The MIVA’s Lewis Flyers and the MPSF’s BYU Cougars play an intriguing and important two-night series tonight and tomorrow. Both matches are webcast on BYUtv (nearly all BYU men’s volleyball home matches are) at BYUtv.org. I encourage you to check ’em out for yourself. Free registration is required to access the webcasts.
These are BYU’s only non-conference matches of the season. Given how last weekend went for both teams, this is a pretty important two-match series. Lewis, picked first in the preseason MIVA poll, could very easily find themselves 0-5 after Saturday night’s match given their dreadful start to 2013 at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational. BYU, currently second in both the MPSF and the nation, had an easier time of it against a mediocre Hawaii squad, and come in 2-0. They need to keep the pressure on UC Irvine as the top squad in the land. I would say a couple of victories over Lewis would do that, but if they end up losers of their first five matches, doesn’t that almost certainly mean they were overrated in the preseason poll? Possibilities abound.
The broadcast noted that Eric Fitterer got a somewhat unexpected start for the Flyers this evening, taking the putative starting spot of Greg Petty. Younger brother of returning All-American Jay Petty, Greg traveled with the team, dressed for the match, and withdrew himself ill. The Flyers are hopeful that he will play in tomorrow night’s match. The broadcast also noted that BYU high flyers Taylor Sander and Ben Patch were both a little bit under the weather in practices this week, and that Sander had also been battling shin splints.
BYU scored the first point on serve to go up 3-1 when it appeared that Sander’s back-row attack (off his own serve, no less) went long. A touch was called, and for a moment the Lewis players seemed to protest until their middle blocker owned up to it. Sander similarly wanted a touch on the rally ending 4-3, but no such luck that time. It looked like the Cougars were going to go up three at 6-3 when the swing from Geoff Powell landed wide, but BYU setter Ryan Boyce was instead called for a net violation.
The Flyers’ rejection of Phil Fuchs on the next swing brought the match even again. Fitterer let loose an absolutely gorgeous serve on 6-all, as the entire BYU back row tried to receive it but it still rebounded off them and went long. At 7-6, Sander was rejected on the left side for what may have been the first time this season, going for too low a swing angle. Lewis setter BJ Boldog scored an emphatic solo block on the rally ending 10-7 to give the Flyers a three-point lead. Devin Young got the Cougars a big momentum shift afterward by blocking Petty on two straight hits. BYU drew it even at 12 with Sander on the service line. First he made a great little sneaky serve that just managed to land in front of the diving back-row passer, and on the point after Patch just put up a huge brick wall for a block (the ball actually landed out, but it rebounded off the Lewis hitter again beforehand). BYU scored two more to go up 14-12 and Lewis called time, even though I think an automatic timeout would have come when someone reached 15.
Before the webcast cameras even came back on, Sander scored another ace to get BYU up three. His run on serve finally ended with an error to make it 15-13, but you’ll take a run like that any day of the week. Lewis drew the match even at 16 as the gym grew a little quiet, but Patch got the home fans back on their feet and shouting again with a big kill from the right side. Still, it was sideout volleyball from there for an extended string. Sander broke the string with his third ace of the set, a let that rebounded off the tape with some funky little English and went off the Lewis front row and long. That put BYU up 22-20, and Patch with his sixth kill of the set (of BYU’s ten total….not a terrific hitting first set on either side) sent it to Lewis’ timeout with the Flyers down 23-20.
Sander served another beauty back from the timeout, leading to a Lewis overpass and yet another Patch kill. Lewis saved the first set point, with Powell’s fourth kill on four swings, but Petty gave it away with a long hit to fall 25-21. Sander and Fuchs both hit very high negative numbers in the first set, but Sander’s serving and Patch’s scintillating hitting got BYU the win in set 1.
Amidst a sideout fest to start set 2 was one of the worst serves I can ever recall seeing from BYU’s Russ Lavaja. No doubt he saw an opening on the Lewis front line and looked to exploit it, but his soft serve didn’t even come close to clearing the net. It didn’t even hit the net on the fly. BYU went up two for the first time at 5-3 with Fuchs’ left-side hit squirreling through a triple block. The rally ending 6-5 was one of the longest (and strangest) of the match. Both teams looked badly out of system, but both teams seemed to be athletic enough to still be able to get something moderately effective to happen. Powell got his fifth kill of the match, still hitting a thousand, with a placement roll-shot to right-back that fell in.
