Cougars sweep TCU series
PROVO -- Christina Measom led the BYU women’s volleyball team to a 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 24-26, 25-15) victory Thursday night at the Smith Fieldhouse, shutting down TCU for the second time this season.
"I was really pleased overall with how the team reacted to TCU in that we had prepared them for a completely different line-up," BYU head coach Shay Gouldling said. "They didn’t play with this line-up last week or last time they played against us so it was completely different and I was really pleased that didn’t shake us up much. We were still able to see where everybody was and plan accordingly. I thought the girls did a great job of adjusting and making those changes that were needed to accommodate."
Measom recorded a career-high 18 kills. She was joined in her career night by Christie Carpenter, who reached her fifth double-double of the season in Thursday’s game, making 14 kills and 13 digs.
"Measom was really on tonight and I definitely have noticed lately that she knows the end is near so she just wants to go out on fire and she did tonight," Goulding said. "She had 33 attempts and 18 kills for a career high so that’s great for her."
Stephanie Snow and Jennifer Hamson also scored in double figures, scoring 16 and 13, respectively. The Cougars are 8-5 when three or more players are in double figures.
Horned Frog Irene Hester led the game with 19 kills and Kendalyn Hartsock led in digs with 22.
The Cougars (12-15, 7-6 MWC) held TCU to hitting .201 while hitting .322 themselves.
BYU started quickly with a kill from Nicole Warner, followed by a point from freshman Hamson and a service ace from Warner.
Three-consecutive kills from Measom gave BYU a five-point lead. BYU went on to take a 20-14 lead late in the set, but the Horned Frogs brought the score back within four.
Christie Carpenter clinched the first set for the Cougars with a kill (25-18).
In the second set, TCU took the lead for the first time in the match, but could only stay ahead three points before the Cougars stole the lead back.
Hamson started the Cougars on their sprint back to the lead with a kill. Measom tied the game 9-9 and an error from TCU gave BYU a 10-9 lead.
After moving into the lead, BYU set off on a five-point scoring streak ended by TCU’s Hester. BYU led the game 19-10, its biggest lead of the set. TCU crept back, cutting the lead to four, but couldn’t get the points up fast enough to stop the Cougars from taking the second set 25-19.
The Cougars had a rocky start to the third set, falling behind by three early in the game.
Errors on TCU’s side and a kill from Snow brought the Cougars back into the game within one point. Snow recorded six kills for the set.
But the Horned Frogs raced ahead, getting dangerously close to their first win of the night with a score of 23-18 . Undeterred, the Cougars came back to tie the game 24-24, but two kills gave the third set to the Horned Frogs.
The final set began with the teams neck-and-neck before TCU jumped ahead 8-5.
Measom pushed BYU forward for an 11-10 lead that brought on a six-point scoring streak. The Cougars surged ahead, taking their biggest lead of the match to claim the last set 25-15 and the match 3-1. The Cougars hit 43 percent in the last set.
"On Saturday, New Mexico will be a tough team so if we can beat them at home it would feel fantastic and it’s going to help us forget a lot of the other wounds from the season if we can finish strong," Goulding said. "The biggest thing we’ve been talking about lately is to finish strong and I don’t think we can ask for much more than that. With our abilities and skills we can be extremely proud of what we have. If we can just give the rest of our season our all and finish strong then we can’t ask for anything more."
The Cougars will play their final home match of the season against conference opponent New Mexico Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU will honor its seniors before the match begins.
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