This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Provo • When two schools have played almost a hundred times, generally the wins are fairly even between them.

That's not so when it comes to BYU-Utah volleyball, where the Cougars held a commanding margin against the Utes entering Thursday night's match. BYU also had an undefeated record and a No. 9 national ranking.

But visiting Utah ignored all of that, and somehow brushed aside blowing a two-set lead to beat Brigham Young 27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 17-25, 15-13 at Smith Fieldhouse.

BYU (9-1) led 13-11 in the final set when freshman middle Berkley Oblad scored a kill for the Utes.

The rest belonged to junior Adora Anae.

Anae registered a block on a Cougars' kill attempt to tie the score at 13-13 and then swatted down two kills to finish off the match for Utah (8-2).

"I think our team is really mentally tough and all of us really deserved this match," said Anae, who finished with a whopping 31 kills.

"This was on our dashboard. We wanted to check that off tonight," added Anae, noting that Utah had been swept by the Cougars in the last two meetings — part of an overall 69-29 record in favor of BYU coming into the match.

"They always looked below (at) us. Across the net from them, it's not like any other team. Since they had five wins in a row, they thought they could roll us over."

Utah put itself in a position for a sweep by winning the first two sets.

In the opener, a nice touch shot by junior Eliza Katoa was the set-clincher. In the second, middle hitter Tawnee Luafalemana made several big blocks in an 8-2 run by the Utes at the end of the set.

Things changed for Utah in the third set, however. Up 20-16, the Utes saw BYU — led by freshman McKenna Miller and sophomore Roni Jones-Perry — storm back for the win.

Although Utah jumped out to a 7-2 lead to start the fourth, the Cougars burst to the lead with a 15-2 run.

Brigham Young was led by Miller's 24 kills while Jones-Perry added 20.

"I absolutely didn't think there was going to be an easy way. Even when we were up two, I didn't think it was going to be easy to finish them off," Utah coach Beth Launiere said. "This is too good of an environment for them and they play too good at home."

Launiere admitted that, when BYU jumped out to a commanding lead in the fourth, her attention turned toward regrouping in the fifth.

Part of the refocus effort revolved around Anae, who was increasingly shut down by BYU's defense in the fourth set.

"We had to have an offense mind and I told them to go for it," said Launiere, whose team also had 11 kills apiece from Oblad and junior outside Carly Trueman. "I told them to swing for kills and I knew that, if we could get Adora to the front row, that was going to be great."

"It was a great match - exactly what I though it would be, contrats to Utah," BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. "I'm proud of our team for coming back down 0-2 to give ourselves a chance, but couldn't get it done in the end." —

Storylines

R Utah breaks a five-match losing streak to BYU by pulling the upset of the nation's No. 9 team.

• Utes junior outside Adora Anae, as part of her 31 kills, slaps down the last two to finish off a 4-0 run to end the match for the visitors.

• Freshman outside hitter McKenna Miller leads BYU with 24 kills while sophomore Roni Jones-Perry adds 20.