BYU went ahead 8-5, and the Flyers ran back within one with some effective serving from Boldog. The Cougars then ran it back to 10-7, behind a rapidly improving Sander who looked to be finding his rhythm a bit more. His fifth kill of the match, to edge into a positive attack percentage for the night, put BYU up 12-9. Boyce tried for what the commentator called a “hubby-wife” serve — one that perfectly split the back-row passers. It went just long. On Fitterer’s subsequent service for Lewis, he executed this serve perfectly for an ace to draw within a point. Some amazing hustle for the Cougars paid off on the rally ending 14-12 as three different Cougars (Boyce, second libero Evan Chang, and Young) lunged to keep a ball alive, and were rewarded as Lewis’ hit went long. The Flyers had a hitting error on the next point as well to put BYU up 15-12, and indeed signified an automatic timeout.
Just like in the first set, BYU scored an ace before the cameras were even back on the court. This time, it came not from Sander but from Young. Powell got his seventh kill on eight swings to make it a 3-point deficit again, a great match for him. The rally ending 17-15 wasn’t one either side should be proud of, as it started with a clunky serve for Boldog, featured a poor serve reception for the Cougars, and ended with a wide hit from Sander. Boldog’s run on serve, as he’s one of the better servers for either team, got the Flyers back within a point, but just as quickly BYU ran back out three in a row to go up 20-16 at the timeout. That run ended with a hitting error for Petty, continuing a difficult match for him.
BYU ran it out to 23-17 behind some nice net play from Boyce and Sander, the latter providing the Cougars’ first block of the set after five in the first set. After both teams hit in the doldrums for set 1, BYU hit much better in set 2, approaching .300. Patch got it to set point at 24-19 beating a right-side double block. Lewis’ Chinese import Yiwei Zhou ended it with a wide hit to make it 2-0 at the intermission.
After Lewis edged out to an early advantage, Sander scored his fourth ace of the match to knot it at 3, putting him second on BYU’s all-time list. Lewis’ Powell continued his very strong match with his tenth kill on 11 total swings to put the Flyers back on top. His 11th on 12 swings made it 6-4 Lewis, and it’s seriously questionable why at that point he had taken only 12 swings. Josue Rivera, a starter in his freshman season but now largely displaced by Fuchs and Patch, got the Cougars back even at 6 with a left-side kill, as he started set 3. Powell edged the Flyers ahead 11-9 with his second ace of the set and Lewis’ fourth of the match. A sideout string kept it at that deficit for a while, with Boldog finally making the decision to feed Powell more and more. Petty’s ace made it 15-12 Lewis, and the gym was quiet at the automatic timeout.
Hmm, back from the timeout on the rally ending 16-13 BYU were called for a sort-of tightly-called carry at the end of an otherwise excellent point. The crowd was displeased, but on the replay even the no-doubt partisan commentator admitted it was a good call. I certainly found myself making the signal as the play unfolded — why do we do that? Anyone know? You watch a football game, and if somebody’s tackled in the end zone, everybody puts their palms together over their head as if the referee needs to be reminded of the hand signal. I do it, too, as I just admitted, but…it makes no sense!
BYU took time down 16-13. A brief sideout string ended with Lewis going up four at 19-15 with Fitterer from the right side. Patch found a triple middle block waiting for him on the subsequent rally, making it 20-15 in favor of the Flyers. BYU subbed out Sander at that point, even though he had four aces on the night, was due to serve in the Cougars’ next rotation, and didn’t visibly appear to be in any pain from the shin splints. Over at the bench area, he just stood and sipped water. Perhaps it was simply a preventative choice from the coach. Powell brought his insane night at the office to 15/0/18 to make it 23-18, only to have the team’s putative best player Petty respond with a service error. BYU gave it right back with a service error of their own to give the Flyers set point at 24-19. The Cougars saved one, but Rivera’s long serve sent it to a fourth set, with Lewis winning 25-20.
The Flyers hit .647 in set 3. That is certifiably clownshoes.
BYU overcame some awkward offense on the rally ending 3-2, as Boyce appeared to set Patch back-row even though Patch was front-row in that rotation. They still managed to win the point, but it looked really weird. It was a long sideout fest to start the set. On the rally ending 6-5, the commentators specifically called out Powell for simply being dug, something you don’t hear too often. But indeed, it was rare tonight for Powell to touch the ball and for it not to hit the floor. Petty’s kill on the rally ending 7-all was just his second of the match, still hitting deeply negative. Lewis went up two for the first time at 9-7 with, who else, Powell. BYU scored a couple of emphatic kills that got the crowd involved, but they did not eat into the scoring deficit. Powell served a great ball on 11-9 that led to a BYU overpass and an extremely easy kill for Petty. Down three, BYU called time.
