the Cougars, for sure,” BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “We had our backs against the wall a couple of times, but I think we responded really well and fought to the end. We were able to score at crucial times.”

Senior outside hitter Christie Carpenter led the Cougars (17-7, 6-4) on offense with 16 kills, also adding four digs and four blocks. Middle blocker Nicole Warner had 10 kills and six blocks and setter Heather Hannemann had 41 assists and eight digs.

Libero Kendalyn Hartsock broke a career high with a whopping 31 digs, as did defensive specialist Tia Withers with her 17 digs. Kathryn LeCheminant led in blocking with seven. Opposite hitter Jennifer Hamson tied her career high of five service aces and contributed 11 digs and five blocks.

The team totaled 13.0 blocks and held USF (13-10, 5-5) to 4.0.

The Cougars allowed a 4-1 run in the first set before settling into their game and firing off back-to-back kills by Hamson and Warner. Two-straight kills by freshman Katie Vaughn and a Hamson service ace tied the set 7-7 and Carpenter pushed BYU to its first lead of the match on a kill. The Carpenter kill kicked off a 4-0 run for the Cougars for a 12-8 lead.

Hamson’s second ace of the set put BYU ahead 19-13, but USF chipped away at the lead with three straight kills to bring the score to 21-18. Undaunted by the Dons’ run, the Cougars wrapped up the set 25-19 with the help of USF errors.

Continuing her domination on offense, Carpenter threw down the first two kills of the second set for BYU. The Dons sprang back within one, but attack errors continued to haunt them. A third ace by Hamson brought the score to 6-3. Carpenter and Hannemann continued the Cougars’ steady march toward a second-set win with a 3-1 scoring streak. The Cougars forced three more USF errors to double the Dons’ score 14-7. LeCheminant stayed strong at the net, making two blocks to help the Cougars to a 10-point lead. The set ended 25-14 with Carpenter putting up the Cougars’ last three points. Carpenter totaled seven kills on the set.

The Dons wouldn’t give BYU an easy win, taking a 3-2 lead early in the set and not letting go despite three ties. It took a Carpenter kill and a USF error to get the Cougars back in the lead. Warner and Carpenter teamed up for a block to take BYU to an 12-8 lead.

Valentina Zazloznik brought the Dons within one point of the Cougars and Jocelyn Levig tied the set 15-15. An error by Vaughn put USF on top, but the freshman made up for it by knocking down a kill to tie 16-16. BYU tried to break away, but USF held on tight, resulting in three more ties. USF broke out of the deadlock and skipped ahead 22-20 before a Don attack error and well-placed Warner kill tied the set 22-22. LeCheminant and Vaughn blocked Hadley Simmon to recover the lead for BYU, but three quick kills by the Dons gave USF its first set of the match 25-23.

BYU took the early lead in the fourth set, but the Dons came back for a 6-6 tie. USF took the lead on a Cougar error, leaving BYU scrambling to stay in control. Carpenter tied the set 8-8, but couldn’t spark the Cougars’ momentum. The Dons’ Anja Segota spurred USF to a 12-10 lead before back-to-back Hamson service aces gave BYU a 13-12 lead. The aces brought Hamson’s total to five, tying her career high.

The Cougars maintained that lead until Malina Terrell tied the set 16-16 on a kill and Joan Caloiaro’s kill pushed the Dons ahead. Two Segota kills gave USF a 21-18 lead. BYU made a comeback with the help of two blocks and a kill by LeCheminant, tying the set 23-23. LeCheminant teamed up with Hannemann to block Levig and Carpenter finished off the set 25-23 on a kill.

The Cougars face Santa Clara Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT in Santa Clara, Calif., hoping to end their California road trip with two straight victories.

BYU vs. USF Box

PROVO, Utah—With only four weeks of the regular season left, the BYU women’s volleyball team sets out on another California road trip this week, looking to bounce back from its first set of back-to-back losses of the season with matches against San Francisco and Santa Clara.

The match against San Francisco will take place Thursday at 6 p.m. PDT at the War Memorial Gym while the Santa Clara match is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT at the Leavey Event Center.

Traveling to San Francisco and Santa Clara is a great opportunity for us as a team to put ourselves against some formidable opponents,” BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “We have things we are excited to work on before we head out on the trip Wednesday.”

The Cougars (16-7, 5-4) return to action after going 3-1 against both No. 18 Pepperdine and No. 17 San Diego in Provo last week, arguably the hardest week of competition for the Cougars this season.

With the exception of San Francisco, BYU has already defeated every team left to play on its schedule.

The Dons, tied with the Cougars for third place in the league, are on a three-match losing streak after falling to Pepperdine Oct. 15 and Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara last week. The winner of Thursday’s match will take sole ownership of the third-place position. Santa Clara is currently in fifth place in the league after defeating Loyola Marymount and San Francisco last week.

Opposite hitter Jennifer Hamson reached 300 kills in an Oct. 17 victory against Gonzaga. The sophomore now has 329 for a 4.06 average to lead the team and the conference. Hamson also contributes 2.47 digs per set, reaching 200 digs against San Diego, and averages 1.01 blocks.

Backing up Hamson is outside hitter Christie Carpenter with 2.87 kills per set and 2.37 digs per set and setter Heather Hannemann with 10.31 assists per set.

Kendalyn Hartsock and Nicole Warner round out the Cougar defense with libero Hartsock dishing out 4.27 digs per set and middle blocker Warner putting up 1.51 blocks per set. Warner also averages 1.89 kills. Helping out on defense is sophomore middle Kathryn LeCheminant with a 1.10 dig average.

The Dons are led by Vendula Strakova, who has 228 kills at 3.45 per set, and Rebecca Kopilovitch with 4.23 digs per set. Joan Caloiaro contributes 10.25 assists per set and Valentina Zaloznik averages 1.06 blocks.

For the Broncos, Katherine Douglas throws down 3.14 kills per set with the help of Alyssa Anderson’s 6.18 assists per set. On defense, Tanya Schmidt has .66 blocks per set and Bridget O’Hara has 3.86 digs.

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BYU vs. San Francisco Notes