Haddock-Eppich, No. 1 BYU sweep Loyola Marymount

PROVO, Utah – Senior setter Lyndie Haddock-Eppich helped lead No. 1 BYU women’s volleyball to a three-set win over Loyola Marymount (25-23, 25-15, 25-20) Thursday night at the Smith Fieldhouse to earn its 15th sweep of the season and remain undefeated.

"We had a great night with our serve and pass game," BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. "Serving tough allowed us to get great block touches. I'm proud of the team's effort tonight."

Haddock-Eppich matched her season high in digs with 12 on her way to a double-double with 24 assists. Roni Jones-Perry led the Cougars in scoring with 12 kills while also contributing four digs and three blocks. McKenna Miller finished the match with nine kills and three digs while Kennedy Eschenberg put up six kills and seven blocks, including two solo, of her own.

Loyola Marymount (15-5, 5-4 WCC) jumped out to a quick 4-2 lead before back-to-back errors by the Lions and a kill by Miller gave BYU (19-0, 9-0 WCC) the 6-5 lead. Jones-Perry extended the lead to 11-9 with a kill before Loyola Marymount used a 4-1 run to regain the advantage, 13-12. A kill from Madelyn Robinson and a Jones-Perry service ace helped put the Cougars back on top at 15-13. The Lions benefited from two Cougar attacking errors for the fourth lead change of the match to give them the 18-17 lead. The two teams battled back and forth before a block from Eschenberg and a kill from Miller ended the set for BYU 25-23.

A pair of kills from Eschenberg helped give the Cougars an early 6-5 advantage in the second set. Jones-Perry added two kills of her own to fuel a 4-1 run to push BYU’s lead to 13-9. A quick dump kill by Haddock-Eppich and three kills from Miller helped extend the lead to 20-14. Heather Gneiting scored an ace before blocking a Loyola Marymount attack with Jones-Perry to put BYU at set point. Haddock-Eppich took advantage of a botched serve return, sending the ball directly back to the Lions and giving BYU the set, 25-15.

Jones-Perry scored two-straight kills and a service ace to help the Cougars jump out to an 8-4 lead in the third set. Loyola Marymount answered with a 6-2 run to tie the score up at 10-all. Miller broke the deadlock with a kill before another dump kill from Haddock-Eppich extended the lead to 14-11. Jones-Perry added another pair of back-to-back kills for BYU to push the lead to 17-12. The Cougars boosted their lead to 21-15 with the help of two scores from Eschenberg. Miller scored twice more before a Gneiting kill set up match point at 24-20. After a solid back-and-forth rally, Jones-Perry ended the set 25-20 with her 12th kill of the match.

The Cougars will continue their homestand with a match against Pepperdine at the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 1 p.m. MDT. The match will be televised on BYUtv. Links to the video feed and live stats for the match can be found on the BYU women’s volleyball schedule page.