Technically I would have to call this a neutral site game. UCLA cannot play their "home" games at home at this time since Pauley Pavilion was flooded and is not yet ready for use. This match was played at Pepperdine University. Still a great win for the Buffs and a win in a match played away from Boulder and over a ranked team. Contributions from many players. The one I like the most is the hitting numbers for Gabby Simpson. She had 10 kills and only 1 error on 18 total swings. In previous matches here in Boulder she was committing too many errors. The rest of the freshman class also had a good day.... 3 serving aces from Stephanie Shadley, and 10 block assists, 3 kills and 2 aces from Anna Pfefferle. All around great team play today! Go Buffs!
I believe "technically" it
will probably show as a home game for UCLA (and road game for CU) in the historic records, but do concede that in reality it couldn't have hurt the Buffs that the match wasn't actually at the UCLA campus. (It looks like it will be even more interesting for UCLA this weekend as, per their schedule, its home matches against the Oregon schools are scheduled to be played at some Crossroads School (I assume a high school?) in Santa Monica. Hopefully they'll be getting their regular volleyball "home" back soon.)
I'm definitely with you regarding being excited for Gabby Simpson's stats. (I can't say what she looked like today, as this was the 1st Pac 12 CU match I didn't get to watch myself.) She physically looks like she has all the tools to at some point be a very good to great hitter, it's just a question of when the "light turns on" (once she gets more experience). Again, the fact that (I probably mentioned it before) in addition to facing what all freshmen face in having to play against MUCH higher competition in college/ the Pac 12, she has to pretty much learn a new skill (learning to be a hitter for 3 rotations off someone ELSE's sets), any tough hitting matches she's had are definitely understandable. (And, it has been admirable to me that any hitting issues she's had during matches haven't seemed to obviously effect her setting and defense.)
Also, I liked seeing Katelyn Cuff having a big offensive game (8 kills- hit .438) (in addition to Anna Pfefferle as you mentioned), as it seemed the offense had somewhat lost the middle blockers the last couple matches, with only 7 kills total by the middles against AZ and 5 against USC. (Although as I write this, I can't claim to know volleyball enough as to the whether these numbers are actually problems to the coaching staff, or if it was part of a game plan.) But, anyway, from the eye test, I do think the middles aren't consistently getting quite as clean hits as our starters last year. Of course, this is VERY understandable as we've replaced (pending Kelsey English getting healthy) a senior and junior with a freshman and sophomore who didn't get much playing time as a freshman. On the bright side, this means the middles, in my opinion, have the most potential (along with the aforementioned G. Simpson) to give the Buffs relatively quick and significant offensive (and blocking) improvement as the year goes on. And actually, the blocking aspect of the middles performance (some times their main responsibility) of the young Buffs has been better than I could have hoped this early in their careers.
Anyway, Go Buffs!