No. 15 Cougars take down Colonials to win invitational

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The No. 15 BYU women’s volleyball team made a complete sweep of the George Washington Invitational after downing host George Washington 3-0 (25-17, 25-9, 25-15) Saturday.

"We're really excited with our victory today," head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "I thought we had a really nice overall performance at the invitational. A lot of different girls contributed. We had a nice scouting report and stuck with it. The ball rolled our way a bunch of times, so that was nice."

The Cougars, now 12-0, have won four-consecutive tournaments to begin the 2012 season. The match against George Washington was the final match before West Coast Conference play starts Thursday and was BYU’s ninth sweep of the season.

Alexa Gray won her first tournament MVP award, with Jennifer Hamson and Kathryn LeCheminant also earning all-tournament honors.

Warner led the Cougar offense with a season-high 14 kills on .722 hitting, aided by Heather Hannemann’s 33 assists. Gray had 12 kills. Freshman libero Ciara Parker had 13 digs and outside hitter Jessica Jardine recorded 10.

George Washington tied up the first set 3-3 after giving BYU the first three points of the set. The Cougars proved unfazed, answering with a 5-0 scoring streak. George Washington didn’t get closer than three the rest of the set.

Warner pushed the Cougars to their first set win of the night with two kills and a block with Hamson, allowing Jardine to take the set 25-17 on a kill.

The Colonials kept the beginning of the second set much closer, staying within two points until four George Washington attack errors put the Cougars ahead 11-5. An 8-0 run by BYU, made up of three kills in a row by Gray and a Gray and Warner block, gave the Cougars a 19-7 lead.

George Washington couldn’t come up with a good response to BYU’s precision on the court, as Parker punched a service ace and Jardine followed up with a kill, taking the set 25-9 in the team’s best set win of the season so far.

Ahead 8-6 in the final set, BYU used a 6-0 run to put away the match. Errors kept George Washington from a comeback and Kimberly Dahl sealed the victory on a kill.

The Cougars begin conference play with a home matchup against No. 18 Pepperdine Thursday at 7 p.m. MT on BYUtv.

BYU vs. George Washington Box Score

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rachelhawks | Posted: 11 Sep 2012 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020

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Cougars head to D.C. for George Washington Invite

PROVO, Utah—Still undefeated on the season, the No. 15 BYU women’s volleyball team takes to Washington, D.C., for the George Washington Invitational Friday and Saturday, the team’s final tournament before conference play.

The Cougars, now 9-0, are enjoying their highest ranking since 2007, when they finished the season at No. 12.

In the nation’s capital, BYU will face three East Coast schools—New Hampshire Friday at 5 p.m. EDT, Princeton on Saturday at noon EDT and host George Washington at 7 p.m. EDT.

West Coast Conference Player of the Week Jennifer Hamson leads the Cougars with 4.45 kills per set. Hamson is No. 16 in Division I volleyball for kills per set and No. 6 in DI volleyball for points per set with 5.35. Senior setter Heather Hannemann is No. 15 in Division I volleyball with 11.71 assists per set.

Senior middle blocker Nicole Warner, who finished the season No. 6 for blocks per set in 2011, is No. 6 again with 1.65 blocks per set.

BYU has players in the top 20 in four of the seven statistics categories the NCAA follows.

New Hampshire

New Hampshire comes off a 2-1 weekend at the Holly Young Invitational, which put the team’s current record at 4-6. The Wildcats easily finished off Holy Cross 3-0 in the opening match of the invitational, but met with trouble in their next match against Central Connecticut State. New Hampshire slipped by with the five-set win, but couldn’t rally beat William and Mary in the five-set final match.

New Hampshire plays against Bryant prior to the George Washington Invitational.

The Wildcats are led by opposite hitter Morgan Thatcher, who averages 3.55 kills per set and has 142 total kills. Opposite Destiny Tollister is another Wildcat to look out for, averaging 2.51 kills, 1.13 digs per set and .72 blocks per set. Tolliver already has nine solo blocks on the season and 28 total.

Princeton

Princeton is 2-3 on the season after winning one and losing one at the Colgate Invitational over the weekend. The Tigers defeated host Colgate 3-0, but fell the next morning to Siena in a 3-2 match.

Before heading to Washington, D.C., the Tigers will take on Seton Hall in New Jersey Wednesday.

Lydia Rudnick has 76 kills on the season at 4.22 per set. With her 2.72 digs per set, the senior outside hitter is responsible for 4.75 points per set for the Tigers. Nicole Kincade helps out at the net with 1.50 blocks per set as No. 10 in DI volleyball in that category.

George Washington

Host George Washington is looking to rebound after a 0-3 weekend at the Spring Hill Suites at Arundel Mills Invitational at Maryland. The Colonials fell to No. 16 Tennessee, a team BYU defeated in the Shocker Volleyball Classic, and to Maryland in three sets before losing to Boston College 3-1.

The Colonials will play against Princeton Friday night and New Hampshire Saturday morning before taking on the Cougars in the final match of the tournament.

With 136 kills this season, senior outside hitter Lauren Whyte leads the Colonials. She averages 3.49 kills per set. Libero Candace Silva-Martin leads in digs with 3.28 per set.

Live stats are available for the match on the George Washington schedule page. Live streaming for all matches is available with a monthly subscription.

George Washington Invitational Notes