BYU women’s volleyball: New coach, same high expectations for No. 11 Cougars

Provo • The head coach has changed, but the last name is the same, and so are the expectations for BYU women's volleyball team in 2015 after the Cougars advanced to the NCAA Tournament championship match last year.

It is not often in sports that a new coach inherits a national runner-up team — or replaces her brother — but that's the situation four-year assistant Heather Olmstead finds herself in as she takes over for Shawn Olmstead, BYU's new men's volleyball coach.

The Cougars, ranked No. 11 nationally and picked to repeat as the West Coast Conference champion, begin their season this weekend with the Women of Troy Baden Invitational in Los Angeles. They will face Chicago State on Friday night, then take on No. 7 North Carolina and No. 22 USC on Saturday.

"We are excited to get started," Heather Olmstead said. "I feel comfortable with the girls we've got, and the relationships that have been formed. It is just a matter of role changing for me, going from [assistant] to head coach."

Olmstead has to replace one of the greatest players in school history, 6-foot-7 All-American Jennifer Hamson. But the Cougars return most of their other top players who made the remarkable tournament run last December as an unseeded team.

"We know people are looking at last year's team and what we did, but the girls are just focused on winning the conference and repeating," Olmstead said. "Preseason rankings really don't matter to us; we are just trying to get better. It is a work in progress. If we are good in December, then we are in a good place."

Blocking was a strength of last year's team, and should be again with the return of 6-foot-4 Amy Boswell and 6-foot Whitney Young Howard, the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked blockers in the country last year, respectively.

"When I heard Heather was going to be our new coach, I was very excited," said Boswell, an AVCA All-America Honorable Mention selection in 2014. "Heather was a huge part of what we did last year, and she's one of the hardest working people I know."

The Cougars should have one of the top outside hitters in the country in senior Alexa Gray, an All-American who was the WCC Player of the Year last season.

Hamson's opposite hitter position will likely be filled by either 6-2 sophomore Cosy Burnett or 6-4 freshman Emily Lewis, daughter of former BYU football star Chad Lewis and former BYU volleyball standout Michele Fellows Lewis.

Both setters from the 2014 season — senior Camry Godfrey Willardson and sophomore Alohi Robins-Hardy — are back, although Robins-Hardy, also a key member of BYU's women's basketball team, has been slowed by an ankle injury.

The school's all-time leader in digs in the rally-scoring era, Ciara Parker, returns as the team's primary libero. She will be backed by sophomore Jaiden Achermann, who is a Lone Peak High graduate, like Lewis.

"We've got some really scrappy defenders," Boswell said. "Ciara and other people back there have the mentality that no ball is going to fall on them. So that's always awesome."

The nonconference schedules includes No. 23 Utah on Sept. 17 at Utah. WCC play begins Sept. 24 at San Francisco.

drew@sltrib.com

Twitter: @drewjay