No. 25 BYU hit .400 and swept Boise State on Tuesday night. Those are the tidy numbers. The more useful one is 26-24.
BYU won the first two sets 25-12 and 25-15 while committing two attack errors across 57 swings. Boise State then forced a 23-23 tie in the third, after the Cougars had led 20-14. BYU answered with three of the last four points to finish the sweep inside ExtraMile Arena.
That final set kept this from being a simple correction against a less accomplished opponent. Four days after No. 2 Pittsburgh turned BYU’s good start into a four-set loss, the Cougars again watched their offense lose its clean shape. This time they stayed in the set long enough to close it.
BYU-Boise State score and box-score receipt
| Match item | No. 25 BYU | Boise State |
|---|---|---|
| Final | 3 | 0 |
| Set scores | 25, 25, 26 | 12, 15, 24 |
| Kills | 52 | 34 |
| Attack errors | 10 | 18 |
| Hitting percentage | .400 | .155 |
| Assists | 47 | 33 |
| Aces | 2 | 1 |
| Team blocks | 9 | 5 |
| Digs | 45 | 37 |
Claire Little Chambers led the match with 12 kills and hit .375. Elli Mortensen added 10 kills at .333 and served both of BYU’s aces. Kate Prior had eight kills without an attack error, Brooke Hardy had seven kills and five blocks, and Kelli Jo Burgess added five kills and four blocks.
The Cougars moved to 4-1. Boise State fell to 3-4. The announced crowd of 2,166 was the largest for a volleyball match in Idaho, according to Boise State.
The first two sets fixed the Pitt problem
BYU’s loss to Pittsburgh had a brutal dividing line. The Cougars hit .382 in the first two sets and .082 in the last two. They committed 15 attack errors after intermission and could no longer keep the whole net available.
Boise State gave BYU its first chance to apply that film. For two sets, the response was nearly spotless.
| BYU attack split | Kills | Errors | Attempts | Hitting percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First two sets at Boise State | 33 | 2 | 57 | .544 |
| Third set at Boise State | 19 | 8 | 48 | .229 |
| Final two sets vs. Pittsburgh | 20 | 15 | 61 | .082 |
The second set was the sharpest. BYU put down 14 kills on 22 attacks without an error, good for .636. Mortensen’s two aces helped stretch the lead, but the offense did not depend on the service line to create a runaway. Prior and Hardy combined on a block to help close the set, followed by a Kylie Buttars-Burgess block on set point.
Six BYU attackers finished with at least five kills. Prior hit .667, Burgess .556 and Hardy .462. Little Chambers and Mortensen supplied the higher-volume pin scoring. Buttars added six kills. That is the variety BYU lost late against Pitt, when the pass and the Panthers’ block turned too many possessions into visible swings from the antenna.
Alex Bower and Kaylie Kofe each recorded 18 assists. Equal totals do not prove equal setting quality, but they do show that BYU kept its two-setter shape while spreading 48 of its 52 kills among six regular attackers. Nobody had to take 30 swings. Little Chambers led the team with 24.
That was the correction BYU needed. It was also the part Boise State made easiest.
The third set was messy, and BYU still found an ending
The Broncos did not disappear after trailing by 13 and 10 in the opening sets. They put down 14 kills and produced four team blocks in the third. BYU committed eight attack errors, four times its total from the first two sets combined.
A 5-1 Boise State run cut BYU’s 20-14 lead to 21-19. After two Buttars kills gave the Cougars some room, the Broncos scored three straight to tie the set at 23. Mortensen earned the first match point. Boise State saved it. Hardy then put BYU back on match point before a Bronco error ended the night.
This was not BYU sustaining .400 volleyball for three sets. The third-set line was .229, and the Cougars gave back a six-point lead. UCLA will see that stretch on film Friday.
It was still different from the Pitt finish. Against the Panthers, BYU hit .000 in the third set, fell behind 8-2 and never got within five after Pitt’s opening run. At Boise State, the rough patch arrived late. BYU had to find only two points with the set tied rather than rebuild an entire set from six points down.
That sounds like a small distinction because it is one. Small distinctions decide close sets. The Cougars did not need their cleanest rotation to finish Tuesday. Hardy’s kill gave them another swing at match point, and the block had already kept Boise State to .155 for the match.
The remaining concern is how quickly the attack tightened once Boise State’s block began scoring. BYU took 48 swings in the third, 26 more than in the second, and committed eight errors. The Broncos extended rallies, and BYU stopped getting points at first-two-set speed. A sweep should not hide that warning.
Prior and Hardy made the offense harder to corner
Little Chambers and Mortensen combined for 22 kills, and both deserved the headline. Prior and Hardy supplied the balance underneath it.
Prior finished with eight kills on 12 attacks and no errors. She also had four block assists. The August look at Prior’s return treated her middle/opposite flexibility as a way to keep more than one scoring route available. Boise State was the cleanest match receipt yet: 10 points in three sets and no wasted attack.
Hardy produced seven kills with one error on 13 swings. Her five total blocks led BYU, and her last kill came with the third set tied in the closing sequence. Burgess added another error-free middle line, five kills on nine attempts.
Those three combined for 20 kills and one attack error. More important, they occupied different parts of the net. Boise State could not load its defense toward Little Chambers or Mortensen and wait for every important ball.
The third set showed why that balance has to survive after the first pass breaks down. The roster has enough options. BYU’s next step is keeping those options usable when a set becomes slow and crowded.
UCLA will test the part after .400
BYU returns to Smith Fieldhouse on Friday, Sept. 11, to host UCLA at 6:30 p.m. Mountain on ESPN+. The volleyball schedule carries the official listing and any late coverage change.
The Cougars do not need to reproduce a .400 team mark to show progress. They need the Boise State distribution without requiring a 13-point cushion first. Keep Prior, Hardy and Burgess involved when the pass drifts. Let Bower and Kofe create different looks instead of merely matching assist totals. Shorten the next opponent run before a 20-14 lead becomes 23-23.
Tuesday provided both sides of the file. The first two sets showed how good BYU can look when six attackers remain available. The third showed that the old stress point has not vanished.
BYU closed it anyway. After Pittsburgh, that is the part worth carrying home.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics, Sept. 8: No. 25 Cougars hit .400 in sweep of Broncos for BYU’s official result, set sequence, player totals and UCLA listing.
- Boise State Athletics, Sept. 8: Boise State drops battle to No. 25 BYU for independent confirmation of the result, third-set rally, Boise State leaders, attendance record and coach comments.
- Boise State Athletics: official BYU-Boise State box score for set-by-set hitting, complete player lines, team totals and the calculations above.
- WMT game 6603861 for the finalized team records, score, period totals, attendance and venue record.
- BYU Athletics: official event record for completed status, ExtraMile Arena, official box-score identity and post-event article reference.
- BYU Sport Nuts: volleyball hub, roster, Boise State watch guide and Pittsburgh result analysis.
