No. 15 BYU takes on Saint Mary’s in final road trip of regular season

PROVO, Utah – No. 15 BYU women’s volleyball will play Saint Mary’s in its final road trip of the 2020-21 regular season March 26-27 at the University Credit Union Pavilion in Moraga, California.

Friday’s match is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. PDT while Saturday’s match is set to begin at 3 p.m. PDT. Both matches will be broadcast on the WCC Network.

BYU Match Notes

No. 15 BYU Cougars (12-1, 11-1 WCC)

BYU moved back up one spot to No. 15 in the AVCA national poll after sweeping its season series against No. 21 San Diego last week
The Cougars are currently No. 2 in the WCC standings (.917 WCC win pct.) behind Pepperdine (.929 WCC win pct.) while leading the league with a .923 overall win percentage
On Monday, sophomore setter Whitney Bower received WCC Offensive Player of the Week honors and senior middle blocker Kennedy Eschenberg collected WCC Defensive Player of the Week to complete the BYU sweep of the weekly awards
BYU is No. 4 in the nation with 13.67 assists per set, led by Bower who is No. 26 in the NCAA DI with an average of 10.84 assists per set
The Cougars also rank No. 10 in kills per set (14.44) and No. 12 in hitting percentage (.301)
Eschenberg leads the league with a .427 hitting percentage (No. 18 in the nation) and with 1.26 blocks per set (No. 45 in the nation)
Senior outside hitter Taylen Ballard-Nixon leads BYU with 3.87 kills per set and 4.43 points per set
Originally scheduled to be the final series of the season, BYU will have a quick turnaround after the Saint Mary’s series to host a pair of rescheduled matches against Santa Clara March 30-31

Series Information

BYU leads the series with a 17-6 record against Saint Mary’s, including a current win streak of 12 matches
Under Heather Olmstead, the Cougars are 10-0 against the Gaels, including 5-0 at the University Credit Union Pavilion

Saint Mary’s Gaels (7-8, 7-8 WCC)

After opening the season 1-6, Saint Mary’s has won six of its last eight matches
The Gaels are currently No. 4 in the league standings with a .786 win percentage, one of four WCC teams (BYU, Pepperdine, San Diego) to have a win percentage above .500
The two matches are likely the final two matches of the regular season for Saint Mary’s
Sophomore outside hitter Elena Baka currently averages .39 aces per set to rank third in the conference while leading the Gaels in kills (2.95) and points per set (3.54)
Senior middle blocker Jennifer Laird leads the Saint Mary’s block with .96 blocks per set

Broadcast Information – March 26