Colorado won the first set with 19 kills, then spent the rest of Thursday night trying to get that offense back.
No. 11 BYU never let it happen.
The Cougars beat No. 25 Colorado 23-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-18 at Smith Fieldhouse, moving to 16-1 overall and 8-0 in the Big 12. BYU hit .327, finished with 15 team blocks and held the Buffaloes to .183 after they had arrived in Provo fresh off a .375 road performance at Iowa State.
The final three sets were not one long runaway. Colorado led 10-6 in the second, pulled within 17-16 in the third and held a 13-11 edge in the fourth. BYU had to solve the match three different times. It won one set with service pressure, one with an 8-0 block-fueled close and one with its best attacking frame of the night.
That is a much stronger answer than pretending the first set never happened.
BYU-Colorado match receipt
| Category | BYU | Colorado |
|---|---|---|
| Final | 3 | 1 |
| Set scores | 23, 25, 25, 25 | 25, 22, 16, 18 |
| Kills | 53 | 50 |
| Attack errors | 17 | 26 |
| Attempts | 110 | 131 |
| Hitting percentage | .327 | .183 |
| Aces | 4 | 5 |
| Service errors | 9 | 14 |
| Blocks | 15 | 12 |
| Digs | 46 | 31 |
The kill margin was only three. The difference came from what each team needed to produce those kills.
BYU required 21 fewer swings and committed nine fewer attack errors. Colorado had to take 131 attempts because the Cougars kept rallies alive, redirected attacks at the net and made the Buffaloes swing again. BYU also received 14 Colorado service errors, five of them in the opening set alone.
The Buffaloes still won the first frame because their 19 kills covered those mistakes. Once BYU cut down that supply of clean swings, the service errors became much more expensive.
Colorado’s first set proved the threat was real
The pregame guide centered the matchup on Colorado’s ability to keep Ana Burilovic dangerous while holding BYU’s block with the middle. The Buffaloes did exactly that at the start.
Colorado hit .371 in the first set. Ines Losada found repeated space at the pin, Maria Splawska and Cayla Payne kept the middle available, and the visitors built a 20-15 lead. BYU made a late push, tied the set at 22 and briefly appeared to have survived set point when a touch call was reversed.
Losada ended the argument on the next rally. Colorado won 25-23 with the kind of attack it had brought from Ames: 19 kills on 35 swings, enough variety to make BYU defend the whole width of the net.
The set also showed the price of BYU’s imperfect first contact. When the pass drifted, Colorado could release toward the pins sooner. BYU still hit .333 and Claire Little Chambers scored five kills without an error, but the Cougars were reacting to Colorado’s choices more often than dictating them.
This was the first set BYU had dropped in six matches. It did not look fluky. Colorado earned it.
The response started with a less glamorous number. The Buffaloes finished the night with 14 service errors, and their sixth opened the second set. BYU did not need to force a spectacular answer on every rally. It needed to make Colorado play enough ordinary balls for those free points to matter.
BYU won the second set without owning the obvious columns
Colorado led 10-6 in the second. It also finished the frame with more kills, a higher hitting percentage and one more block than BYU.
BYU won it anyway.
The Cougars used an 8-2 run to turn the four-point deficit into a 14-12 lead. Little Chambers supplied three kills during that stretch. Kelli Jo Burgess and Kate Prior also scored, while Burgess and Sophia Callahan closed one attack together.
Service pressure then changed the point economy. Kaylie Kofe served an ace, and Little Chambers added two more during the set, including a ball that caught the tape and rolled over to make it 23-19. Colorado answered with two kills, but BYU did not let the run continue. Burgess and Callahan combined on another block, and Brooke Hardy ended the frame with a kill.
Colorado’s second-set line was good: 15 kills, .303 hitting and five blocks. It was also paired with three service errors and three reception errors. BYU’s three aces created points without asking the attack to beat a formed block.
That distinction matters. The Cougars did not suddenly overpower Colorado after losing the opener. They found a different scoring source and used it long enough to level the match.
Little Chambers was the cleanest attacker on the floor. She finished with 12 kills and one error on 22 swings, a .500 percentage, while adding two aces and four blocks. Colorado could slow one BYU lane at a time. Little Chambers kept punishing the seams that remained.
The third set became a serving and blocking trap
The decisive tactical turn came with BYU’s serve aimed repeatedly at Burilovic.
That choice was not about finding a weak player. Burilovic entered as Colorado’s volume scorer and had just hit .517 at Iowa State. Making her handle first contact before taking the next swing was a way to add work to every rotation and make the Buffaloes’ left-side attack easier to read.
BYU served into that workload for three straight points early in the third, then returned to it for five more. The result was not an instant parade of aces. It was a narrower Colorado offense. Burilovic committed attack errors, the Buffaloes sent more returnable balls across, and BYU’s block had time to close.
Colorado still fought from 15-9 to 17-16. That was the last competitive score of the set.
Anna Blamires, Mortensen and Hardy helped BYU score three straight before a Colorado timeout. The Cougars came out of it and scored the final five too. Hardy put down two kills during the closing stretch. Blamires added a kill and joined Hardy and Mortensen on a block. Mortensen and Hardy ended the set with another block after Alex Bower kept the rally alive with a pancake dig.
BYU scored eight straight points to close the set before Colorado could rotate out of trouble.
