Arizona State took the first set and brought five straight wins over BYU into the building.
BYU erased both problems with one hard reset.
No. 11 BYU beat No. 8 Arizona State 20-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-23 Saturday night at Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars moved to 17-1 overall and 9-0 in the Big 12, extended their winning streak to 14 matches and ended the Sun Devils’ five-match run in the series.
The final looked like a narrow ranked win. The way BYU got there was more useful than that. After hitting .065 in the opening set, the Cougars hit .414 in the second. Four BYU attackers finished with at least seven kills and a .400 hitting percentage. When Arizona State recovered from an 18-14 fourth-set deficit to regain the lead, BYU still found the last block.
No single server or hitter carried the recovery. BYU changed the whole shape of the match.
BYU-Arizona State match receipt
| Category | BYU | Arizona State |
|---|---|---|
| Final | 3 | 1 |
| Set scores | 20, 25, 25, 25 | 25, 14, 19, 23 |
| Kills | 55 | 50 |
| Attack errors | 20 | 26 |
| Attempts | 134 | 150 |
| Hitting percentage | .261 | .160 |
| Aces | 4 | 3 |
| Service errors | 8 | 10 |
| Blocks | 10 | 9 |
| Digs | 58 | 47 |
The match was close in the columns that usually grab the eye. BYU won kills by five and blocks by one. Arizona State even took 16 more swings.
Those extra swings tell the better story. BYU committed six fewer attack errors while finishing 16 attempts sooner. The Cougars’ 58 digs and playable block touches made Arizona State keep attacking, but the Sun Devils did not get equal value from the extra work.
BYU also spread the offense without sacrificing efficiency. Sophia Callahan, Kelli Jo Burgess, Kate Prior and Brooke Hardy combined for 31 kills and four errors on 58 swings, a .466 hitting percentage. Arizona State could load up on one lane and still leave a clean answer somewhere else.
Arizona State’s first set exposed the old problem
The pregame guide centered the match on two questions: could BYU keep Arizona State’s block from settling around obvious high balls, and could the Cougars control Noemie Glover without opening the other pin?
The first set belonged to Arizona State because BYU did neither consistently.
The Sun Devils scored first, built a 7-3 lead and pushed the margin to 13-8 on an Isabella Costantini ace. BYU cut a 21-13 deficit to 22-19 with a late run, but Arizona State closed 25-20 with a double block.
The set totals explain why the comeback ran out of room. BYU had 10 kills and eight attack errors on 31 swings, good for .065. Arizona State hit .242 and recorded four blocks. The Cougars were asking their pins to beat a defense that already knew where to gather.
Glover did not dominate the set statistically. She had four kills and three errors. Arizona State did not need a 20-kill pace from its leading scorer because its block and BYU’s errors kept the scoreboard moving.
That mattered after the history between the teams. Arizona State had won five consecutive meetings, including the last two in Provo in five sets. Losing the opener could have pushed BYU toward the same long, pin-heavy match.
Instead, the Cougars made the second set look like a different sport.
The 25-14 second set rebuilt the offense
BYU opened the second with a Burgess kill and a 3-0 run. The lead grew to 10-6, then to 15-10 after three straight points.
The separation came immediately after the media timeout. BYU successfully challenged the first play, kept the ball and stretched the lead to 17-10. A later 4-0 run, including a Hardy ace, made it 22-12. Claire Little Chambers finished the set at 25-14.
The hitting swing was enormous. BYU went from .065 in the first to .414 in the second, an increase of 34.9 percentage points. Arizona State went the other direction, from .242 to .059.
That was not random variance. BYU involved more attackers before Arizona State could set its block.
Callahan had three kills on three swings in the set. Burgess had four kills on four swings and three blocks. Prior added two kills without an error. Little Chambers and Elli Mortensen each had three or four kills, which kept the pins relevant even as the middle and right side scored cleanly.
The two-setter system helped. Alex Bower and Kaylie Kofe finished with 23 and 22 assists, respectively. Neither setter had to spend the night forcing one matchup. A controlled pass let each move the ball before Arizona State’s middles could wait on the obvious option.
BYU had 16 second-set kills on 29 swings. Arizona State needed 34 swings for nine kills and committed seven errors. The 11-point margin grew from that split: the Sun Devils worked longer rallies while BYU finished its chances earlier.
Callahan became the release valve
Callahan led BYU with 13 kills, but her efficiency was the part that changed the match. She committed three errors on 21 swings and hit .476.
Her line was built across the response, not padded during the easy set. Callahan hit 1.000 in the second, .500 in the third and .571 in the fourth. She had five fourth-set kills when the score stopped behaving.
That made her BYU’s release valve. Little Chambers took 40 swings, the most on the team. Mortensen took 34. Arizona State could prepare for those higher-volume routes and still had to account for Callahan arriving with fewer, cleaner chances.
Burgess made the same pressure worse in the middle. She finished with seven kills and no errors on 11 swings, a .636 percentage, plus a match-high seven blocks. Prior added seven kills with one error on 15 attempts and four blocks. Hardy had four kills without an error, three blocks and a career-high seven digs.
