BYU completes season sweep of Utes

PROVO — The BYU women's volleyball team notched an emotional home victory over Utah on Friday to complete its first season sweep of the Utes in eight years.

The 30-27, 30-27, 30-25 win also meant that the Cougars earned the women's volleyball Deseret First Duel trophy and upped their record to 18-6 overall, 10-4 in the Mountain West Conference.

Chelsea Goodman led BYU — playing its rival in front of a record crowd of 4,509 — with 17 kills. Rachel Dyer contributed 13 kills, and Erica Lott had 10 kills and 12 digs.

The Cougars wraps up the regular season with a pair of home matches against San Diego State on Friday and UNLV on Saturday. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: The Cougars suffered their first loss in the finale of their own preseason tournament, falling to Cal-State Northridge, 18-30, 29-31, 30-19, 27-30, on Saturday. BYU is 2-1 in the preseason.

Ivan Perez led the Cougars with 19 kills and nine digs. Jonathan Charette finished with 10 kills and six digs, while Andrew Stewart notched nine kills and nine digs.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: BYU got a victory in its regular season opener, coming out on top, 61-50, at UC Santa Barbara last Friday.

Leading 30-21 at halftime, the Cougars — which shot 50 percent from the field and 5-of-11 from 3-point land for the game — were led by Lauren Riley-Varley with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

After last Tuesday's road game at Arkansas State, the Cougars return for their home opener on Saturday against Fresno State. Tip-off is at 2 p.m.

WOMEN'S SOCCER: After outscoring three opponents 6-1 in the Mountain West Conference Tournament to capture their first title in five years, the No. 24 Cougars learned of their first round foe in the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament.

Cougar forward Katie Fellows was named tournament MVP and was joined by teammates Katie Larkin, Carolyn Swenson and Andrea Willis on the all-tournament team.

BYU (17-3-2) will take on No. 11 Texas (14-3-5) in College Station, Texas, today. The winner of the BYU-Texas match will face the winner of the No. 7 Texas A&M-Stephen F. Austin match on Saturday.

CROSS COUNTRY: Both the women's and men's teams are headed to nationals after good showings at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships last Saturday.

Angela Wagner finished ninth to lead the Cougar women to third place in the team standings. Joining Wagner in earning all-region honors were Cecily Lemmon (12th), Amber Duffin (21st) and Jenna Jensen (22nd).

For the men, Chandler Goodwin led BYU with an 11th-place finish to help the team to fourth, while Cougar all-region honorees Brandon Hebbert and Dustin Bybee finished 16th and 24th, respectively.

The NCAA Championships will be in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday.