Cougars Put Down Gauchos

Cougars capture first win of season!

Jess goes up for a kill! BYU photo.

In their second game of the BYU Nike Invitational the Cougars took on the UCSB Gauchos and a win!

In the first set the team came out timid from last night's loss. The Gauchos took the first set with a 25-18 win, but our ladies were just teasing as they pushed hard to sweep the next three sets, 25-14, 25-17, and 25-9. Sophmore hitting duo Jen and Jess led the Cougar offense with hitting .412 and .286 gathering career highs of 17 and 10 kills each. Each set the Cougars improved all around, especially in hitting going from .062 to .286 to .400 to .417 as a whole. Freshman Katie Vaughn came in the third set and contributed to the Cougar offense with 6 kills of her own.

Of course it all starts with a pass as the Cougars picked up their digging, preventing the Gauchos from successful kills. On the defensive end Kendalyn and Jen proved their skill picking up 20 and 18 digs each. The Gauchos seemed to be trying to work over the block of Heather forgetting that even at 6' 6" Jen can get under the ball for a dig. Heather actually proved difficult to hit against picking up 4 block assists, only to be topped by Nicole with 6. The team picked up significantly more blocks with 12.5 to the Gauchos 6. 

I look forward to another exciting game tonight against St. Mary's, a new conference opponent. In the preseason poll St. Mary's is picked to finish second, but our Cougar ladies will RISE UP and show the Gaels how a real volleyball game is played.

Official stats can be found here.