Back from the timeout, Sander put BYU down four at 15-11 with a gruesome hitting error on a pretty easy chance. Him and Petty both, it just wasn’t their night. I suppose it’s bound to happen every now and again. The deficit reached five with a solo block from Powell to make it 17-12 at BYU’s second timeout.
BYU displayed a graphic as they came back from timeout. Powell was hitting .818 for the match at that point, and the rest of the Flyers team zero. The rally ending 18-13 involved some great hustle play on both sides, ending with Lewis sneaking a ball in inside the endline. They extended to a 6-point at 19-13 with a right-side block. Bad miscommunication on the BYU side of the net on the rally ending 20-14, as Powell sent a soft roll shot over that landed right in between Sander and Rivera. Either could have got it and neither did. BYU won a great rally on the next point, finally claiming the point on a long hit by Lewis after the ball went over the net a good half dozen times. They gave it right back with a service error on the next ball. They got a few nice kills that got cheers from the crowd as the set went on, but it was damage done. Powell converted the first set point for Lewis, with his 21st kill of the match, with the ball rebounding off the BYU libero Jaylen Reyes and then off Rivera for the 25-18 final.
Lewis immediately went up two with the first two points of the fifth set, including an ace from Fitterer, his third of the match. BYU then ran out three straight to go up. It looked like Powell had committed his first hitting error of the match to put the Cougars up 4-2, but BYU were instead called for a net violation. BYU next went up two at 6-4 when Petty continued his tough night with his 10th hitting error, still hitting well negative. Sander’s 9th hitting error drew it even at 6 before the Lewis true freshman middle blocker Bobby Walsh made it 7-6 with a reaching kill. Replays appeared to show that Walsh reached over the net before the ball was in the plane of the net, meaning the Flyers got away with a fault. BYU got two straight blocks with Sander at the side change at 8-7.
Lavaja, who had very few hitting attempts in this match, saved the ball with a great diving pancake on the first rally after the side change, but Patch responded by hitting the ball directly into the net. Lewis went up 9-8 with a middle block from Walsh, prompting BYU’s timeout. It was Sander’s tenth hitting error of the match, just the second time in his career he had done that. On the first ball back from the timeout, Petty’s serve hit the tape on the top of the net, and Rivera overpassed, leading to an easy Lewis kill. Fitterer snuck the ball through a triple block — not one Cougar even touched the ball — to go up 11-8.
After the subsequent timeout, Powell put the Flyers up four at 12-8. Petty’s run on serve continued with a block from Powell to make it 13-8. Sander finally sided the Cougars out from the left side at 13-9, but the Cougars were looking pretty glum at that point. Walsh got it to match point for Lewis with a middle kill, and for a moment you could hear a pin drop in the gym. Who else finished it off, but Powell.
#13 Lewis d. #2 BYU (21-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-18, 15-9)
Wow. That was quite a turnaround.
Lewis had a .020 attack percentage after two sets, and .262 at the end of the match, speaking to how nutballs they were in sets 3, 4, and 5.
This is officially the first time Lewis have ever beaten BYU. They did beat them to win the 2003 national championship, but they later voluntarily vacated that championship due to recruiting violations. Geoff Powell was just unreal tonight. Absolutely unreal. Ben Patch led the way for the Cougars with 16 kills, but Powell had simply one of the best matches you’re ever going to see. He was 24/1/30 for .767. Holy freaking crap. And if Boldog had started going to him a bit more in 1 and 2, he might even have a gaudier line. Although maybe not, because Lewis might have wrapped it up earlier in that case.
The two All-Americans in this match both had bad nights, but Petty’s was by far the worse. He finished 6/10/25, for .160 in the red. Yowza! Sander was 14/10/35, for .114. That’s not good, and he’ll almost never do that poorly, but he at least contributed in other areas, coming up with 4 blocks and 4 aces (and actually led the Cougars in digs, with 6).
You may have noticed that I used Russ Lavaja’s name very few times in this rundown. He took only 9 swings in the entire match. You’ve got to wonder just a little bit why that was, particularly if Sander and Patch weren’t 100%. We’ll see if there’s a change in strategy at all tomorrow.
Same two teams, same time, sat bat-channel tomorrow. I’m very interested to see what they’ll both bring for the rematch.
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