BYU women's volleyball started 2026 with a new head coach, a new setter rotation, three new middles and its lowest preseason ranking since 2012. Six weeks in, the Cougars are 13-1, 5-0 in the Big 12, and No. 14 in the country, on a 10-match winning streak with three straight sweeps. Here is how the first season under Rob Neilson has gone, who is doing the damage, what is left on the schedule, and how to get into the Smith Fieldhouse to see it.
The season so far
| Record | 13-1 overall, 5-0 Big 12 (through October 10) |
| Ranking | No. 14, AVCA poll of October 12, up from No. 24 in the preseason |
| Win streak | 10 matches |
| Hitting percentage | .311, 4th in the nation and 1st in the Big 12 |
| Blocks per set | 2.93, 7th in the nation and 2nd in the Big 12 |
| Only loss | 3-1 to No. 2 Pittsburgh at home, September 4 |
The numbers that explain the record are the two at the bottom. BYU has hit .300 or better in nine matches this season and won all nine, and it is one of the best blocking teams in the country. West Virginia hit .033 against the Cougars on October 10. Houston hit .094 two nights earlier.
Every result
| Date | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Aug. 28 | No. 24 Florida State (Fort Myers, Fla.) | W 3-2 |
| Aug. 29 | at Florida Gulf Coast | W 3-1 |
| Sept. 3 | Eastern Illinois | W 3-0 |
| Sept. 4 | No. 2 Pittsburgh | L 1-3 |
| Sept. 8 | at No. 25 Boise State | W 3-0 |
| Sept. 11 | UCLA | W 3-2 |
| Sept. 15 | Utah Valley | W 3-0 |
| Sept. 17 | at Weber State | W 3-0 |
| Sept. 19 | Utah State | W 3-0 |
| Sept. 25 | No. 17 Baylor | W 3-2 |
| Oct. 1 | at Kansas State | W 3-1 |
| Oct. 2 | at No. 19 Kansas | W 3-0 |
| Oct. 8 | at Houston | W 3-0 |
| Oct. 10 | West Virginia | W 3-0 |
Rankings are the opponents' rankings at the time of each match, as BYU's schedule lists them.
The matches that mattered
The Pittsburgh loss was the best early sign. No. 2 Pitt came to Provo on September 4 in front of 5,073 fans and won 25-23, 24-26, 25-15, 25-20. BYU hit .447 in the first set and took the second before a seven-error third set got away from it. Claire Little Chambers had 17 kills, 11 digs and 3 blocks. Neilson's read afterward was that this is where a team learns: "You get exposed here in front of five or six thousand people," he told the Daily Herald, and "it's fun to learn in these environments."
Baylor opened Big 12 play with a five-setter. On September 25, BYU took the first two sets against No. 17 Baylor, lost the next two, and won the fifth 15-10. Little Chambers had 21 kills, Elli Mortensen had 17 kills and a career-high 14 digs for her first double-double, and freshman Brooke Hardy had 11 kills and six aces, a BYU freshman record in the rally-scoring era.
The Kansas trip settled the conference picture. BYU won at Kansas State, then swept No. 19 Kansas on October 2 after saving four set points in the first set and winning it 27-25. The Cougars hit .303 to Kansas's .149 and out-blocked the Jayhawks 11-7.
The in-state run was lopsided. BYU swept Utah Valley 25-11, 25-9, 25-16 on September 15 while hitting .520, then swept Weber State and Utah State the same week.
The coach: Rob Neilson
When Heather Olmstead stepped down after 11 seasons, BYU went back to one of its own. Rob Neilson was introduced on January 8 as the seventh head coach in program history.
His résumé fits the job closely:
- A BYU setter. Neilson was the starting setter on BYU's 2004 men's national championship team, went 91-31 as a player and finished fifth in career assists in the rally-scoring era with 2,790. He later earned an MBA at BYU, coached the BYU men's team as an assistant and one-time interim head coach, and worked with the U.S. men's national team.
- A program builder. At Utah State he went 112-59 in six seasons. His 2025 team went 24-8 and 18-0 in the Mountain West, the best record in Aggie history, and upset seventh-seeded Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament. He won three Mountain West regular-season titles, two conference tournament titles, and Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2021, 2023 and 2025.
