Spikers net second sweep of the season

HOUSTON—Continuing a successful start to the 2012 season, the BYU women’s volleyball team recorded its second sweep of the weekend with a 3-0 (25-16, 23-12, 25-11) win against Air Force in the Cougars’ second match of the Rice Invitational.

“We were excited to go up against a talented Air Force team that played a great match last night against the host, Rice,” head coach Shawn Olmstead said. “We stayed focus the entire match, which was important, and were competitive in a lot of areas of the game.”

Jennifer Hamson and Jessica Jardine once again led the BYU offense, each collecting 13 kills during the match. Hamson hit .765, a new career best. Kathryn LeCheminant went up for six blocks to lead the Cougars while Heather Hannemann helped out with 33 assists. Ciara Parker and Tia Withers both got their second double-figure outings of the season with 12 digs and 10 digs, respectively.

The team set a new BYU rally-scoring record, hitting .507 during the match.

Hamson got the Cougars moving with the first two BYU kills of the match, putting BYU ahead 5-3. Air Force came back to tie at 10-10 with the help of three straight kills by Falcon Cami Richan before Hamson and middle blocker Nicole Warner teamed up for back-to-back blocks. The blocks launched a 5-0 BYU run.

The Cougars maintained the lead through the rest of the half, increasing it to nine on a kill by Alexa Gray. The freshman outside hitter then turned around and wrapped up the set on a kill for a 25-16 finish.

Hamson wasted no time in the second set, throwing down three straight kills bookended by kills from Gray and Warner for a 5-1 run. Before long, BYU netted a 10-2 lead and were well on their way to victory. The Falcons attempted a comeback with serving exchanges, starting a run with two Air Force service aces and a Cougar service error, but the 4-1 streak wasn’t enough to get them back in the game. The Cougars stormed back to take the set 25-12 on a Warner kill. Heading into the break, BYU led 2-0.

A 17-2 Cougar scoring streak in the third set took the match for BYU as Air Force struggled to respond. BYU had 11 unanswered points before Falcon Meg Bright got in a kill. Air Force recorded 12 errors during the set, allowing for almost half of BYU’s points in the final set. Two kills by Jardine finished the set 25-11.

The Cougars take on host Rice at 7 p.m., looking to take the Rice Invitational title. Live stat links are available on the BYU schedule page. Video streaming is available on the Rice schedule page with the purchase of a monthly subscription to Rice’s online video content.

BYU vs. AF Box Score