Last night BYU had a pretty easy night of it, dispatching Cal Baptist in three straight sets (25-13, 25-21, 25-20). It was kind of an off night for Ben Patch, though we might say that about anything south of 35 kills these days. Taylor Sander successfully picked up the slack with 16 kills on .750 hitting, giving the Cougars a quick night at the Smith Field House.
Cal Baptist are led by Brazilian Levi Cabral who, as you might guess from last night’s linescore, had just a nightmare of a first set with only 1 kill and 8 errors. He did far better in sets 2 and 3, finishing his night with 12 kills. It’s safe to say as Cabral goes, so go the Lancers. They hit just .175 for the night, their second-lowest figure on the season. Interestingly, Cal Baptist’s starting setter Brett Anderson is a very recent juco transfer, having only joined the team at the end of January. He doesn’t even have a photo on the Cal Baptist website yet.
It was less than easy to tell the teams apart at a glance, as both wore white jerseys with blue shorts (libero blue). It kind of surprises me that that would be allowed. It’s not like football or basketball or something where the teams occupy the same spaces as play goes on, but still. You’d think they’d want to make it as clear as possible. And just as last night, it seemed like the Smith Field House wasn’t too rockin’ compared to previous BYU home matches. Give Baptist a few years, they’ll be a big-time opponent before too long.
Baptist ran out to the early advantage at 6-4 on the back of two double blocks against Patch on the left side. It already gave them three blocks for the set. At 7-5, Cabral’s serve led to an overpass and a joust win for the Lancer side, prompting a BYU timeout. If BYU have one chink in their armor, it’s service reception. They’re merely average there. Baptist libero Michael Cate gave the Cougars the sideout with a really ugly set, called for a double hit, and then Josue Rivera led a double block for the Cougars to get them back within a point. A hitting error from Guilherme Koepp knotted the set at 9’s. Patch played an interesting shot on 10-9, getting a fingertip roll over the block as both he and the Lancer blocker were coming down from the apexes of their respective leaps. A string of sideouts followed, with Baptist next going up 2 at 14-12 when Sander completely whiffed on a roll shot attempt, but BYU knotted it again at 14 with a triple block. At 15-14, Baptist rotated Cabral back to serve, with back to back attack errors from Sander and Patch put the Lancers up three at BYU’s last timeout.
Cabral came up with the ace-serve after the timeout to put the Lancers up 18-14. Baptist’s fifth block of the set, rejecting Patch again, gave them a 5-point edge. Rivera at last got the sideout at 19-15. That sent Michael Hatch to the service line, and his jump-float fell in about 3 feet inside the line with no one even appearing to try to field it. Nonetheless, Baptist sided out with Koepp. The subsequent serve for Rocky DeLyon flew well long, but but the Lancers still got the point when a rotation fault was called on the Cougars. It was a pretty big swing, making it 21-17 instead of 20-18. Cabral’s right-side kill off Russ Lavaja‘s block and out got the Lancers to set point at 24-19. Cabral converted it on the team’s second attempt.
BYU hit only .115 in the first set, shockingly low. Baptist’s 5 blocks in the first set were just .5 less than their total in the entire match last night.
Sander served very strong coming out of the gate in set 2, with a sneaky little ‘roll shot’ serve for an ace and then a heater yielding an overpass. BYU were able to cheat to the left side with a big triple block on 3-1 to deny Koepp and take a three-point lead. Baptist made it back within a point, but Michael Hatch and Ryan Boyce came up with a big double block to make it three again at 8-5. Baptist called their first timeout of the night when the next point went against them to make it 9-5 BYU. The Lancers got the sideout after the timeout with a kill from the middle for DeLyon, who was quite excited with his emphatic point.
At 10-8, Anderson made a pretty gruesome set that landed well wide (commentator Steve Vail said he felt like taking a swing at it). It was mostly sideout after sideout midway through set 2, with BYU maintaining their 3-point lead. At 15-13, Baptist were able to get a point on serve and close within one with Aaron McCalmont seemingly missing the ball on his hit, but whatever fingertip he got on it gave it weird enough spin for it to fall in. At 18-16 on BYU’s serve, it appeared that Patch’s block landed out, but it was ruled off the antenna off Baptist’s hit. BYU came up with the next point as well to force Baptist’s second timeout at 20-16, but BYU then had to call theirs when the Lancers came back with two to close to 20-18. Koepp kept the ball rolling for the Lancers with a back-row kill to make it 20-19, giving him 10 for the match, but his subsequent serve went long. Cabral was able to knot the set at 21’s with a kill off Boyce and Rivera and out.
BYU subbed out the setter Boyce for Steve Rindfleisch at 22-21, but Cabral still managed to power through the blocking sub to get the sideout and draw the set even. Boyce subsequently came right back in the match. Cabral tied the set again at 23, rotating him to the service line. His serve hit the top of the tape on the net. It rebounded off Rivera for a pass attempt, but went waaaaayy into the rafters, rebounding off a retracted basketball backboard and into the stands for an ace. That prompted BYU’s second timeout, facing set point on service reception. On 24’s, Baptist’s hit was originally called long despite being in by a good 2 feet. The officials eventually got the call right, much to the dismay of the home fans. No matter, as the Cougars took three straight to take set 2 27-25, with Sander the big star with a kill for the sideout and a service ace to seal the deal. That ace tied the BYU school record for most in the rally-scoring era.
This was the sixth time BYU have lost set 1 this season, and the sixth time they followed it up by winning set 2. BYU won the set despite having 7 fewer kills, hitting over 100 points lower, and having 4 more service errors. Sometimes you just never know.