The box score shows how completely that close changed the frame. Colorado finished the third with seven kills and 10 attack errors, good for minus-.107 hitting. BYU recorded 7.5 team blocks in the set alone.
Burilovic still reached 13 kills for the match, but she needed 38 swings and committed 11 attack errors. Her final hitting percentage was .053. In the watch guide, she was the hitter BYU could not allow to take clean, predictable swings after 20 points. The Cougars went one step earlier. They made her work before the set and turned Colorado’s best volume option into a passing target.
Losada led the Buffaloes with 14 kills and four blocks. Payne added nine kills and five blocks, while Splawska had seven blocks. Colorado still had other productive attackers. BYU’s serving made it harder for setter Jenna Ylivainio to reach all of them on time.
Fifteen blocks were a team structure, not one hot hand
Burgess led BYU with nine blocks, but the total reached 15 because the work traveled across the front row.
Callahan had five block assists. Hardy and Little Chambers each finished with five and four total blocks, respectively. Mortensen added three. Prior and Blamires had two apiece.
That spread matters against a setter trying to keep several attackers involved. Colorado could not simply wait for Burgess to rotate away. The Cougars built usable block touches with different combinations, and the back row converted those touches into another possession.
BYU’s 46-31 dig advantage belongs in the same conversation. Mortensen recorded 10 digs for her second straight double-double, adding 13 kills. Bower had nine digs and Lulu Po’uha had eight. Kofe added six.
A block that slows the ball is only useful if somebody is in position behind it. BYU’s floor defense made the 15-block total larger than the stuffs alone. Colorado took 21 more attacks than BYU and still finished with three fewer kills.
The two-setter system helped turn those defensive possessions into offense. Bower finished with 24 assists and Kofe had 17. BYU hit at least .233 in every set and improved to .467 in the fourth, when the match could have drifted back toward a fifth frame.
Hardy’s line punished every late middle decision
Hardy matched a career high with 11 kills. The more startling part was how she got there: 11 kills, no errors, 14 swings and a .786 hitting percentage.
Colorado’s block had to account for Mortensen’s 33 attempts, Little Chambers’ .500 night and Burgess moving through the middle. Hardy turned those competing responsibilities into the cleanest attacking line of the match.
Her timing showed up most clearly in the fourth set. Colorado led 12-11 after playing through its pins and finding early service pressure. BYU answered with quick sets to Hardy in the middle, shortening the rally before the Buffaloes could settle behind their block.
Mortensen then scored three consecutive kills around the 14-all tie, giving BYU its first lead of the set. The Cougars kept serving toward Burilovic, forced two more attack errors and pushed the margin to 18-15. Colorado called timeout. BYU returned with a 4-1 run.
By the end, the Cougars had 17 kills and only three attack errors in the fourth. Colorado had nine kills and five errors. The set that began with another Buffaloes lead became BYU’s best offensive frame because the Cougars could score in the middle and at both pins.
Mortensen’s 13 kills and 10 digs supplied the volume. Little Chambers supplied the efficiency. Hardy supplied the punishment whenever Colorado’s attention arrived a half-step late.
That is the balance BYU wanted before the match, but it looked different than the five-sweep run that preceded Thursday. Colorado was good enough to take a set and force BYU to prove the balance under scoreboard pressure.
The unbeaten Big 12 start now has a comeback in it
BYU’s 8-0 league record had been built on five consecutive sweeps entering Thursday. That run showed range, but it also meant the Cougars had not played from a one-set deficit since September.
Colorado changed the script in a loud building with 4,610 in attendance. The Buffaloes won the first set, led by four in the second and pushed the third back to one point. BYU had several chances to treat the match as a bad matchup night.
Instead, the Cougars changed the source of the next point.
They used aces to get through the second. They used the serve-and-block connection to break the third. They hit .467 to close the fourth. None of those answers required Colorado to disappear; Losada and Burilovic both reached 13 kills, and the Buffaloes recorded 12 blocks.
The ranked win matters because it gives BYU a result against a team that had the personnel to challenge its preferred shape. The Cougars did not win every category. They won the ones that became available after Colorado removed the easy route.
What comes next
No. 8 Arizona State visits Smith Fieldhouse at 6:30 p.m. Mountain on Saturday, Oct. 24. The Sun Devils are the second ranked opponent in BYU’s two-match home stand and the sharper test of whether Thursday’s first-set trouble was solved or merely survived.
The volleyball schedule carries the permanent Arizona State event link and official watch options. The results archive preserves the Colorado set scores, while the Colorado watch guide shows exactly which pregame pressure points carried into the final.
BYU did not extend its sweep streak. It found something more useful: a ranked opponent landed the first punch, and the Cougars built three different answers before the night was over.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: No. 11 Cougars defeat No. 25 Buffaloes for the official set sequence, serving plan, late runs, player context and next match.
- BYU Athletics event 25241, official box score and article record 78022 for the stable event ID, completed status, 3-1 final, set scores, venue and official recap record.
- Finalized WMT match 6603889 and its player statistics for the team totals, set rates, player lines, records, duration and attendance.
- Colorado Athletics: No. 25 Colorado falls to No. 11 BYU for independent confirmation of the final, set scores, Colorado leaders, Munar Galmes’ 1,000th career dig and the Buffaloes’ next match.
- BYU’s official color guide and CU Boulder’s official visual identity guide for the palettes used in the original matchup art.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Colorado watch guide, Arizona recap, volleyball schedule and roster.
