Colorado finally pushed BYU to the edge it could not find in Provo. The Buffaloes led late, took a set point and forced the Cougars to win the longest frame of either meeting.
BYU won the next three rallies.
No. 8 BYU swept No. 25 Colorado 25-18, 28-26, 25-21 Thursday night at the CU Events Center. The Cougars moved to 19-1 overall and 11-0 in the Big 12, won their 16th straight match and completed a regular-season sweep of a ranked opponent.
The final was cleaner than the match. Colorado hit .333 in the second set and had a chance to tie the night at one set apiece. BYU escaped that frame, then used its block to stop Colorado’s last push in the third.
That sequence is the story. The Cougars did not sweep because every part of their game traveled perfectly. They swept because their best attackers stayed efficient, their block covered the rough spots and their late-set decisions were better when the scoreboard got tight.
BYU-Colorado match receipt
| Category | BYU | Colorado |
|---|---|---|
| Final | 3 | 0 |
| Set scores | 25, 28, 25 | 18, 26, 21 |
| Kills | 42 | 39 |
| Attack errors | 14 | 21 |
| Attempts | 102 | 112 |
| Hitting percentage | .275 | .161 |
| Aces | 4 | 2 |
| Service errors | 4 | 10 |
| Blocks | 11 | 6 |
| Digs | 36 | 33 |
The kill margin was only three. Colorado even produced the best single attacking set of the match, landing 17 kills at a .333 clip in the second.
BYU separated everywhere around that number. The Cougars committed seven fewer attack errors, served six fewer errors and doubled Colorado’s block total until the final half-block accounting made it 11-6. Colorado needed 10 more swings to finish with three fewer kills.
The rematch watch guide asked whether Colorado could preserve its early leads and force BYU away from the serve-and-block plan that decided the first meeting. The Buffaloes did preserve one. They pushed it all the way to set point.
BYU still took the set.
Six first-set blocks changed the room
Colorado’s first meeting with BYU started with 19 kills and a 25-23 win. The rematch opened with the Buffaloes trying to establish the same width. Avery Bolles served consecutive aces for a 6-5 lead, and Sydney Jordan helped Colorado stay within 13-12.
BYU’s block then took over the net.
Kelli Jo Burgess and Claire Little Chambers closed consecutive attacks during the run that moved BYU from a one-point edge to 22-17. Burgess finished the set with six blocks. The Cougars as a team had six, matching Colorado’s total for the entire match before the second set began.
The effect went beyond the stuffs. Colorado finished the first with 10 kills and 10 attack errors on 39 swings. That is .000 hitting. The Buffaloes could score when the ball reached the floor, but BYU made the route expensive enough that every kill came with an error somewhere else in the frame.
BYU did not need a huge offensive set to capitalize. The Cougars had 10 kills of their own and hit .200. Four hitters recorded two kills. Lulu Po’uha’s ace finished the 25-18 win.
That first set mattered because it reversed the pressure from Provo. Colorado had landed the opening punch in the first meeting. This time, the Buffaloes spent the rest of the night trying to recover a set they had played evenly until BYU’s block built the first real gap.
Colorado earned set point in the second
The second set was not another block parade. It was Colorado’s best chance to change the match.
The score was tied nine times before Colorado carried a 15-13 lead into the media timeout. Two BYU attack errors pushed the margin to 19-16. BYU’s block total fell from six in the first set to two in the second, while the Buffaloes hit .333 and produced 17 kills.
This was the version of Colorado the pregame numbers promised: setter Jenna Ylivainio holding several lanes open, Jordan and Cayla Payne scoring, and the middle giving BYU too much to close at once.
BYU answered through Elli Mortensen. Two of her kills started a 6-1 run that turned the 19-16 deficit into the Cougars’ first lead of the set. Mortensen scored again near set point, and Brooke Hardy added two kills as BYU reached 24 first.
Colorado did not fold. The Buffaloes erased two set points and earned one of their own. BYU called timeout at the exact point where a ranked road rematch could turn from a likely sweep into a long night.
The response used three different answers. Burgess and Anna Blamires combined on a block. Colorado then gave BYU a point with an attack error. Blamires, who had struggled to find the floor, put away her first kill of the match to end the set 28-26.
Three straight points after facing set point changed the shape of the night. Colorado had played its cleanest offensive frame and still walked to the third set down 2-0.
There is a useful distinction here. BYU did not steal a set that Colorado controlled from start to finish. The Cougars built a 6-1 run to reclaim the lead, lost that lead at the edge, then rebuilt it one last time. The set contained several momentum changes, and BYU owned the final one.
Hardy made Colorado pay for every late close
Hardy’s final line needs the whole denominator: 10 kills, no errors and 14 attempts. That is .714 hitting.
She had hit .786 against Colorado in Provo, also with 11 kills and no errors on 14 attempts. Across the two meetings, Hardy produced 21 kills without an attack error on 28 swings, a .750 rate.
That is a matchup problem, not a one-night heater.
Colorado’s block has to respect Mortensen’s volume and Little Chambers at the left pin. Burgess can score quickly enough to keep the middle occupied. When the Buffaloes were a half-step late closing toward Hardy, she did not give those swings back.
Mortensen carried the larger load in Boulder. She finished with 12 kills, two errors and a .385 percentage on 26 attempts, plus seven digs and four blocks. Hardy and Mortensen combined for 22 kills with two errors on 40 swings, exactly .500 hitting.
