BYU sweeps San Diego State

PROVO — The BYU women's volleyball team continued rolling Saturday against San Diego State, picking up its second straight sweep and sixth consecutive win overall (30-20, 30-22, 30-27).

Four Cougars had double-digit kills, led by Chelsea Goodman with 16. Erica Lott had 14, Lindsy Hartsock added 12 and Kim Wilson chipped in 11.

Hartsock led the team with a .556 hitting percentage, and the Cougars as a whole outhit the Aztecs .254 to .118.

BYU coach Jason Watson attributed the offensive spread to the increased confidence of setter Amy Schlauder, who missed a chunk of games in the middle of the season with injuries.

"Amy continues to progress and continues to get better," Watson said. "I think as she gets more confidence, as she gets more comfortable, we're going to be seeing that fairly even distribution come back."

Schlauder is one of several players to miss playing time this season, and as she and others return, players said the team's confidence is returning.

"We're getting back into the run of things," Lott said. "I thought, before we started getting plagued by injuries, we were at a pretty nice spot. We were maybe not rolling, because we had some tough teams, but I thought we were playing well and we were always confident and going down the road with somebody ... I think we're all getting back into our game, not just physically, but mentally."

San Diego State (8-14, 2-8 Mountain West) appeared up to the challenge against BYU (18-2, 9-1) in the beginning, taking a 6-5 lead in Game 1. The Cougars, however, responded with a six-point rally to take the lead and never looked back.

After the Cougars cruised to easy wins in the first two games, the teams appeared to step through the looking glass in Game 3 when San Diego State scored the first four points and expanded the lead to as many as seven points.

Cougars, however, said they were not worried.

"We just believed that we would come back and we didn't ever doubt it," Wilson said.

Goodman got a pair of authoritative kills that energized her teammates, then Lott and Marisa Vandersteen came together for a pair of key blocks on the right side to pull BYU back to a tie at 23. From there, the Cougars controlled the tempo down the stretch and eked out the win.

"I thought we were very, very composed in Game 3 when we could have easily, I think, let them and their emotion and their run that they were on get the better of us," Watson said. "So I was very pleased."