The beginning of set 3 was pretty dead even, with the teams splitting the first 10 points. Curiously, Boyce keeled over at the end of the rally ending 5-5 for no discernible reason. He reamined in the match. After three attempts on the 6-5 rally, Koepp at last hit the ball wide to give BYU the first two-point lead of the set at 7-5. After a few more sideouts, Baptist tried the pipe set to Cabral, but Hatch led a double block to put BYU up three at 10-7, and then Sander’s service ace, to become BYU’s career leader, put them up 11-7. Baptist responded with three straight to close to within a point, including a sort of impossible kill for Koepp on a dreadful set by Anderson. BYU then scored three straight, with a rare hitting error for Cabral and a complete whiff by McCalmont. Cabral missed wide again to make it 15-12 BYU, and with no charged timeout taken prior, that signaled the media timeout. From 16-13, Baptist rattled off three straight, including Cabral’s third ace of the match and a double roof against Patch on the right side, to prompt BYU’s first charged timeout of the set.
At 17-16, at the end of a long rally, Baptist’s block was clearly headed out, but Lavaja was unable to get out of the way in time, and you could see his disgust with himself on his face as the ball fell. At 18-all, BYU played a great point, with Rivera ending up flat on his back for a dig before Sander came up with a right-side kill off a pinky touch. At 19-18, BYU appeared to get away with a back-row attack fault, which went uncalled. On the next ball, Rivera came up with a big ace, prompting Baptist’s timeout. They finally got the sideout at 22-19, and got the double block with Anderson (just 5’10”) and DeLyon, prompting BYU’s timeout at 22-20. The Lancers made it a point closer at 22-21 before BYU got the sideout. At 23-21, Sander attempted a roll shot, but didn’t get enough on it as it failed to clear the net. BYU reached set point at 24-22 with a big kill for Rivera, and the Cougars again turned to Rindfleisch as a blocking sub with set point on service. Cabral beat the block, for his 14th kill of the match, to stave off the first, and Rivera’s hit was ruled wide and long to knot it at 24’s. Replays showed it was in, but hey, give and take. On 25-24, Cabral’s wide hit gave the 3rd to the Cougars.
Motley hitting percentages for both sides in set 3, with the Lancers hitting .133 and the Cougars .088. Kind of explains why BYU coach Chris McGown appeared so upset after set 3 despite being up 2 sets to 1.
Ben Patch got blocked on three straight attempts to begin the 4th and wound up being rotated out in favor of Matt Underwood at 3-0, just the fourth set of the season the sophomore played. He has no kills on the season. After two amazing weeks, Patch had a rough double-shot with Baptist, and came out of the match hitting negative for the night. BYU drew even at 4’s, and Underwood’s jump-float serve went into the net. A kill pretty well straight down for McCalmont kept the Lancers in the lead. 6-4 was then one of the longest rallies of the match, ending with a kill for Sander to a wide-open area on the left side. Koepp’s service ace at 8-6, his first of the match (and indeed, the weekend) put Baptist up 9-6 at BYU’s timeout.
The Lancers maintained their three-point lead through to 12-9, but a net fault and a bad set leading to a Cabral hitting error brought the Cougars within a point. Koepp’s 10th hitting error of the match (despite 14 kills, he was hitting just .100) leveled the set at 14’s, and then the Cougars reached 15 first with a crosscourt kill for Rivera. Cabral’s hit on 15-14 was called long, much to his visible dismay, prompting Baptist’s timeout at 16-14. Replays showed Cabral’s hit was in by a few inches, so this was kinda that not great a night for the officials.
BYU’s run from 14-12 continued with Lavaja at the service line, getting his fifth ace of the season (middles usually aren’t great servers) to go up three at 18-15. After getting the sideout at 18-16, Baptist were called for a foot fault on their serve. Cabral just kept fighting — and swinging — to get the sideout at 19-17. The Lancers made it to 19-18, but the Cougars responded with two straight to go ahead 21-18 and Baptist’s last timeout.
The Cougars continued strong after the timeout, with Hatch and Underwood coming up with a double-roof to go up 22-18. Baptist then got two straight to make it 22-20 at Baptist’s last timeout. A big ace for Cabral brought the Lancers back within a point, at which point Ben Patch at last re-entered the match. A bigger kill from the pipe for Taylor Sander made it match point for BYU. The Lancers staved off one, but Lavaja slammed home the final ball of the night to seal off BYU’s four-set win.
#1 BYU d. #12 Cal Baptist (20-25, 27-25, 26-24, 25-23)
Baptist certainly played a lot better tonight than they did last night. It’s a shame that missed calls played any part in this one, as there were so many of them in the middle sets that you can’t conclusively say they played no part in the outcome.
This was the first time BYU lost set 1 at home without the match going a full five. It’s kind of hard to say how they won, considering Baptist out-killed, out-hit (percentage), out-blocked (significantly) and out-dug the Cougars, but still wound up on the losing end. Patch finished the match hitting negative for what might have been the first time in his career, at 6/7/21. No three-peat as National Player of the Week forthcoming. Sander was better, at 17/7/37, but a .270 night from him isn’t what you’d expect either. Lavaja and Hatch combined for 13 kills from the middle, but their efficiency also was pretty pedestrian.
Cabral led all scorers with 21 kills, on .308 hitting, his 4 service aces tying Sander to lead in that category. Koepp had 15 kills for the Lancers but the errors really started to pile up for him, as he finished double-digits there too and was only .119 for the night. A big difference, in such an otherwise tight match, was service errors, as Baptist had 19 to only 9 for BYU. Sometimes just getting the ball in play is half the battle.
Back out on the road for BYU next week, as they travel to Northridge and Long Beach, and could have their hands full both nights. Baptist head home for a double-shot with Hawaii.
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