Imagine if, in a highly anticipated match between Duke and West Virginia’s basketball teams this weekend in the Final Four, two of America’s top ten basketball teams went 0-38 from the free throw line.  On Thursday in the Pyramid, the volleyball equivalent happened, as no. 8 Long Beach State and no. 3 BYU had a sloppy battle featuring 38 service errors in five sets.  The Cougars won in four, 30-28, 28-30, 30-23, 30-18.

“There were just a lot of things we didn’t do,” said a frustrated coach Andy Read after the match.  His squad was up 27-24 in the first set but allowed a 6-1 run to BYU to lose it, and they hit just .101 on the night, most of their swings into the teeth of the Cougar block (BYU notched 23.5 team blocks).  Dean Bittner finished with 15 kills, but he had 41 swings.  Robb Stowell was the leader for the Cougars, with 25.5 points on 19 kills.

“I don’t have an answer for that,” said Read when asked what his team needed to do to rebound for Friday’s 7pm rematch with the Cougars.  “They’re great, but that was totally on us.”