BYU 2022

[Zazu]

[bbg95]

Heather Olmstead gave an interview to a local TV station here.

[bbg95]

Darnell Dickson of the Provo Herald wrote a nice story about BYU's road trip to Pepperdine, which was the turning point for their season.

Jay Drew of the Deseret News wrote a recap of BYU's win over UCLA.

[pelagius]

Highlights from the UCLA match:

[bbg95]

More highlights from the win over UCLA:

[Brutus Buckeye]

Apr 5, 2021 19:22:36 GMT -5 Brutus Buckeye said:

Apr 5, 2021 18:53:24 GMT -5 pelagius said:

Hopefully this is a trend. Obviously, Utah and BYU are consistently good/nearly elite. From an out of conference scheduling point of view, if teams like UVU and Weber State continue to do well (and maybe improve) it really makes out of conference scheduling easier in terms of expected positive effect on RPI.

It would be nice if Utah State could get its act together too.

Hopefully Dixie St and SUU can continue to rise too.

Ranking the Utah teams, I guess you'd have to give the edge to the Utes over BYU, as they have a higher seed and, fwiw, won the BY-Ute scrimmage, iirc. 

Next tier down, I give the edge to Weber over UVU because Weber won two Big Sky conference titles (regular season and tournament) whereas UVU only won one WAC Title (tournament). 

The tier below that, I give Dixie the edge over SUU because Dixie beat SUU head to head in straight sets on the road. SUU of course collected an upset in the Big Sky tournament, whereas Dixie was ineligible for the WAC tournament due to transitioning from D2. 

Then of course the Blue Aggies from USU are bringing up the rear. They need to jack it up a little. 

Well now that the season's over, I guess that I would have to move the Y up ahead of the Utes into the 1 spot, since they made it to the sweet 16 and the Utes didn't. 

[beba]

Gratz on this year. At the beginning of the season people were calling for USD or Pepp to win the conference with BYU maybe third. We over achieved.

[pelagius]

Yeah, good season for BYU. A number of important questions marks and holes coming into the season, and players stepped up and filled those holes. Given that and the players coming in, I'm very sanguine about BYU's potential next season.

[bbg95]

Apr 17, 2021 20:56:12 GMT -5 beba said:

Gratz on this year. At the beginning of the season people were calling for USD or Pepp to win the conference with BYU maybe third. We over achieved.

Agreed. I wasn't even sure they'd make the tournament, let alone the Sweet 16. That was about as realistic a ceiling for this season as could be expected, especially when they got the bad draw and had to play Wisconsin this soon. I think they would have had a better chance against some other teams. But all in all, I really can't complain about a season in which a very young team went 17-2, won the WCC outright and advanced to the Sweet 16.

[bbg95]

With the season over and only seven pages of discussion, I decided to just change the title and use the same thread for the fall. When I have some time, I will move the information in the OP down to the second post, and I will add information for the fall (e.g. schedule, roster, etc.) as it becomes available.

[bbg95]

The Deseret News has a recap of the Wisconsin match that includes a lot of quotes from Heather Olmstead about the match and the season.

[pelagius]

Mar 15, 2021 17:22:51 GMT -5 Brutus Buckeye said:

Are any of the current players going to be embarking on a mission?

Brutus Buckeye I've now heard of one player that has a mission call. I imagine it will become public now that the season is over.

[pelagius]

Little update of the incoming/outgoing table I made earlier in the year:


Returning from a Mission:
name               year position height
Heather Gneiting   Jr   MB       6-4      

Leaving on a Mission before Fall 2021:
name               year position height
Allie Hakes        Fr   MB       6-4      

Recruits:
name              year position height
Brianne Albright  2021 MB, RS   6-3  
Zayna Meyer       2021 S, RS    6-1  
Alyssa Montoya    2021 OH, RS   6-0
Elyse Stowell     2021 OH       6-1  
Hannah Billeter   2022 OH, DS   5-11
Eden Bower        2022 OH       6-3  
Nataly Moravec    2022 OH, RS   6-1
Kate Prior        2022 MB       6-5  
Claire Little     2023 OH       6-2    


[atticus]

Don’t see a focus on passing in this list of recruits and that was not really a big strength for BYU this year. Maybe they’ll get a DS/L transfer. Look at all those OHs in the pipeline though. Interested to see if Stowell challenges for a starting spot. And will any of these players redshirt because of covid giving the current players an extra year.
When exactly does Gneiting get back and do you think she will be ready to play this fall?
Now seems like a decent time for Hakes to be on a mission. Spring season didn’t count this year so she would come back with 4 years eligibility like a true freshman. Eschenberg returns this fall plus I think Gneiting has a couple more years. Dodson will likely stay at middle and they’ve got Llarenas and an incoming MB next year and the year after. Doesn’t seem like it leaves the team short handed for her to be gone a couple seasons.

[pelagius]

Yeah, if BYU wants to make a jump into the top 10 (with a chance to make a run), passing needs to improve. I was a little surprised when BYU didn't sign a junior college lib/DS this year. But maybe the staff is bullish on the ball control abilities of some these incoming OHs.

Agree that the OH position is going to be interesting. Really hope Stowell comes in at a high enough level to challenge Livingston and Nixon for time. For sure, this is the most depth BYU's had at the pin in the H. Olmstead era. You've got Nixon, Livingston, and Stowell on the left side, and Grimmer and Tolman on the right (plus Livingston looks pretty comfortable when she swings on right).


Agreed, that Hakes is picking a good time to go on a Mission. With Gneiting coming back, it's pretty crowded in the middle.

I thought I heard end of July for the return of Gneiting, but that may be wrong. Pretty sure she left in Feb of 2020.