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Provo • Having won 10 consecutive matches, BYU's women's volleyball team is on a roll. But so is the Cougars' opponent in Friday's NCAA Tournament regional semifinal match at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky.
The No. 4 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers have won 12 straight and are favored to take down the 13th-seeded Cougars in a rematch of an NCAA Tournament regional final last year won 3-0 by BYU in Seattle.
First serve is at 3 p.m. The winner will face the winner of No. 5 seed Washington and No. 12 seed Ohio State on Friday in the regional finals.
The Cougars (28-3) are in the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year and are looking to get back to the championship match, where they fell to two-time champion Penn State last year.
BYU will rely on senior Alexa Gray, the two-time West Coast Conference player of the year who continues to make her mark in the school's record books. Gray is No. 1 all-time in kills, with 1,830 in the rally-scoring era, and No. 1 in attempts with 4,418.
Junior Amy Boswell ranks No. 19 nationally in blocks per set, No. 23 in total blocks and No. 38 in hitting percentage. Senior Ciara Parker is BYU's all-time digs leader with 1,775.
Gray, Parker and setter Camry Godfrey Willardson are the only seniors on this year's roster for first-year coach Heather Olmstead.
Olmstead was an assistant coach last year, then promoted to head coach when her brother, Shawn, became the head coach of the BYU's men's team.
"We have goals that we want to reach, but as far as expectations go, we know how we can play," Olmstead said. "I think that experience [last year] definitely helped the group, but it is a totally different year, totally different team, and they have new goals that they want to achieve with this team."
As for Nebraska (28-4), the Cornhuskers finished second in the Big Ten standings behind Minnesota and have recorded eight sweeps during their 12-match winning streak. Kadie Rolfzen averages 3.26 kills and 1.59 blocks per set.
Twitter: @drewjay —
NCAA women's volleyball
P Lexington (Ky.) Regional
Regional semifinals, Friday
• No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 13 BYU, 3 p.m. MST
• No. 5 Washington vs. No. 12 Ohio State, 5:30 p.m. MST
Regional final, Saturday
• Friday's semifinal winners, 2 p.m. MST