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2022 BYU Cougars women's volleyball
2022 BYU Cougars women's volleyball
Conference	West Coast Conference
Record	22–7 (15–3 WCC)
Head coach	Heather Olmstead (8th season);
Assistant coaches	David Hyte (9th season); Jonny Neeley (7th season);
Home arena	Smith Fieldhouse
	Seasons ← 2021 2023 →

2022 West Coast Conference volleyball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 4 San Diego ‍‍‍	9	–	0	1.000	18	–	1	.947
No. 17 BYU ‍‍‍	7	–	2	.778	14	–	5	.737
Loyola Marymount ‍‍‍	7	–	2	.778	11	–	6	.647
No. 22 Pepperdine ‍‍‍	6	–	3	.667	15	–	5	.750
Pacific ‍‍‍	4	–	5	.444	12	–	9	.571
Santa Clara ‍‍‍	4	–	5	.444	8	–	13	.381
San Francisco ‍‍‍	3	–	6	.333	10	–	10	.500
Saint Mary's ‍‍‍	3	–	6	.333	6	–	11	.353
Portland ‍‍‍	2	–	7	.222	9	–	11	.450
Gonzaga ‍‍‍	0	–	9	.000	4	–	16	.200

† – Conference champion y – Invited to the NCAA Tournament As of November 7, 2024 Rankings from AVCA Source:West Coast Conference

The 2022 BYU Cougars women's volleyball team represented Brigham Young University in the 2022 NCAA Division I women's volleyball season. The Cougars were led by eighth year head coach Heather Olmstead and played their home games at the Smith Fieldhouse. The Cougars were competing as members of the WCC for the final season, as they'll join the Big 12 Conference for 2023.^[3]

BYU comes off a season where they finished first and won the WCC regular season championship. The Cougars received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament falling to Purdue in the Sweet 16. The Cougars came in as favorites to win the 2022 conference title.^[4]

Season

Pre-season honors

Four Cougars were selected to the Pre-season All-WCC team: Senior setter Whitney Bower, senior middle blocker Heather Gneiting, senior opposite hitter Kate Grimmer and junior outside hitter Erin Livingston. The four selections tied BYU with San Diego for the most 2022 Preseason All-WCC team selections.^[4]

Alleged Duke incident

The 5,507 fans that attended the Duke game set a record for the most fans attending a BYU Women's Volleyball game at the Smith Fieldhouse. More than 1,000 fans were turned away as the only seats empty were some student season ticket seats.^[5]

During the Duke-BYU game, with BYU leading 6-3, Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson came up to serve and later recounted that in that moment, she "very distinctly...heard a very strong and negative racial slur."^[6]^[7] Once the set was over, Richardson informed the Duke coaching staff, who informed the game officials, who informed BYU staffers, who assigned a campus officer to monitor the student section.^[6] The officer later wrote an official report outlining his actions, including that he didn't hear any abusive comments during the fourth set.^[6] After the game was complete, a Duke assistant coach confronted the officer, pointing to a particular person in the student section and questioned why the person had not been ejected during the game.^[6] The officer and BYU officials reviewed game footage to find evidence that the fan shouted a racial slur, found none, but decided to ban the fan from attending BYU events indefinitely until further investigation was completed.^[6]

The following day, Richardson’s godmother brought the situation widespread attention when she tweeted that Richardson was called the slur "every time she served."^[6] The Duke vs. Rider match was moved from BYU to a local high school where only family and friends of the schools were allowed admittance.^[8]

Two days after the incident, having flown back to North Carolina, Richardson tweeted out a statement saying "my fellow African American teammates and I were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match. The slurs and comments grew into threats which caused us to feel unsafe."^[6] In response, BYU Athletics sent out a general press release outlining the school's official stance on all racism. Duke released a statement supporting the allegations of Richardson.^[9] Richardson was interviewed on ESPN where she repeated the allegations.^[6]

On September 9, BYU announced it had concluded its investigation into the incident and that it could not corroborate the claims of racism at the match and reinstated the fan who had been banned.^[10]^[11]

Roster

2022 BYU Cougars roster^[12]

Defensive Specialist/Libero

3 Morgan Clinger - Senior
4 Hannah Billeter - Freshman
11 Abbey Dayton - Senior
14 Aria McComber - Graduate
16 Kelsey Knudsen - Graduate

Opposite hitters

12 Kate Grimmer - Senior

Outside hitters

8 Eden Bower- Freshman
9 Alyssa Montoya - Sophomore
10 Erin Livingston - Junior
15 Elyse Stowell - Sophomore
19 Nataly Moravec - Freshman
22 Sophia Callahan - Sophomore