What stands out about the way he runs a program is that it is built on relationships and on teaching. He has said he wants to teach the game at a high level, to build real relationships with his players rather than only demand things of them, and to have teams that "get after it every single day." His players describe the same thing from the inside. Little Chambers called "Rob's systems" "elite for sure," and said no one's spot is secured, so everyone competes every day.
He also did not try to tear the program down to build it back up. "We're not trying to change a lot," he said before the season. The changes he did make were specific: play faster, use more back-row attacks, and set the middles from more places on the court. Six weeks in, two BYU middles lead their categories in the Big 12, and one leads the nation. That is the plan showing up on the stat sheet.
Neilson brought assistants Chloe Hirst and Torre Glasker and director of operations Kennedi Hansen from Utah State, and added Donan Cruz, a former NAIA and NCAA head coach who was most recently an assistant at Hawaii, as associate head coach.
The players
Kelli Jo Burgess, middle blocker. A fifth-year transfer from Oklahoma, where she was second-team All-SEC, and a Lone Peak High graduate. She leads the nation at 1.92 blocks per set and ranks 10th in total blocks with 92. She has won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week three times and made the conference's Starting Seven on October 13.
Brooke Hardy, middle blocker. A freshman hitting .406, which leads the Big 12 and ranks 23rd nationally. She set career highs with 11 kills and the six aces against Baylor and has had six blocks in a match three times.
Elli Mortensen, outside hitter. The junior was Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on October 6 after the Kansas trip, where she had 14 kills at Kansas, and she led the team with 11 kills against West Virginia.
Claire Little Chambers, outside hitter. The senior had 432 kills last season and has been BYU's high scorer in its biggest matches: 17 kills against Pitt, 21 against Baylor, and a double-double at Houston.
The two setters. Alex Bower, an All-American who had 1,265 assists as a sophomore, entered the transfer portal after Olmstead left and then chose to stay, saying she was excited to "play and learn from coach Neilson." Kaylie Kofe transferred in from Utah State. Neilson said in the summer he was still deciding between one setter and two, and the box scores show the answer so far: against Baylor, Kofe had 26 assists and Bower 25. For a setter, sharing the court with another one is an adjustment, and both have made it work.
The rest of the rotation. Kate Prior, a 6-foot-4 senior, is back after a year away and hit .565 in the Houston and West Virginia matches. Junior Lulu Po'uha took over at libero when Emma Barbaro was sidelined by injury and had 19 digs against Utah Valley. Sophie Callahan and Anna Blamires have both had big nights, Callahan in the Utah State sweep and Blamires at Weber State, and senior middle Brielle Kemavor was working back from offseason surgery at the start of the year.
Who left. Suli Davis, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, transferred to SMU, and middle Mia Lee transferred to TCU. TCU visits Provo on November 27.
Where this season sits in BYU history
BYU has been to the NCAA Tournament 14 straight seasons and 38 times overall. The last two runs ended early: as a No. 5 seed in 2025, BYU lost a five-set first-round match to Big West champion Cal Poly and finished 22-9. Under Olmstead the Cougars reached the national semifinals in 2018, when she was the AVCA Coach of the Year, and she reached 200 wins in just 225 matches. She is now the associate head coach at Hawaii.
The bar for Neilson's first team, then, is not making the tournament. It is getting further than the first weekend. The NCAA's top 16 seeds host the first two rounds, so a top-16 seed would bring the tournament to Provo, and the remaining schedule will decide that.
What is left: the rest of the 2026 schedule
| Date | Opponent | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Thu., Oct. 15 | at Utah | Huntsman Center, 7 p.m., ESPN+ |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | at Arizona | McKale Center, 6 p.m. MST, ESPN+ |
| Thu., Oct. 22 | No. 25 Colorado | Smith Fieldhouse |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | No. 8 Arizona State | Smith Fieldhouse |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Utah | Smith Fieldhouse |
| Thu., Nov. 5 | at No. 25 Colorado | CU Events Center |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | at Iowa State | Hilton Coliseum |
| Thu., Nov. 12 | at Baylor | Ferrell Center |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Texas Tech | Smith Fieldhouse |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Arizona | Smith Fieldhouse |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Cincinnati | Smith Fieldhouse |
| Wed., Nov. 25 | at UCF | The Venue, Orlando |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | No. 10 TCU | Smith Fieldhouse |
Rankings are as BYU's schedule listed them at the time of writing. Times for later matches are set closer to the date; check BYU's schedule before you go.
