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Provo • The upset bug started spreading through the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament, but the No. 10-ranked BYU Cougars pulled together to make sure it didn't bite them.
After rival Utah was upset 3-1 by UNLV, the Cougars took the court and held off scrappy Ivy League champion Princeton, sweeping the Tigers 3-0 to advance to Saturday night's second round against the Rebels, the third-place finisher from the Mountain West Conference.
"I thought [Princeton] played well," said BYU coach Heather Olmstead. "They were exactly what we thought they would be, ready to go. But I am happy with the way our team put the match together, and am happy obviously with the outcome."
The scores were 25-22, 25-15 and 25-23 as the visiting Tigers (19-5) played well in the first and third sets but not so much in the second.
"There were a couple of long rallies in those sets that BYU won, and that was a big key," said Princeton coach Sabrina King.
The Cougars (28-3) swept UNLV 3-0 way back on Sept. 17, but the Rebels have obviously improved and kept a rivalry rematch from happening in the NCAA tournament a half-hour before BYU made its debut. Olmstead said she didn't have to point to the upset as an example because her club hears that from her every practice.
"We talk about how anybody can beat anybody on any night," She said. "We talk about it all the time. Really, that just means that we can beat anybody. So that means we can beat Princeton, and we can beat UNLV tomorrow, but we are going to have to be composed."
Hosting the first and second rounds for the third time in five years, the Cougars can advance to the Sweet 16 for the fifth straight year if they can down UNLV.
They didn't start crisply, though, and Princeton had a 20-19 lead in the first set after a kill by Cara Mattaliano, the Ivy League Player of the Year. The Tigers were playing like they could hang with the bigger, more powerful champion from the West Coast Conference.
Senior Amy Boswell got BYU going with a couple of kills, though, including the set-winner.
In the second set, BYU broke from an early 7-5 deficit to surge ahead 15-9. The catalyst was another senior, Whitney Howard, who scored seven of the 10 points in the run with an array of blocks and kills.
"Blocking is always fun," Howard said, having finished with five. "I love blocking."
The Cougars' season-leader in kills, freshman McKenna Miller, heated up in the second set with her first kill and assisted on a block. The Cougars hit .208 in the second set and had just seven kills, but made up for it with nine blocks.
With Miller having a bit of an off night, sophomore Roni Jones-Perry stepped up and filled in the gaps. The Copper Hills High product finished with nine kills, matching Howard for team-high honors.
"It felt like a complete team effort," Jones-Perry said. "It felt like everyone was together, and we just kept fighting, and I knew I could count on my teammates. So that was just really comforting. And it was so fun."
The third set was tight throughout, with neither team leaden by more than three. With the set knotted at 22-22, Princeton committed a double-hit, Howard and Jones-Perry combined on a block to let the Cougars pull ahead.
After a Princeton point, Jones-Perry ended the match with her ninth kill.
"Princeton did a good job defensively," Olmstead said. "They took away some things that we like to do, so we had to adjust and find some other ways to score, and I thought both Roni and Whitney did a great job hitting high. We are always going to spread the ball out. If something is not working we will look for another option."
Lacy Haddock and Boswell added four kills apiece and Miller finished with three. Boswell had five blocks. Freshman Mary Lake served two aces.
"The whole match, I thought our serving was pretty steady, especially at the ends of sets," Olmstead said. "I thought that was pretty key that we were able to keep our composure and serve tough in those tight moments."
Twitter: @drewjay —
Storylines
R The No. 10-ranked Cougars improves to 28-3 with a sweep of Ivy League champion Princeton at Smith Fieldhouse.
• Whitney Howard has five block assists and nine kills as the Cougars advance in the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament.
• BYU will meet UNLV on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Provo for the right to advance to the Sweet 16.