BYU volleyball: Cougars make quick work of New Hampshire

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its quickest match this season, the BYU women’s volleyball team took down New Hampshire 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-11) Friday for the team’s 10th consecutive win.

"It was a great way to start off the George Washington Invitational," BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "I was pleased with how we played. It was fun to be able to give a lot of kids some match experience."

BYU is now 10-0 on the season — its best start since 2005 — while New Hampshire falls to 5-7. The win was BYU's seventh sweep of the season.

Jennifer Hamson led the Cougar offense with 11 kills on. 478 hitting, while freshman Ciara Parker led on defense with 10 digs. Setter Heather Hannemann had 35 assists.

A shaky start didn’t deter the Cougars, who went on a 7-1 run to take a 17-8 lead in the first set. Outside hitter Jessica Jardine started the run with a kill, helped out by Hannemann, which was followed by two kills from middle blocker Nicole Warner and two from outside hitter Alexa Gray. Gray took BYU to a 10-point lead on a kill, setting the Cougars up for match point. Hamson took the set 25-14 with a kill.

UNH tied up the second set 5-5 before a 5-0 run put BYU ahead 10-5. The Cougars increased that lead to 22-10 with the Wildcats unable to rebound from a 7-0 BYU run. A UNH attack error gave the 25-12 set to BYU.

The Cougars didn’t give the Wildcats any room for error in the third set, racing out to a 7-1 start. UNH never got closer than six points after that, as BYU rolled easily to the 25-11 win.

The match lasted just barely over an hour. The team’s previous quickest match was 1:14.

The Cougars are back in action Saturday, with a noon EDT matchup with Princeton and a 7 p.m. EDT matchup with host George Washington.

New Hampshire vs. BYU Box Score

Rachel Hawks is the women's volleyball sports information director for BYU Athletic Communications.