For the first 15 minutes of Thursday’s NCAA women’s volleyball national semifinal match, fourth-seeded BYU looked like it belonged on the same court as No. 1 seed Stanford.
The taller, deeper Cardinal took over after trailing 10-6 in the first set and didn’t look back. Stanford dominated from there and swept the Cougars 3-0 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., to advance to Saturday’s championship match.
The scores were 25-15, 25-15 and 25-18 as BYU (31-2) lost for only the second time all season. Stanford (32-1), which was beaten 3-2 by BYU on Aug. 31 for its only loss of the year, put together a 16-3 run in the first set and completely shut down BYU’s attack.