Those four attackers combined to hit .466. That number is more than an efficiency footnote. It shows why Arizona State could not repeat the first-set plan. The Sun Devils could take away Little Chambers or make Mortensen work through a formed block, but doing so created a better ball for Callahan, Burgess, Prior or Hardy.
Mortensen still supplied the floor work. Her 12 kills and 14 digs produced a second consecutive double-double. Little Chambers added 12 kills and nine digs. Lulu Po’uha had nine digs, while Kofe added eight and Bower seven.
The offense became less predictable because the defense kept giving it another possession.
BYU made Glover and Schalk pay for volume
Glover entered on three straight 20-kill matches. Arizona State did not hide its answer when rallies became difficult.
BYU made that answer expensive.
Glover and Maéva Schalk each finished with 13 kills. Together, however, they needed 85 swings and committed 15 attack errors, a combined .129 hitting percentage. Glover alone took 43 attempts, committed eight errors and hit .116. Schalk took 42 swings, committed seven errors and hit .143.
Ella Lomigora was Arizona State’s cleanest attacker with seven kills and one error on 16 swings. She also tied Glover with five blocks. The problem for the Sun Devils was access. BYU’s defense made the high-volume pins take 85 swings while Lomigora received 16.
Arizona State still found enough from those pins to threaten the fourth. Glover had five kills without an error in the set, and the Sun Devils hit .200. BYU controlled the workload rather than shutting the pins down.
The Cougars could live with some pin kills as long as Glover and Schalk had to keep swinging through long stretches, absorb block touches and take another ball after the dig. Across the final three sets, Arizona State hit .137. BYU hit .320.
That gap grew from repeated ordinary wins: a playable touch, a controlled dig, a setter reaching the ball and a lower-volume attacker getting one blocker instead of two.
The fourth set required one more answer
BYU’s 25-19 third-set win looked like control. The fourth proved Arizona State still had a counter.
The Sun Devils led 12-10 before BYU answered with a 6-0 run around the media timeout. That pushed the Cougars ahead 18-14 and made the finish look ready to tilt toward the home side.
Arizona State scored the next five.
A 19-18 Sun Devil lead forced a BYU timeout. Little Chambers ended the run, but the teams kept trading the edge. Arizona State moved ahead 22-21 before Callahan’s late kill helped pull the Cougars level.
Mortensen then found the floor with an ace for match point. Prior and Hardy ended the next rally together at the net, sealing the set 25-23.
The ending fit the match. BYU did not close with its highest-volume hitter taking one more obvious swing. A server who had already carried 14 digs created match point, then two lower-volume front-row options formed the final block.
Arizona State made BYU earn that finish. The fourth contained 15 ties and seven lead changes, according to the independent Herald Extra report. The Sun Devils answered a four-point hole with five straight points and forced the Cougars to solve the last rotation under real pressure.
BYU’s answer was not glamorous. It was complete.
The ranked weekend changed BYU’s proof
BYU entered the week with five straight sweeps. Colorado won the first set Thursday and Arizona State did the same Saturday.
The Cougars answered each ranked opponent in four, but the two recoveries were different. Against Colorado, BYU used 15 blocks, targeted serving and an 8-0 third-set close. Against Arizona State, the sharper turn came through offensive distribution: .414 in the second set, four efficient attackers and nearly even assist totals from Bower and Kofe.
That distinction matters more than another sweep would have. BYU has now shown it can change the source of its points when the first plan fails.
The 9-0 conference record is clean. The road to it has stopped being tidy.
What comes next
BYU stays at Smith Fieldhouse to host Utah at 6:30 p.m. Mountain on Friday, Oct. 30, on ESPN+. The rivalry match follows a week in which the Cougars beat two ranked teams after dropping the opening set in both.
The volleyball schedule carries the permanent Utah event and official viewing route. The results archive preserves the Arizona State set scores, while our Colorado recap shows how BYU built the first half of the ranked-weekend sweep.
Arizona State ended the first set with a block. BYU ended the match with one. The difference was everything the Cougars rebuilt in between.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: No. 11 Cougars take down No. 8 Sun Devils in four for the official set sequence, key runs, challenge decisions and next match.
- BYU Athletics event 25242, official box score and article record 78080 for the stable event ID, completed status, 3-1 final, set scores, venue and official recap record.
- Finalized WMT match 6603893 and its player statistics for team totals, set rates, player lines, records, duration and attendance.
- Arizona State Athletics: Top-15 matchup sees No. 8 Volleyball fall at No. 11 BYU for opponent-side confirmation of the final and Arizona State’s 16-4 record.
- Herald Extra: BYU takes down Arizona State in four for independent confirmation of the final, fourth-set lead changes, player leaders and BYU’s 14-match winning streak.
- BYU’s official color guide and Arizona State’s official color guide for the palettes used in the original matchup art.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Arizona State watch guide, Colorado recap, volleyball schedule and roster.
