BYU Olympic Sports: Softball sweeps and Volleyball advances

BYU Olympic Sports had a strong weekend, highlighted by volleyball’s MPSF first round upset and softball’s sweep of Pacific at Gail Miller Field last weekend.

Softball

BYU Softball hosted the Pacific Tigers on Friday and Saturday and swept them in the three-game series. The Cougars opened up strong on Friday in game one, led by Arissa Paulson. Paulson closed out the match with a grand slam to force the mercy rule and give the Cougars the 10-2 win in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Game two went to the Cougars as well, led by Marissa Chavez. The Cougars won 11-8, going up 2-0 in the series.

Saturday, the Cougars mercy-ruled the Tigers again, this time going up 11-1 in the bottom of the fourth. The Cougars never batted in the fifth, as they held the Tigers scoreless in the fifth to seal the sweep.

The Cougars host Utah Valley Tuesday then will host Washington on Wednesday.

Baseball

The Cougars hosted the Pepperdine Waves Thursday - Saturday in Provo and won the first two games against the Waves. The Cougars had a 13-7 victory Thursday, and again on Friday, this time 4-2. On Saturday, the Cougars fell to the Waves, 7-0.

The Cougars will travel to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies this week in a three-game series.

Soccer

Women’s Soccer hosted two spring games in a double header Saturday. The Cougars played Colorado first, and scored a goal in the first minute. The Cougars held on to the lead for the next 89 minutes, controlling possession and creating chances, but were unable to find a second goal.

After the Colorado game, the Cougars played Dixie State Trailblazers, who recently announced they would be joining the WAC. The Cougars dominated the match, going up 3-0 early in the game. The Trailblazers would respond with one goal, but the Cougars would eventually add a fourth to win the game 4-1.

Volleyball

Men’s volleyball shocked Stanford in the first round of the MPSF tournament in five sets (18-25, 25-16, 26-24, 19-25, 16-14). The Cougars, who had previously not won a single road match against MPSF foes, surprised the Cardinal after going down in the first set but coming back to lead 2-1. Davide Gardini led the Cougars with 23 kills and a career-high five aces to beat the Cardinal.

The Cougars will play at Pepperdine Thursday evening.

Tennis

Men’s Tennis dropped both of it’s WCC match-ups this weekend in southern California, falling to LMU on Friday 2-4 and Pepperdine, 3-4. The Cougars will next play in the WCC tournament from April 24-27.

Women’s Tennis also dropped it’s two weekend match-ups with LMU and Pepperdine in Provo, losing to the Lions 1-4 and the Waves 1-4 as well. The Cougars will travel to Pacific and Saint Mary’s this weekend to finish off it’s regular season.

Rugby

BYU rugby defeated UCLA 52-10 in their first round match on Saturday at South Field. The Cougars will play Saint Mary’s on Saturday in California.