Menu
What's new
By:
Filters
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Matches Thread- VOLLEYBALL ends home slate hosting #11 WSU (Friday, 11/17/23, 7:00 PM MT) & Washington (SENIOR DAY; Sunday, Noon MT)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

Club Member
Club Member
Moderator
VOLLEYBALL (14-13 overall; 6-10 in Pac 12 play) ends the home portion of their season (and Pac 12 era) with a 2 match weekend hosting the Washington schools. 1st up is a Friday evening matchup with the #11 Washington State Cougars (20-7, 10-6), followed up with a Sunday noon SENIOR DAY noon contest with the Washington Huskies (14-13, 5-11).
(After this weekend, the regular season ends with trips to Cal (Wednesday, 11/22) and Utah (Friday, 11/24). Hope they have nice Turkey-day plans for the team.)

In the latest official RPI report (https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-volleyball-rpi), the Buffs are at #58 (they lost ~8 spots after a costly Arizona loss), while WSU is #12 and the Dawgs #60.
(As I've mentioned in previous previews, in the Volleytalk forum I read that a rating/ ranking I hadn't heard of, KPI (available via query at https://faktorsports.com/), is now listed as a primary criteria this season for the NCAA tournament volleyball selection committee. Right now the Buffs are #52 in KPI, while the Cougars are #14 and Huskies #58.))

Friday's match is scheduled to be shown on a CU-provided (Pac 12 Insider) stream, while Sunday's will be on the Pac 12 Networks. (See more details and links near the bottom of this post.)

Go Buffs!!!

(Preview not available as I type this.)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

More on the opponents:

WSU:
Roster - https://wsucougars.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster
Stats - https://wsucougars.com/sports/wvball/stats
Schedule/ results for this season - https://wsucougars.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule/2023
Their preview article for the match with the Buffs - Not available as I type this.

Washington:
Roster - https://gohuskies.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster
Stats - https://gohuskies.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats
Schedule/ results for this season - https://gohuskies.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule/2023
Their preview article for the match with the Buffs - Not available as I type this.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media links:

Link to links to live stats for all matches - https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/schedule.php?live=1&gid=colo . Direct links for these matches:
WSU - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=477252
Washington - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=477253

Live Video:
Vs. WSU - The match is scheduled to be shown live on a free live stream available at https://pac-12.com/live?networks=P12I .
Vs. Washington - The match is scheduled to be shown live on the Pac 12 Washington channel. For those whose Cable/ Satellite/ Cord Cutting subscription(s) includes access to any Pac 12 channel, assume it can also be streamed through a link at https://pac-12.com/womens-volleyball/event/2023/11/19/washington-colorado.

Match notes - Not available as I type this.


Buffs' 2023 Team Prospectus - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2023/8/21/2023_VB_Prospectus.pdf
 
Wanted to note there's a special ticket promotion (looks good fthrough Thursday) where tickets for the last 2 home games this weekend are $5 each (+ $1.50 fee per ticket).

 
Preview for this weekend's matches - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/11/14/volleyball-buffs-set-for-final-weekend-at-home.aspx
(Per the article and video in the below tweet, looks like all 4 Buffs who are listed either as seniors or grad students on the roster are planning to graduate and/ or move on (and all 4 are starters this season) and being celebrated on Sunday's Senior Day, as is redshirt junior Alexia Kuehl.)

"
Volleyball November 14, 2023 Tanner Kay, Athletic Communication Associate

Buffs Set for Final Weekend at Home​

BOULDER – The Colorado Women's Volleyball team (14-13, 6-10) will welcome Washington (14-13, 5-11) and No. 11 Washington State (20-7, 10-6) this upcoming weekend for their final two matches in the CU Events Center this season. Friday's match against Washington State will be at 7 p.m. MT, followed up with Sunday's match against Washington at 12 p.m. MT.

Friday's match will be a Military Appreciation event where all military personnel and first responders can enter the match for free. Sunday's game will be Senior Day, with Alexia Kuehl, Maya Tabron, Morgan Riddle, Lexi Hadrych, and Skyy Howard being honored prior to the match. At both matches, Prime 21 Gold Blenders will be raffled off throughout the game.

Colorado enters the week after a tough road trip to the desert, dropping their matches against Arizona and Arizona State. They took then-No. 17 ranked Sun Devils to four sets while going the full five sets with the Wildcats down in Tucson. After sweeping the Arizona schools earlier in the season at home, the Buffs split the season series with both schools.

Despite losing both matches, senior Maya Tabron had a weekend to remember. The outside hitter tied a career-high in digs with 19 against the Sun Devils and then set a new career-high of kills in a single match with 26 against the Wildcats, smashing her previous high of 23 kills back in the 2021 season.

Freshman Ana Burilović logged her second career double-double Sunday afternoon with 13 kills and 13 digs, the second most on the team in each category for the match. She tacked on a career-high four service aces as well.

With just four matches left in the regular season, Colorado currently sits at seventh in the Pac-12 standings. They have two more matches at home this weekend then will travel to Berkeley and Salt Lake City to round out the season.

OPPONENT OVERVIEW

Washington State
The Cougars have already reached the 20-win mark this season but still sit at fifth in the Pac-12 standings. They have lost four of their last six matches, but most recently took down No. 25 ranked USC at home.

Colorado had a tough time with WSU in Pullman in the middle of October, dropping the match in a quick three sets. The Buffs won at home last season against the Cougars, which had snapped a seven-game losing streak to WSU.

