2017 women’s volleyball season review

PROVO, Utah – No. 9 BYU women’s volleyball finished the season with a 30-3 overall record, a fourth-straight West Coast Conference title and a sixth-consecutive trip to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

Head coach Heather Olmstead completed her third season at the helm of the program.

BYU ended the season with four athletes receiving All-America honors. Junior outside hitter Veronica Jones-Perry was named to the third team while Cosy Burnett, Mary Lake and McKenna Miller were named honorable mention.

The Cougars went 11-1 in their nonconference slate to start the season – falling in five sets on a neutral-Hawai’i court to Baylor. Along that stretch, BYU defeated then-No. 21 Ohio State as well as No. 16 Utah and Missouri, who both advanced to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament along with the Cougars.

BYU started WCC play winning its first 10 contests, including at No. 17 San Diego, before falling at home to the Toreros. The Cougars then won their final seven conference matches to go 17-1 in league play and win a share of the conference title for the fourth-straight season.

BYU received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament due to tiebreakers with San Diego and was seeded 13th for the third-straight season.

The Cougars swept their first two matches of the tournament at home against American and No. 24 Oregon before advancing to face No. 4 Kentucky on its home court.

BYU went up two sets to one against the Wildcats before ultimately letting the match slip away in five sets to end the season.

The Cougars ended the season ranked No. 9 in the final AVCA poll.

In addition to Jones-Perry’s All-America honors, she was named to the All-Pacific South Region First Team as well as the All-WCC First Team. She also received WCC All-Academic honors.

During the year, Jones-Perry was named the WCC Player of the Week a conference-best three times and was also honored as the ESPNW Player of the Week after her BYU rally-scoring era record 34-kill performance against Loyola Marymount.

Additionally, Jones-Perry was named the Most Valuable Player of the Boise State Classic and was added to the all-tournament team of it as well as the all-tournament team of the BYU Nike Invitational and the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge.

Jones-Perry’s 569 kills and 1,379 attempts for the season were second-most all-time in the BYU rally-scoring era. She also led the team in aces this season with 41 – third-most in program history.

Burnett was also added to the All-Pacific South Region Honorable Mention squad as well as the All-WCC First Team. She collected WCC All-Academic Honorable Mention accolades. She finished with a team-best 1.29 blocks per set after switching to the position this year.

Lake received All-Pacific South Region First Team honors and was named the WCC Defender of the Year. She was also added to the All-WCC First Team and the WCC All-Academic Team. Lake was named to the all-tournament team of both the Boise State Classic and the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge.

She averaged 4.52 digs per set (533 total) to lead the WCC for the second-consecutive year. Her dig totals were also second-most in BYU rally-scoring era history.

Miller received honorable mention accolades with the All-Pacific South Region team and the All-WCC squad. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge and was added to its all-tournament team and the BYU Nike Invitational All-Tournament Team.

Lyndie Haddock was honored as an All-WCC Honorable Mention player while also receiving WCC All-Academic Honorable Mention honors. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the BYU Nike Invitational and added to its all-tournament team.

Kennedy Redding, in her first year as a starter for the Cougars, was named the WCC Freshman of the Year. She was also named to the All-WCC Freshman Team.

As a team this year, BYU hit at a .539 clip against Sacramento State – best all-time in Cougar rally-scoring era history. They also had a .494 hitting percentage against Portland, which is the third-best clip in BYU history.

The Cougars' 30 wins ties for most all-time in rally-scoring era history. BYU also won 13-straight matches and had 20 sweeps – the third- and second-best streaks, respectively, in rally-scoring era history.

Looking ahead to the 2018 season, the team loses three seniors – Burnett, Madeline Graham and Alohi Robins-Hardy. The Cougars return four freshmen, five sophomores and five juniors from this year to next season’s squad. Additionally, BYU has signed two new Cougars to the 2018 roster.