Kate Prior left volleyball for a year, returned to BYU under a new coach and reached opening week with a job that is more useful than her two kills in Saturday’s exhibition suggest.
Prior played in No. 24 BYU’s 25-11, 25-17, 25-20 sweep of Utah Tech at Smith Fieldhouse. The official recap does not provide a complete participation chart, but the Daily Herald reports that she added two kills and two digs while Rob Neilson changed lineups. Six days before the regular-season opener against Florida State, Prior was back in a live match and available at both middle blocker and opposite hitter.
That is the roster development. BYU did not need Prior to carry the attack against Utah Tech. It needed evidence that the 6-foot-4 senior could rejoin a crowded front row after a long break. She supplied it.
Prior’s return is not a normal senior season
The Daily Herald’s Darnell Dickson reports that Prior stepped away after her junior year in 2025 because volleyball had become a source of unhappiness rather than something she wanted to keep doing. She did not touch a volleyball for a year, finished school work, earned a personal-training license and started working with young athletes.
Her route back ran through the transfer portal. Neilson first contacted her while he was still at Utah State, then kept recruiting her after BYU hired him. Staying in Provo made the return possible without asking Prior to move away from the people and program she already knew.
That history matters because a returning senior is easy to misread as ordinary continuity. Prior did not spend last season collecting practice reps in the same system. She had to rebuild her arm swing and tolerate being rusty at a sport she had played for years. Neilson told the Herald that she may be BYU’s most improved player from the spring to now.
The official roster verifies the physical and positional part of the story. Prior is listed at 6-foot-4 as a middle blocker/opposite hitter. She earned West Coast Conference All-Freshman recognition in 2022, then recorded 190 kills as a sophomore and 100 as a junior, according to the Herald. This is an experienced front-row player returning from a voluntary break, not a freshman learning college pace or a transfer learning Provo.
Saturday did not prove she has reclaimed her old production. Two kills cannot do that. It proved she was ready to enter a match again.
BYU can use flexibility more than another headline scorer
Claire Little Chambers led BYU with 10 kills and hit .409 against Utah Tech. Sophia Callahan had eight kills, Ellie Mortensen had seven, and freshman Brooke Hardy turned nine swings into five kills with one error. Hardy also recorded five block assists in the Herald’s account.
Those numbers reduce the pressure to force Prior into a starring role immediately.
| Front-row evidence | Utah Tech exhibition | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Claire Little Chambers | 10 kills, .409 hitting | The established pin was efficient |
| Sophia Callahan | 8 kills | BYU had a second senior scoring option |
| Ellie Mortensen | 7 kills | Production reached beyond the two leading outsides |
| Brooke Hardy | 5 kills, .444 hitting, 5 block assists | The freshman’s scrimmage showed up against an opponent |
| Kate Prior | 2 kills, 2 digs | The returning senior was available in a changed lineup |
The last row is modest. It is also useful.
Prior’s middle/opposite listing gives Neilson another way to handle matchup and availability problems. She can provide size on the right side without being limited to that job, or offer another middle option while Hardy adjusts to college volleyball. The public match record does not identify every rotation, so it would be a guess to say exactly where Prior played each point. Her official two-position designation is enough to explain the insurance she offers.
BYU’s 42-27 advantage in kills came with a .305 hitting percentage, 51 digs and eight blocks. Utah Tech hit .121. This was a comfortable exhibition, not a stress test that forced Neilson to reveal his preferred six.
The third set came closest. Utah Tech cut the margin to 18-17 before BYU closed 7-3. That stretch is a better reminder of why depth matters than the 25-11 first set. When the easy margin disappeared, the Cougars still had enough combinations to finish without extending the match.
The setter split keeps every hitter’s role open
Alex Bower led BYU with 17 assists and 10 digs. Kaylie Kofe added 13 assists and six digs. Those totals continued the question raised by the Blue-White scrimmage, when each setter was credited with 35 assists.
BYU has not announced a permanent setter plan, and an exhibition with changing lineups is the wrong place to invent one. The 30 combined assists do show that both setters remain part of the public evaluation.
That matters for Prior. A hitter returning after a year away is also rebuilding timing with setters. Her role cannot be evaluated only through kills when BYU is still testing who delivers the ball and which front-row groups work together. Two kills in that setting are a starting point, not a verdict.
Hardy’s exhibition is the stronger statistical development. Her .444 hitting and five block assists moved the freshman’s productive scrimmage into an external match. Prior’s update is different. She gives Neilson a veteran alternative while Hardy develops, and she can cover more than one front-row job if the opening-week combinations need to change.
A roster picked seventh in the Big 12 preseason poll does not need every rotation question answered in August. It does need enough credible options to keep searching without giving away matches.
Florida State changes the standard Friday
BYU opens the regular season against Florida State at noon Mountain on Friday, Aug. 28, in Fort Myers. Florida State’s official schedule independently lists the match for 2 p.m. local time at the FGCU Invitational. BYU then plays host Florida Gulf Coast at 3 p.m. Mountain on Saturday, with ESPN+ listed for the FGCU match.
Exhibition results disappear from the record. The opening-week decisions do not.
Against Florida State, watch whether Bower or Kofe gets the longer setting run, whether Hardy remains in a prominent blocking role, and where Prior enters. The exact answer may change between Friday and Saturday because the Cougars face two opponents in roughly 25 hours.
That quick turn is where Prior’s return can pay off before it becomes a big stat line. A senior who can cover the middle and opposite gives Neilson another lineup without asking a newcomer to solve everything. If Prior eventually wins a larger attacking share, BYU will gladly take it. For opening week, being healthy, available and positionally flexible is already a meaningful recovery from a year outside the gym.
Prior came back because volleyball could fit into her life differently this time. The practical benefit for BYU is simple: an experienced player has made two front-row positions less fragile.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics, Aug. 22: No. 24 Cougars sweep Utah Tech for the official set scores, team totals, leading kills, assists, digs, set sequence and opening-week schedule.
- Daily Herald, Aug. 23: Prior makes return to BYU women’s volleyball for Darnell Dickson’s original reporting on Prior’s year away, return decision, training process, Neilson’s assessment, attendance and the detailed exhibition lines.
- BYU Athletics: Kate Prior player record for her listed height, class, positions, prior seasons and verified prep background.
- Utah Tech Athletics: 2026 schedule for the independent 0-3 exhibition result and venue.
- Florida State Athletics: 2026 schedule for the independent Aug. 28 opener listing at 2 p.m. local time in Fort Myers.
- BYU Sport Nuts: volleyball hub, roster, schedule and Blue-White scrimmage analysis.