Washington
The Huskies have dropped three matches in a row and will play Utah on Friday before heading to Boulder.

Colorado fared the same outcome against the Huskies as they did with the Cougars earlier in the year, a 3-0 sweep. CU will look to take down Washington at home for the first time since the 2018 season.

Buffs Promotion

Buffs Day Deals are happening from now until Nov. 16th. Fans can visit cubuffs.com/promo and enter the promo code BUFFSDD23 to buy $5 tickets for the final home games!
"
________________________________________________________________________________________

 
As I know I've said before - definitely one of those times when I'm grateful volleyball uses sets rather than just points, as WSU looked vastly superior in every facit of the game and get the 1st 18-25. (The Buffs did score a little better late - hope they can keep THAT up!)
 
The Buffs played better for most of the 2nd set, but unfortunately the start was an ugly one and they could never put much of a dent in an early 5-6 point deficit. WSU goes up 0-2 by a 20-25 score.
 
Different story but same outcome as the #11 Cougars get the sweep with a 23-25 3rd set.
(In this one, the Buffs actually had the lead most of the way, but a 7 point run late gave WSU the lead 19-21, and after CU ties it at 23 2 straight hitting errors doomed the home team.)

Hope the team quickly gets over this one and brings its best to Sunday's Senior Day.
 
I am glad I decided to watch Wisconsin at Purdue, which went 5 sets and they were all tight matches. Then it was Nebraska, who is scary good and playing freshman. That got boring so I watched the last two sets of our match. So close in Set 2, but couldn't get over the hump.

Hope they can get it together for tomorrow.
 
Kuehl wasn't able to overcome the injury she got early in the season. Such a shame she really didn't get to play her senior year.
 


(They started in a different rotation than normal, but looks like the same effective core starters as normal, except Kuehl is the 2nd middle.)
 
In an EXTREMELY tight set***, the Buffs win 26-24 in the 1st on a Bolles ace on set point
(***I'm sure it's happened other times' but I can't recall other sets where neither coach used any of their timeouts, so assume at minimum it's pretty rare..)
 
Media after today's win - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/11/19/volleyball-buffs-earn-a-sweep-on-senior-day.aspx

"
Game Recap: Volleyball | November 19, 2023 | by Lauren Cawley, Athletic Communications Office

Buffs Earn A Sweep On Senior Day​

BOULDER - The Colorado women's volleyball team (15-13, 7-10) defeated the Washington Huskies (15-14, 6-12) in three sets (26-24, 25-20, 25-17) on senior day here in the CU Events Center.

The Buffs' offense dominated with Lexi Hadrych leading in kills. She earned 11 kills in 19 attempts with a .526 hitting percentage. Skyy Howard and Lily Dwinell also played important roles in today's win as each earned eight kills. Alexia Kuehl led Colorado in blocks, posting five.

Avery Bolles earned three service aces, while Taylor Simpson recorded 40 assists.

As a team, CU hit a .304 hitting percentage, while the Huskies hit .149.

The Buffs will travel to California to compete against the University of California Berkeley, on November 22 at 2:00 p.m. MT.
....

QUOTES:

Coach Jesse Mahoney

Opening statement –

"Exciting to get a win. There are only a few sweeps on the table to win in three. I was excited about that. Offensively, we hit .300 in each set, and we warmed up defensively as the match went on. In that third set, we were pretty dialed in. It's great to have our lineup pre-Lexi's injury back in and to see Lexi [Hadrych] back and hitting .500. And you want to win at home. You want to win on senior day. It was exciting to see all of our seniors contribute tonight. It was a great match, and our backs were still against the wall. We're still fighting to get on the NCAA bubble. We've got to earn two wins on the road this week after congratulating yourselves upstairs a little bit. That'll be our focus in the next couple of days."

On emotions during senior day –

"We're trying to play well, and you can't be successful, being super high and super low all the time. At least for me, as a coach, I want to be steady and make sure that our staff is coaching the right way, and we want our players to be steady as they go through. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy great plays, but we certainly can't get down after poor plays, so today was great to win. I was excited about how we played. And the fact that we got better through the match was really important to me. I know what we have to do in our next two matches. And I know if we play at that level with that focus, we will be competitive."

Morgan Riddle

On senior day –

"It feels pretty surreal. I don't think it's quite hit me yet because I didn't cry, which was surprising. But it's cool to have been here the last four years and have some great teammates and great coaching and all that kind of stuff, and I'm thankful for the opportunity I've been given to be here; it was just great. So you know, getting a sweep to win on senior day is the perfect way to have it, so it's pretty, pretty amazing."

On what changed in the 3rd set –

"Sometimes it's hard when you get those big leads; you start to get a little comfortable. And I think at that point, we had that big leap. That's what happened. We got a little comfortable and weren't putting our foot on the gas. And then after that time out, we talked about how we needed to get our foot on the gas, we needed to finish strong, and I think that was the difference. Avery came out and served well; I want to say that she served well from the beginning and at the end. So I think keeping our foot on the gas was critical."

On emotions during the game –

"I think once the senior stuff was over, I was dialed into playing and watching the other team and figuring out what we needed to do to win, and ultimately, that was the goal, and we accomplished that goal. So now I can think about the senior stuff and celebrate it for a little while, but not really during the game."
"
___________________________________________________________________________________

Box score - https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats/2023/washington/boxscore/16521




 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top