PROVO, Utah – Roni Jones-Perry and No. 8 BYU women’s volleyball swept Utah Valley (27-25, 25-22, 25-20) Saturday afternoon in an exhibition match at the Smith Fieldhouse to win the UCCU Crosstown Clash.
"We loved being back in the Smith Fieldhouse," BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. "The crowd was awesome and we appreciate them coming out today. Utah Valley played well and really put the pressure on us with their serves and their defense. We got a lot of good information from this match, so we'll take it and get better."
Jones-Perry led BYU with a match-high 20 kills. Lyndie Haddock-Eppich contributed 43 assists and Mary Lake added 15 digs. Heather Gneiting put up a team-high five blocks to go with seven kills in the win.
The Cougars trailed 4-1 early in the first set before Lacy Haddock capped off a 7-1 Cougar run with a kill to make the score 8-5. BYU held onto the lead before the Wolverines answered with their own 7-1 run to regain the advantage 16-15. Three Jones-Perry kills evened the score at 20-20 as the teams continued to battle for the lead. UVU took a 24-21 advantage before Jones-Perry earned her sixth and seventh kills of the set to even the score at 25-all. The Cougars clinched the first set 27-25 after back-to-back Wolverine attack errors.
Similar to the first set, UVU started the second set with an early lead of 4-1. Madi Robinson’s two kills helped lead BYU on a 7-1 rally to take an 11-7 lead. Kills by Gneiting, Robinson and Jones-Perry gave the Cougars a 15-12 lead before the Wolverines tied it up 16 apiece. The teams remained neck-and-neck without being separated by a point until a service ace from Haddock-Eppich gave BYU the 24-22 lead. Robinson’s kill on the following serve ended the set with the Cougars taking it 25-22.
BYU opened the final set trailing UVU by as many as four points before tying it back up 10-10 after Gneiting secured her second block of the set. The Cougars took their first lead of the set off a Wolverine error and wouldn’t trail for the remainder of match. Jones-Perry blasted four-straight kills to help hold onto the lead before scoring her 20th kill of the match to extend the lead to 20-16. BYU continued to control the game down the stretch with kills by Haddock, Robinson and Allison Stapleton before winning the set 25-20.
BYU opens the regular season at Duke with matches against the Blue Devils on Friday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. EST and Saturday, August 25, at 6:30 p.m. EST.