The rest of BYU’s attack was less tidy. Little Chambers had nine kills but five errors. Blamires had one kill and four errors. Alex Bower and Kaylie Kofe combined for three attack errors on seven swings.
That unevenness makes Hardy’s efficiency more important. BYU hit .275 as a team, below its entering average. It still had one route Colorado never closed and one volume pin in Mortensen who could keep producing without giving away points.
Kate Prior added six kills without an error on 12 attempts. Her .500 line gave the setters another clean option when Colorado tried to load its attention toward Hardy and the pins.
The third set showed why 11 blocks mattered
BYU opened the third 6-1 while Colorado committed four early errors. The Buffaloes recovered. They cut an 11-6 deficit to 12-10, stayed within four at the media timeout and reached 21-20 late.
The sweep was still in play, but it was not secure.
Little Chambers and Hardy then combined on a block to finish a three-point BYU run and create match point. After Colorado used its final timeout, Little Chambers ended the night with a kill.
Colorado hit .129 in the set. The Buffaloes had 12 kills, but eight attack errors kept erasing their progress. BYU hit .300 and added three blocks. The Cougars did not reproduce the six-block avalanche from the opener; they placed the last one where it could stop Colorado’s final run.
Burgess finished with nine blocks, matching her total from the first Colorado match. She now has 18 blocks across seven sets against the Buffaloes this season.
The support around her changed. Little Chambers and Mortensen each had four blocks in Boulder. Blamires had three. Hardy had two. Colorado could not solve the net by waiting for one rotation or pulling one middle away from Burgess.
That is the part of the sweep worth carrying forward. Eleven blocks are loud in a box score, but their placement mattered more. Six built the first-set separation. One helped erase Colorado’s set point. Another ended the last serious third-set push.
BYU’s block was not constant. It was punctual.
Colorado’s service line kept reopening the door
Colorado committed 10 service errors in three sets. Four came in the second and four more in the third.
Those misses did not hand BYU every important point. Colorado still earned set point in the second and reached 21-20 in the third. But the errors shortened the amount of clean volleyball the Buffaloes could play between scoring runs.
That was costly against a team with Hardy hitting .714 and Burgess waiting at the net. Colorado needed its serve to move BYU away from the middle and right side. A missed serve did the opposite: it gave BYU a point and a fresh chance to run its offense from a controlled rotation.
BYU served four errors and four aces. The Cougars were not flawless, but they finished plus-six in service-error margin. Add the five-point block margin, and the difference around a narrow three-kill edge becomes easier to see.
Colorado’s best attackers still produced. Jordan had 12 kills and hit .276. Payne had eight kills. Maria Splawska hit .400 with five kills and five blocks. Ylivainio added three kills to 30 assists.
The damage came from the swings that did not support those lines. Ines Losada had eight kills and eight errors. Lily Dwinell had three kills and five errors. Together they hit below zero on 42 attempts. BYU did not shut down every Colorado lane. It made the least efficient lanes carry enough volume to decide the team percentage.
The two Colorado wins say something different
BYU’s 3-1 win in Provo was a recovery. Colorado won the first set, led during the next three and forced the Cougars to change the source of their points. BYU answered with 15 blocks, .327 hitting and an 8-0 third-set close.
The Boulder win was control with one serious escape. BYU won the first set by seven, survived Colorado’s best attack in the second and kept the third from reaching extra points. The Cougars hit only .275, but they never surrendered a set.
Across the two matches, Hardy committed zero attack errors. Burgess recorded 18 blocks. BYU won the total block count 26-18 and held Colorado below .200 in both matches.
Colorado was good enough to change the match twice. The Buffaloes took the opener in Provo and reached set point in Boulder. BYU’s answer is the useful part: four straight set wins after that first loss, with a different late solution in each pressure spot.
What comes next
BYU continues the road trip at Iowa State on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 1 p.m. Mountain. ESPN+ and live stats are listed on the volleyball schedule, which also carries the permanent event center for each match. The results page preserves the Colorado sweep and set scores.
The Cougars will arrive in Ames 19-1, perfect through 11 Big 12 matches and carrying a 16-match winning streak. The quick turnaround matters. The cleanest part of Thursday was not the .275 team attack; it was the ability to win a ranked road match in three while surviving one set played almost entirely on Colorado’s terms.
For the full two-match arc, the first Colorado recap tracks the 15-block comeback in Provo. The rematch watch guide shows which pressure points carried into Boulder.
Colorado found set point. BYU found a block, an error and one Blamires swing. Three rallies turned a rematch into a sweep.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: No. 8 Cougars sweep No. 25 Buffaloes in Boulder for the official set sequence, late runs, player production and next match.
- BYU Athletics event 25244, official box score and article record 78612 for the stable event ID, completed status, 3-0 final, venue and official recap record.
- Finalized WMT match 6603901 and its player statistics for set scores, team totals, individual lines, records, duration and attendance.
- Colorado Athletics: No. 25 Colorado falls to No. 8 BYU and the Colorado box score for opponent-side confirmation of the final, 23 ties, set sequence and statistical totals.
- BYU’s official color guide and CU Boulder’s official color guide for the verified palettes used in the original matchup art.
- BYU Sport Nuts: rematch watch guide, first-match recap, volleyball schedule and results.
