Why BYU’s win over UCLA last week could foreshadow good things to come

When No. 4-ranked UCLA rolled into Provo last week, BYU got a chance to do something not uncommon to the program’s illustrious history but that none of the rostered players had ever done at the school — take down a defending national champion.

Friday evening, the Cougars did just that, giving BYU its first triumph over such a team since a 2018 win that saw the school defeat No. 1-ranked Ohio State in Columbus.

BYU players acknowledged the magnitude of the victory over the Bruins.

“Going into this match, being underdogs, and being able to go out there and just put all of our heart on the court, I think, was the best part,” Cougars’ sophomore opposite hitter Ian Little said after beating UCLA. “It’s just a fun thing to be a part of. (It was) so important … and it’s just something to look … to for the rest of the season.”

When BYU toppled UCLA at the Smith Fieldhouse, it not only beat the defending national champions but it snapped the Bruins’ dominant 21 straight regular-season MPSF victories, and beat the Los Angeles school for the first time since 2021. It was a feat not taken for granted by the Cougars.

“They’re the Bruins,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “It’s UCLA. (I’ve) lost count of how many national championships they’ve got. So it’s awesome (to beat them).”

UCLA has a lot of talent on its team again this season, only graduating three players from its 20th national championship-winning team a year ago and bringing back a roster filled with returning production.

“UCLA was a great team,” BYU junior outside hitter Miks Ramanis said in an interview on “BYU Sports Nation” before the season started. “They have massive depth on their roster when it comes to every position. Their starting positions are amazing players but I think we have what it takes to kind of topple them. I think they’ve reached their potential … but when we reach ours, I think ours will be higher than theirs. So when we get to that level, when we get there this season, I feel like it will definitely be a force to reckon with.”

Friday, it seemed the school may have reached that level and turned a corner, beginning to make Ramanis’ predictions come to fruition. The Cougars nearly beat the Bruins two nights in a row, taking a 2-1 set lead in the match Saturday but in the end could not hold on in a 3-2 defeat.

A closer look at what is to date BYU’s biggest victory of the season reveals that the Cougars might have something special brewing in Provo. Had they taken care of business in the second contest of the weekend, it would have put them on par with the school’s three national champion teams, which all went 2-0 against the prior season’s titleholder.

Ultimately, if the past is any indicator of what might come, it could bode well for BYU. In its history, the Provo school has defeated the previous year’s champion in 15 different seasons, always ending in a winning record with 15 or more victories. The last four BYU teams to do so made it to the Final Four with a pair of them going all the way to the title match.

Under Olmstead, the Cougars are now 3-2 in matches played against a defending champ, its two prior wins coming in 2016 and 2018 — years that saw BYU finish as runners-up to an NCAA championship and Final Four participants, respectively.

After last week, Olmstead feels that the hard work of this iteration of Cougars has begun to pay off. “They had a really, really good week of practice; intense, high level, working hard,” he said of the week leading up to his team’s matches with UCLA. “We went long a handful of days. … The guys did a great job.”

Ultimately, it all culminated in one of BYU’s most important wins in recent memory. One, if history is a predictor of the future, that could result in a grand conclusion to the season. If nothing else, it will be one of the most memorable nights for a Cougars roster that made the most of its rare opportunity.