BYU men’s volleyball has been in a drought lately if you compare the team’s recent performance to its remarkable past.
From 2012-2021, the Cougars were six-time MPSF champions, had seven seasons with 20 or more wins and made the NCAA tournament six times.
Since then, the school has gone without a conference title, without a 20-win season, and without an NCAA tournament bid.
The past three years are the longest span the program and the postseason have been separated since before the tournament expanded beyond four teams in 2014 — an era when NCAA tournament bids were more scarce.
The Cougars’ recent struggle to meet the program’s lofty standards hasn’t only resulted in fewer NCAA tournament invitations. Success has evaded BYU in its postseason league contests as well, and the team has earned only one win in MPSF tournament play during the same trio of dry seasons.
When asked about his team’s struggle in recent years to win conference tournament matches, BYU coach Shawn Olmstead stayed focused on each moment leading up to the finish line.
“My approach … doesn’t change,” he said. “My message is still the same: Everything we’re going to do this year has got to put us in the best position to maximize the end of the year.”
BYU men’s volleyball in 2025
Not quite two weeks into the season, something feels a bit different — maybe even special — about this team compared to the past three years.
With the same approach, what has changed for the Cougars this season that could yield different results? Senior outside hitter Luke Benson has an idea.
“I think one of our weaknesses in years past is sometimes we’d get ahead … and then we kind of let off the gas — let the other team get back in,” Benson said. “I think this year, one of our big strengths is we don’t really let that happen. We stay on the gas, we keep pressure on. We’re doing really good at that, which is really good to see.”
There’s definitely something to Benson’s claim about the Cougars never letting up. They’ve beat their opponents by seven or more points in 75% of winning sets.
In just a few short matches, the Cougars have brimmed with potential, and they look poised to reach the program’s traditional standard of excellence that has escaped their grasp in recent seasons.
There are a few things that set this team apart from years past when lofty aspirations weren’t reached. Part of what makes BYU more formidable this season is its depth.
“Look at the level of our second team,” Benson said. “Just having that pressure on us every day and having those guys that are willing to just give everything to get the ball back over, it’s really propelled us to a whole ‘nother level in our game.”
BYU’s depth has been strengthened in different ways, with a transfer, a return missionary and a freshman each in the starting lineup this year for the school.
Another strength of this year’s Cougars is the amount of experience on the roster. BYU has 13 upperclassmen, many of whom have played meaningful minutes for the program.
“You always want senior leadership,” Olmstead said. “Experience can really … do good things for any team (and can) beat out physicality, quickness, those kind of things … experience seeing the game, feeling the game, understanding moments, understanding opportunities.”
The upperclassmen seem to recognize the opportunities that lie before them, leading the team to play with an intensity and maturity that bode well for the rest of the season.
BYU’s impressive start to the regular season has not gone unnoticed, already doing something the last three iterations of Cougars were unable to accomplish when they climbed into the top five of this week’s national rankings.
The last time the school was ranked inside of five they went on to play in the nation title match. Time will tell if this team can reach such a lofty mark.
BYU looks to have the makings of a team ready to snap the dry spells that have plagued the Cougars over the past few years. The glory of BYU men’s volleyball may be making its return.