The Wasatch Range made its way to the Stan Sheriff Center Friday night as Brigham Young put up a mountain of a block against Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA volleyball tournament.

The Cougars (23-6) used 14.5 blocks, as well as 27 kills by sophomore hitter Alexa Gray, to turn back Arizona State 21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 24-26, 15-10 in 2 hours and 27 minutes. BYU advanced to today’s second round against 11th-seeded Hawaii (25-4).

Sophomore hitter Macey Gardner led the Sun Devils (19-14) with 27 kills. Senior libero Stephanie Preach finished her career with 25 of the team’s 90 digs.

The defense on both sides matched the electricity in the arena, with the Hawaii crowd cheering the effort of both teams. BYU finished with 87 digs, 34 by sophomore libero Ciera Parker.

"This was NCAA volleyball at its finest," Cougars coach Shawn Olmstead said. "This is the best atmosphere in the tournament probably until the final four. We know it’s going to be packed tomorrow.

"I’m just ecstatic for my team, the way they came back after losing that fourth set. They put it behind them and rebounded in the fifth. We’re excited to be moving on."

The Cougars needed extra time to do it. BYU was serving for the match at 24-22 in Set 4 only to have ASU hold off two match points. The Sun Devils scored four straight behind the serving of Preach to force Set 5.

BYU broke away from a 5-5 tie with a 3-0 run, including two kills by junior hitter Tambre Haddock.

Tough serving by junior hitter Hannah Robison extended the lead to 11-6 and the Sun Devils never got closer than 12-9. Gardner was blocked to end it for the Cougars, who lost their last match in five sets at San Diego two weeks ago.

Haddock finished with 18 kills and 12 digs. Freshman middle Whitney Young was in on eight blocks for the Cougars, ranked No. 6 nationally in stuffs.