MVLB–Cougars Win in a Nail-Biter

With All-American All Star, Taylor Sander (#15) still out from injury, the Cougars fought hard against Aaron McCalmont and the Lancers of Cal Baptist. The Cougars struggled against them in the first two sets, but blind-sided them from behind in the next three sets. Josue Rivera (#6) filled in the spot as the sophomore swinger and recorded 14 kills for the night. He also added in 5 blocks and 9 digs. On the right side was senior slammer Robb Stowell (#13) putting down 12 kills for the Cougars and 7 digs. In the middle, Futi Tavana (#17) had 11 kills.

The Cougars struggled to get in front of Cal Baptist in the first set. With Aaron McCalmont swing through BYU's blocks, the Lancers took a 15-18 lead, before Coach Chris McGown called a timeout. The Cougars came back stronger, but so did the Lancers, and the first set went to Cal Baptist, 25-22.

With high hopes of a sweep, the Lancers took the adrenaline toward the next set and went to the end before BYU could reach it. The Cougars .32 hitting average had no chance against the Lancers .407 percent. The Lancers took a huge leap in the game and won set number two 25-17.

With the Lancers a single set away from a match win, the Cougars weren't going to go down at their own home court again. BYU came back to fight against the momentum of Lancers. The score went back and forth in the beginning, until the Cougars took control with Tyler Albertson (#16) on the wheel. This set was taken by the Cougars, 25-17, the same score from last set.

This is where the game got exciting for the Cougars, because they weren't letting the Lancers get away. The beginning of the game put the Cougars all the way up at 10, leaving Cal Baptist stuck at 2. Trying to catch up, the Lancers could only get a close as 6 points. With this kind of lead, BYU left the Lancers in the dust and took the fourth set, 25-14.

In the fifth and final set, with only 15 points to score, the Lancers took the first couple points before middle blocker, Russ Lavaja (#5) put down a huge kill for the Cougars, tying the game up. With adrenaline off of Lavaja's kill, the Cougars took the game further, and put Futi in the middle to give us our last two points to take the game. The fifth set score was 15-10.