Setters

6 Abby Taylor - Senior
7 Whitney Bower - Senior
13 Briley Decker - Freshman

Middle blockers

1 Kate Prior - Freshman
2 Heather Gneiting - Senior
5 Bri Albright - Sophomore
21 Whitney Llarenas - Graduate

Schedule

Date Time	Opponent	Rank ^{(Tournament Seed)}	Arena City (Tournament)	Television	Result	Attendance	Record (WCC Record)
08/26 12 p.m.	Rider	#10	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (dōTERRA Classic)	byutv.org	W 3–0 (25–10, 25–17, 25–16)	1,018	1—0
08/26 7 p.m.	Duke	#10	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (dōTERRA Classic)	BYUtv	W 3–1 (25–14, 25–19, 19–25, 25–19)	5,507	2—0
08/27 7 p.m.	Washington State	#10	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (dōTERRA Classic)	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–18, 25–21, 25–15)	3,678	3—0
09/01 7 p.m.	Utah State	#7	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (BYU Nike Invitational)	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–9, 25–17, 25–14)	3,419	4—0
09/02 7 p.m.	Cincinnati	#7	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (BYU Nike Invitational)	BYUtv	W 3–1 (25–13, 21–25, 25–14, 25–19)	3,343	5—0
09/03 7 p.m.	#10 Pitt	#7	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (BYU Nike Invitational)	BYUtv	L 1–3 (19–25, 22–25, 25–19, 21–25)	3,342	5—1
09/08 6 p.m.	@ #5 Georgia Tech	#10	O'Keefe Gymnasium Atlanta, GA (Georgia Tech Challenge)	ACCNX	L 0–3 (20–25, 21–25, 14–25)	1,200	5–2
09/09 6 p.m.	vs. #8 Ohio State	#10	O'Keefe Gymnasium Atlanta, GA (Georgia Tech Challenge)		L 0–3 (19–25, 16–25, 25–27)	919	5–3
09/15 7 p.m.	@ Utah	#15	Huntsman Center Salt Lake City, UT (Deseret First Duel)	P12	W 3–1 (25–20, 22–25, 28–26, 27–25)	1,905	6–3
09/17 6 p.m.	Utah Valley	#15	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT (UCCU Crosstown Clash)	byutv.org	W 3–0 (25–16, 25–15, 25–20)	3,018	7–3
09/22 7 p.m.	Loyola Marymount*	#16	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–23, 25–18, 25–21)	2,615	8–3 (1–0)
09/24 1 p.m.	#17 Pepperdine*	#16	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–1 (25–12, 18–25, 25–21, 25–22)	3,004	9–3 (2–0)
09/29 7 p.m.	@ Portland*	#15	Chiles Center Portland, OR	SCS Central	W 3–0 (25–12, 25–20, 26–24)	339	10–3 (3–0)
10/01 1 p.m.	@ Gonzaga*	#15	Charlotte Y. Martin Centre Spokane, WA	SCS Atlantic	W 3–1 (23–25, 25–18, 25–22, 25–22)	581	11–3 (4–0)
10/06 7 p.m.	Santa Clara*	#14	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–13, 25–13, 25–12)	3,120	12–3 (5–0)
10/08 1 p.m.	San Francisco*	#14	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–20, 25–14, 25–17)	2,656	13–3 (6–0)
10/13 7 p.m.	@ Saint Mary's*	#12	University Credit Union Pavilion Moraga, CA	SCS Pacific	W 3–0 (25–18, 25–13, 25–14)	296	14–3 (7–0)
10/15 1 p.m.	@ Pacific*	#12	Alex G. Spanos Center Stockton, CA	WCC Network	L 2–3 (21–25, 25–17, 22–25, 25–10, 10–15)	827	14–4 (7–1)
10/21 7 p.m.	@ #4 San Diego*	#17	Jenny Craig Pavilion San Diego, CA	SCS Atlantic	L 0–3 (20–25, 21–25, 18–25)	3,340	14–5 (7–2)
10/27 7 p.m.	Gonzaga*	#17	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–10, 25–14, 25–21)	2,891	15–5 (8–2)
10/29 1 p.m.	Portland*	#17	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–23, 25–19, 25–10)	3,134	16–5 (9–2)
11/03 8 p.m.	@ San Francisco*	#18	The Sobrato Center San Francisco, CA	SCS Pacific	W 3–1 (20–25, 25–20, 25–20, 25–16)	350	17–5 (10–2)
11/05 2 p.m.	@ Santa Clara*	#18	Leavey Center Santa Clara, CA	WCC Network	W 3–0 (25–15, 25–17, 25–17)	309	18–5 (11–2)
11/10 7 p.m.	Pacific*	#18	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	CANCELLED- Pacific forfeited the game 3–0 citing they didn't want to risk playing in a racist environment ^[13]		18–5 (11–2)
11/12 1 p.m.	Saint Mary's*	#18	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	BYUtv	W 3–0 (25–18, 30–28, 25–19)	2,855	19–5 (12–2)
11/17 8 p.m.	@ Pepperdine*	#17	Firestone Fieldhouse Malibu, CA	WCC Network	W 3–0 (25–22, 25-21, 25–22)	605	20–5 (13–2)
11/19 2 p.m.	@ Loyola Marymount*	#17	Gersten Pavilion Los Angeles, CA	SCS Central	W 3–1 (25–20, 25–20, 14–25, 25–23)	629	21–5 (14–2)
11/22 8 p.m.	#2 San Diego*	#18	Smith Fieldhouse Provo, UT	ESPNU	L 1–3 (25–21, 19-25, 22–25, 22–25)	4,677	21–6 (14–3)
12/02 2 p.m.	y- James Madison	#18 ⁽⁷⁾	Petersen Events Center Pittsburgh, PA (NCAA Tournament 1st Round1)	ESPN+	W 3–0 (25–20, 25-10, 25–15)	2,055	22–6
12/03 5 p.m.	y- #6 Pitt ⁽²⁾	#18 ⁽⁷⁾	Petersen Events Center Pittsburgh, PA (NCAA Tournament 2nd Round)	ESPN+	L 0–3 (21-25, 22–25, 18–25)	2,814	22–7

*-Indicates Conference Opponent

y-Indicates NCAA Playoffs

Times listed are Mountain Time Zone.

^[14]

Announcers for televised games

All home games will be on BYUtv or the BYUtv App with the exception of San Diego, which will be on ESPNU.^[15] Most road games will also be televised or streamed on WCC Network with ACC Network Extra picking up the Georgia Tech game and Pac-12 Network picking up the Utah game.