PROVO, Utah – The Utah Valley University women's volleyball team had its 2016 opener spoiled by No. 13 BYU on Friday night at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, as the Wolverines dropped the match in consecutive sets (14-25, 14-25, 13-25) in front of a record-breaking crowd of 4,672 fans.
 
"The crowd was awesome tonight. This is what we want and this is where we want to be," head coach Sam Atoa said. "I felt like the girls tried, but in the end we just made one too many mistakes. We'll learn and build from this experience and continue to get better."
 
The Wolverines didn't waste any time getting things going in the opening set as they jumped out to an early 4-2 lead following a kill from freshman Izzie Hinton. The Cougars quickly tied things up at 4-4, however, and later managed to reel off a 5-0 spurt to take a 10-6 advantage of their own. UVU pulled to within three, at 11-8, following a block assist from juniors Madison Dennison and Sierra Starley, but that was as close the Wolverines would get the rest of the set as BYU went on to take the opener by a score of 25-14.
 
Utah Valley kept things much tighter in the second set, as the score seesawed back and forth for the first half of the game. With BYU holding to a slim 14-12 lead, the ranked Cougars then managed to drive home five consecutive points to take a 19-12 advantage. Brigham Young held onto its lead from there, as it took a 2-0 lead in the match thanks to a 25-14 second-set victory.
 
UVU once again hung around with the Cougars early on in the third set, but BYU managed to get things going following a 5-1 run to take a 10-5 lead. Junior Lexi Thompson drove home a couple of late kills for the Wolverines and Dennison and sophomore Alexis Davies teamed up for a late block, but wasn't enough as the Cougars finished off the sweep with a 25-13 third-set win.
 
Thompson paced UVU offensively on the night with nine kills, while preseason all-conference selection Dennison finished with six kills and six blocks. Starley also chipped in a team-high 13 assists while senior Nakisha Willden tallied a UVU-high 11 digs.
 
McKenna Miller paced BYU with a match-high 13 kills and a .500 attack percentage.
 
The contest not only marked the season opener for both teams, but also the first matchup of the BYU Invitational for both squads. 
 
The BYU Invitational will continue on Saturday, as the Wolverines will face-off against Cal Poly of the Big West at 10 a.m. and Rice of the Conference USA at 5 p.m. Both matches will be contested at BYU's Smith Fieldhouse in Provo. UVU will then return to Orem for its 2016 home opener on Tuesday, Aug. 30 when it hosts Idaho State. The midweek contest will begin at 6 p.m. and will be played in the UCCU Center due to ongoing renovations to the PE Building. 
 
"Despite the result, I was very encouraged with some of the things that I saw tonight," Atoa added. "The challenge is for us to now come back and be ready to go in front of a totally different atmosphere on Saturday morning. If we can come in with the same approach, I feel like some good things will happen for our team."