After a wild upset of then-No. 22 Pepperdine at the Martin Centre on Saturday, Gonzaga Volleyball hits the road to face another ranked conference opponent in No. 17 BYU Thursday in Provo, Utah. 

Gonzaga (5-16, 1-9 WCC) at #17 Brigham Young (14-5, 10-2 WCC)

THURSDAY, OCT. 27 | 6 P.M. PT | SMITH FIELDHOUSE | PROVO, UTAH

BYUTV | LIVE STATS

Scouting the Cougars

• Despite taking the first set, GU fell 1-3 (25-23, 18-25, 22-25, 22-25) to the Cougars in their last meeting in Spokane on Oct. 1. Zoe Thiros led a resilient effort from the Bulldogs with 18 kills and Kennedy Croft added 11, with four other Zags combining for 17 more. Thiros also served up a career-high four aces, with Croft and Dani Batenhorst supplied two aces apiece while leading the team in digs with 14 and 11, respectively.

• The Cougars have posted a 10-1 record at home this season and are winners of 25 straight WCC matches in the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU head coach Heather Olmstead is 110-6 in Provo during her tenure. 

• BYU is coming off two consecutive losses — 2-3 to Pacific and 3-0 to No. 3 San Diego — both on the road.

• The Cougars rank fifth nationally in team hitting percentage at .298 on the season. They're also No. 29 in assists per set, at 12.82, and No. 33 in kills per set, at 13.8. All three categories are tops in the WCC.

Stunner in Spokane

The Bulldogs picked up their first conference win — and first over a ranked opponent in program history — with a stunning rally against the Waves Saturday, rallying back from down 0-2 and behind 20-15 in the third set to snap an 11-game losing streak to Pepperdine. 

The Bulldogs (5-16, 1-9) connected on 13 service aces in total in the winning effort, the fourth-most in a single game in the Rally Scoring Era and the most since 2019. Five different Zags served up multiple aces, including three apiece from Keau Kamake'eaina and Alisa Kim and two each from Dani Batenhorst, Zoe Thiros and Viktoriya Ivanova. Grace Ehler added a service ace of her own along with a pair of crucial kills to force set five, where she served for what would be the match-deciding rally to clinch the final set.

Pepperdine connected on 14 more kills than GU, but the Bulldogs outblocked the Waves 14-11.

Thiros' 21 kills were just short of a career-high to lead GU on offense, with McKenna Marshall supplying 12 on team-high .458 hitting. Freshman Autumn Larson added 11 more, combining with Kelsie White (three kills) for 11 total blocks. Kamake'eaina produced 43 of the Bulldogs' 46 assists.

Kennedy Croft Moves Closer to History

Kennedy Croft now sits at seventh all-time in career aces and holds the record in the Rally Era with 121. She's connected on 22 so far this year, finishing with multiple in seven different games and two in each of her last three. 

Katie Wilson takes the reigns

In January, Wilson was named GU's eighth-ever women's volleyball head coach after having spent the last seven seasons at the University of Notre Dame. In 2018, she was elevated to Associate Head Coach for the Fighting Irish. She has spent five of the last six seasons with setting, passing, outside hitters and offensive coordinator as her primary coaching responsibility. 

"Gonzaga hit a home run hiring Katie Wilson as the next women's volleyball head coach. She always exercises the highest degree of integrity, and she can flat out coach. Katie is smart, invested, hardworking, resilient, and principled. She cares deeply about her players, understands their individual needs, and will help each one of them grow as people and volleyball players. Katie will develop each player by pushing their limits the right way, giving them the knowledge and awareness needed to be successful, and the skills necessary to execute that knowledge."

- Jim McLaughlin, Former Notre Dame Head Coach and national coach of the year at the University of Washington

"We're thrilled for Katie to have the opportunity to lead the Gonzaga volleyball program. The caring she exhibits for her student-athletes, passion for the sport and her determination to continue developing as a coach makes her a great addition to the Bulldogs' family. We wish Katie, her husband, Ryan, and their children, Kira and Jacob, much success in Spokane."

- Notre Dame Vice President and James E. Rohr Director of Athletics, Jack Swarbrick         ​​​​​​​

During her tenure as an assistant coach, Wilson played a major role in the improvement of the Notre Dame program, as the team went from a 7-25 record in 2015 to back-to-back 22-win seasons in 2016 and 2017. In Wilson's seven seasons with the Irish, Notre Dame has reached the NCAA Tournament three times (2017, 2019, 2020).

Wilson also was a U.S. National Team Development Program U-17 and U-18 Coach. She developed and evaluated athletes for the U.S. U-17 and U-18 pipeline during the week-long Summer Training Series Camp held at the USA training facility in Anaheim, Calif. She was a Volunteer Assistant Coach for Team Canada in 2019-20.

Wilson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing from the University of Puget Sound. A native to the Puget Sound area, Wilson is married to her husband, Ryan, and they have two children, Kira and Jacob.