No. 7 BYU took care of business for the second night in a row over No. 12 Stanford, beating the Cardinal in four sets Friday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.
The Cougars won on set scores of 25-23, 20-25, 25-23 and 25-17.
The victory keeps Stanford winless over the Cougars in Provo in nearly a decade, with the Cardinal picking up its last win against BYU in the Smith Fieldhouse in 2016.
“Sometimes you got to (win ugly),” BYU senior middle blocker Teon Taylor said. “I love our team. We’re so deep. Whoever needs to come in can come in and win ugly.
“That’s what we had to do tonight.”
It didn’t start ugly for the Cougars. Stanford had little answer for BYU in the initial stages of the first set as the Cougars took a 13-7 lead before the Cardinal made a furious comeback to tie things up at 17.
BYU held strong though, regaining its advantage and keeping just enough distance from Stanford to eke out a two-point set win.
“We tried our best to just tell the guys, ‘Hey, be assertive. … (Don’t) pull back (and) get tentative,’” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said, “and tonight they didn’t. They took big swings down the stretch that we needed.”
The second set went back and forth before Stanford scored four straight points and took a 19-15 lead that ultimately propelled the Cardinal to the set win.
BYU couldn’t get going, finishing the set with just seven kills compared to Stanford’s 15. The win held some extra significance for the Cardinal, snapping its streak of nine straight set losses to the Cougars in the Smith Fieldhouse.
BYU held on for another tight victory in the third set, thanks in large part to Stanford’s mistakes down the stretch. The Cougars’ last five points came from Stanford service errors, and the Cardinal finished the set with nine.
BYU never trailed in the third but never led by more than four points.
“Our team got bailed out a handful of times tonight,” Olmstead said. “If the ball was in (more), I would bet we would still be playing right now.”
