No. 8 BYU looked poised to earn its biggest win of the season, before No. 5 UC Irvine reverse swept the Cougars in stunning fashion Friday night in Provo.
Much like a year ago, the sides met in a late January matchup of unbeatens that resulted in another Anteaters victory over BYU.
UC Irvine handed the Cougars their first loss of the year, topping their host on set scores of 16-25, 21-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-13.
“This one’s going to really sting,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said after his team blew a five-point lead in the fifth set. “We just got to continue to play aggressive, assertive, good volleyball, hitting the ball in the court, hitting in the frame of the court high with heat.”
The two teams have met for a pair of contests every season since 2022, with the Anteaters now holding a five-match win streak over the Cougars after Friday.
A fast start helped propel BYU to a Set 1 win. The Cougars scored four straight points to jump ahead 5-1 and never trailed in the initial set, their lead ballooning to nine by its end.
BYU’s 81.3 sideout percentage kept UC Irvine from finding a rhythm and another 4-0 run from the Cougars midway through the set all but sealed it.
The second set was closer than the first, but BYU remained out front through its entirety, save for a 12-12 tie.
The Cougars tallied three consecutive points after the Anteaters evened the score, keeping at least a two-point lead the rest of the set and holding off UC Irvine late to seize a 2-0 advantage on the match.
“I thought we did some good things,” Olmstead said. “(But) we play sports for the good and bad, and the tough sometimes … sting just a little bit more.”
The struggles began for BYU when the Anteaters got their first lead of the match in the third set and held a slight edge most of the way.
The Cougars tied things up at 23 on a service ace off the left hand of junior reserve opposite hitter Ian Little but UC Irvine ultimately eked out the two-point win.
With new life, UC Irvine built off its momentum in the fourth set, going ahead by as many as five before BYU cut the score to 24-23 late behind strong play from freshman outside hitter Trevor Herget off the bench.
But the Anteaters held on again, sending the match to the fifth set on another two-point victory.
“I don’t want to say we got tentative, but we sort of did,” Olmstead said. “There (were) some moments there down the stretch that we could have capitalized (on).”
The final set was a microcosm of the match, with BYU starting strong and UC Irvine finishing strong. The Cougars took a 10-5 lead before the Anteaters closed the match on a 10-3 run to earn a third straight two-point victory and steal a win in the Smith Fieldhouse.
“(We) definitely played a level lower down the stretch and you can’t do that,” Olmstead said. “If you lose the set, (do) it playing confident, playing aggressive, playing assertive.”
BYU will get another shot to do that when it faces UC Irvine Saturday night – same place, same time — before heading on the road for the first time this season next week for matches against UC Santa Barbara.
The contest with the Anteaters will begin at 7 p.m. while the pair of matches versus the Gauchos will be played Thursday and Friday.
