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For those who haven't been following men's volleyball very much (yet...) this year, Loyola's main rival for the #1 ranking in the country has been BYU. They began the year ranked #3 in the preseason poll, and Loyola beat them 3-0 in the Ramblers' second match of the season in early January. BYU also lost the next night at #10 Lewis-- around the time of the big cold snap and blizzard in the Midwest.
Since that early road trip, BYU has been tops in the MPSF conference, and a lot of West Coast voters have been voting for BYU as #1-- even despite the fact that LU beat them head-to-head, and rather convincingly. "It was early in the season, before BYU had their rotations figured out," and "they're a different team now," are many of the replies you get when you point out that in a direct Loyola-BYU matchup, Loyola won. I've even seen a few, "it was cold in Chicago on that trip" excuses to cover up some naked West Coast/MPSF bias.
But there was another big hole in BYU's resume that really stuck out to me before they went on their current 4-match road trip to end the season: BYU is fantastic at home, but only average on the road. The Cougars play before the largest home crowds in men's volleyball, averaging over 3500 per match in Provo. In one match against Stanford, they had more than 5200. This home court advantage helped them to an 11-0 record in their own gym. On the road, they're good but not so great. Leading up to last night's late contest (7 p.m. Hawaii time) at #10 Hawaii, they were only 3-4 on the road against ranked teams. Many of the BYU fans and MPSF defenders missed this weakness, because they were throwing out the Loyola and Lewis losses. Well, last night, that achilles heel was again exposed.
BYU broke out on fire, and dominated the first two sets 25-16, 25-19. Hawaii was making a lot of errors, and BYU was playing their steady game. In set three, Hawaii got out to a small lead, but BYU kept closing. With their backs to the wall, Hawaii kept plugging away and gutted out a 26-24 win. Whether it was part psychological or simply a matter of gaining confidence, Hawaii cruised in set four, 25-18. You could sense their confidence rising at it went to a game 5, and the home team weathered a late BYU push to take the match 15-12 in the final set.
BYU has already captured the MPSF title, but their loss at Hawaii gives them a 3-5 record on the road against teams in the rankings. They have another match in Hawaii tonight, and then they play at #5 UC Santa Barbara on Friday and at #9 UCLA to finish the season. I think they could still drop another one in those three matches, most probably at UCSB who plays very well at home. To me, this loss really answers the question as to whether BYU is "a different team now" than they were at the beginning of the season. They may very well be a different team, but every team evolves over a season-- it doesn't happen in isolation. The trap a lot of West Coast/MPSF boosters fell into was dismissing the losses at Loyola and Lewis as outliers-- too early in the season, insignificant-- coupled with downplaying BYU's enormous home court advantage.
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