The two weekends to circle are October 22 and 24, when Colorado and Arizona State come to Provo back to back, and the Utah home-and-home. BYU leads that series 79-31 all-time, and the teams split last season, each winning at home in five sets. Utah is 12-4 and 4-1 in the Big 12 under first-year coach Alyssa D'Errico, so the October 30 rematch in Provo could carry weight in the standings. New to the rivalry? See the Holy War, explained.
Going to a match at the Smith Fieldhouse
The Smith Fieldhouse is a gym, not an arena, and that is its appeal. More than five thousand fans packed it for Pittsburgh, and a crowd that size in a room that size is loud.
Tickets. Buy online through BYU's ticket site or in person at the Marriott Center ticket office. Single-match tickets go on sale in August, with a presale for Cougar Club members before the public sale. There are reserved and general admission sections; general admission is first-come, first-served in designated sections. Tickets are required for everyone 6 and older in general admission and 2 and older in reserved seats. Season tickets go on sale in July.
Students. The ROC Pass covers women's volleyball. Students scan the pass at the gate and sit in the student section, and the Olympic Sports ROC Pass is the cheaper option for students who mostly want volleyball, soccer and the other non-football sports. There is a bonus: verified attendance at selected Olympic-sports events, volleyball included, counts toward a student's priority for football and men's basketball tickets. Our ROC Pass guide walks through the passes, prices and how the priority works.
Getting there. The fieldhouse is on main campus, so campus parking rules apply. Our BYU campus visitor guide covers visitor parking and the walk in. Give yourself more time on nights when another event is on campus.
Before and after. For dinner near campus, see where to eat before a BYU game. Visiting fans coming in for a Big 12 weekend can use our Big 12 visitor's guide to Provo, and if you cannot get to the match, our list of the best places to watch sports in Provo has the bars and restaurants that put college sports on.
Bringing kids. Volleyball is the easiest BYU sport to take a family to: cheaper than football or basketball, indoors, and easy to get a seat for most nights.
The bottom line
A new coach who wanted to change only a few things has a team at 13-1 that hits harder and blocks better than almost anyone in the country. The test is the next month: Colorado and Arizona State in Provo, Utah twice, and a November road stretch at Colorado, Iowa State and Baylor. Win most of those and BYU will be hosting in December.
For the rest of the valley's college volleyball, see our look at UVU volleyball's first Big West season. For BYU's other fall sport, see BYU women's soccer in Jennifer Rockwood's final season. For the BYU winter sport, see the BYU basketball game-day guide.
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Sources
The facts in this guide were checked against these sources. Hours, fees and rules change, so confirm anything time-sensitive with the source before you go. How we make Provo.com.
- Women's Volleyball 2026 Schedule, BYU Athletics. Checked October 13, 2026.
- No. 14 BYU visits Utah, Arizona, BYU Athletics. Checked October 13, 2026.
- Neilson introduced as BYU women's volleyball head coach, BYU Athletics. Checked October 13, 2026.
- No. 22 Cougars down No. 17 Bears behind career nights from Mortensen and Hardy, BYU Athletics. Checked October 13, 2026.
- Burgess named to Big 12 Starting Seven, BYU Athletics. Checked October 13, 2026.
- BYU Women's Volleyball tickets, BYU Tickets. Checked October 13, 2026.
- BYU women's volleyball has a new head coach, and a key return from portal, KSL. Checked October 13, 2026.
- No. 24 BYU flashes glimpse at potential in 3-1 loss to No. 2 Pitt, Daily Herald. Checked October 13, 2026.
- BYU women's volleyball season preview: Neilson's familiarity with BYU a big plus in 2026, Daily Herald. Checked October 13, 2026.
- Settling in: Neilson making his mark with BYU women's volleyball program, Daily Herald. Checked October 13, 2026.
- BYU Roundup: No. 18 Cougars sweep No. 19 Kansas on the road, Daily Herald. Checked October 13, 2026.
- BYU women's volleyball coach Heather Olmstead stepping down after 11 successful seasons, The Daily Universe. Checked October 13, 2026.
- 4 Utah women's volleyball teams are in the NCAA Tournament, KSL. Checked October 13, 2026.
