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Matches Thread- VOLLEYBALL hosts (RV) USC (Friday, 10/27/23, 7:00 PM MT) & UCLA (Sunday, 2:00 PM MT)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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VOLLEYBALL (12-9 overall; 4-6 in Pac 12 play) looks to build on their improved play and 2 sweeps this weekend with 2 more HUGE matches if they wish to improve their upward battle for an NCAA tournament berth. 1st up is a Friday evening matchup with the RV (receiving votes) USC Trojans (13-7, 7-3), followed up with a Sunday matinee against the UCLA Bruins (11-9, 3-7).
(Although as I mentioned CU still faces an uphill battle to earn a tournament bid, the L.A. schools offer opportunities for a very good win in the case of USC (who after a tough start have been racking up some nice wins in the 1st half of conference play to probably insure their tourney berth (unless they totally fell apart in the 2nd half)), and UCLA may be a competitor with CU for an at-large bid. In addition, after this weekend 6 of CU's last 8 regular season matches are on the road, so I'm sure they'll want to take advantage of the "home cooking" as much as possible this weekend.)

In the latest official RPI report (https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-volleyball-rpi), the Buffs are at #50, while USC is #32 and UCLA #44 .
(As I mentioned in last week's preview, 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 also #50 in KPI, while the Trojans are #38 and Bruins #37.))

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

Go Buffs!!!

Preview -





Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/10/24/colorado-volleyball-welcomes-usc-and-ucla.aspx

"
BOULDER – The Colorado Women's Volleyball team (12-9, 4-6) will once again be in the CU Events Center this weekend, as they take on USC (13-7, 7-3) and UCLA (11-9, 3-7). The Buffs will play the Trojans Friday night at 7 p.m. MT and the Bruins on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. MT.


The Buffs just closed out their best weekend of the season, taking down Arizona and No. 17 Arizona State at home via a sweep in both matches. It is the first time all season that CU has taken down a ranked team.

Lexi Hadrych once again had a stellar weekend, posting 34 kills on 61 total attempts (.443%). She tacked on 10 digs in the match against Arizona State, giving her the lone double-double for the Buffs' on the weekend.

After two important conference wins at home over the Arizona schools, Colorado is now seventh in the Pac-12 and tied with Utah and Washington with four conference wins a piece.

CU traveled to Los Angeles just a little under a month ago and dropped both of their matches against USC and UCLA and will look to get back at both of them this weekend at home. Friday's game against USC will also feature the Buffs' final Happy Hour of the season and the team will have "volleyball bingo" throughout the game. On Sunday, fans are encouraged to wear a costume for the squad's "Spooky Sunday" match.

OPPONENT OVERVIEW

USC

The Trojans travel to Boulder after an action packed weekend at home against Washington and No. 4 Washington State. Taking both matches to five sets, USC pulled out wins in both, earning their biggest win of the season over No. 4 ranked Washington State.

The Buffaloes have won just three of the 26 total matches in program history against the Trojans, with all three of those wins coming at home, including the last two times. CU will look to extend their home-winning streak over USC to three games this Sunday.

UCLA
"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

More on the opponents:

USC:
Roster - https://usctrojans.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster
Stats - https://usctrojans.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats
Schedule/ results for this season - https://usctrojans.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule
Their preview article for the match with the Buffs - https://usctrojans.com/news/2023/10/23/usc-womens-volleyball-taps-rockies-to-close-october.aspx

UCLA:
Roster - https://uclabruins.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster
Stats - https://uclabruins.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats/2023
Schedule/ results for this season - https://uclabruins.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule
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:
USC - UCLA - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=477251

Live Video:
Vs. USC - The match is scheduled to be shown live on the Pac 12 Mountain and L.A. channels. 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/2023/10/28/usc-colorado.
Vs. UCLA - The match is scheduled to be shown live on a free live stream available at https://pac-12.com/live?networks=P12I .

Match notes - Not available as I type this.


Buffs' 2023 Team Prospectus - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2023/8/21/2023_VB_Prospectus.pdf
 
What do you all think it will be like for us in the Big 12? Pac 12 is so competitive. Can this team compete for championships in the big 12?
 
HockeyBuff said:
What do you all think it will be like for us in the Big 12? Pac 12 is so competitive. Can this team compete for championships in the big 12?
Click to expand...
www.ncaa.com

DI Women's Volleyball Rankings - AVCA Rankings | NCAA.com

Get updated NCAA Women's Volleyball DI rankings from every source, including coaches and national polls.
www.ncaa.com www.ncaa.com

The Pac 12 has Stanford, Washington St, and Oregon in the top 9. Plus ASU at 21.

The future Big 12 has Kansas, BYU, and Houston between 8-20. Plus ASU at 21.

It should be a modestly easier conference from that quick look at things.
 
I like what Jesse Mahoney has done with the program. I’d like to see us take the next step and move from being a team that wins some games to a team that wins some conference championships.
 
HockeyBuff said:
What do you all think it will be like for us in the Big 12? Pac 12 is so competitive. Can this team compete for championships in the big 12?
Click to expand...
IMO CU should be in the top 5 every year. I dont know if ASU is a one year wonder or a long term good team. I know Baylor has been very good as well as Kansas. I dont know how sustainable Houston is. I am with you on the team winning and being better. I think this year with the loss of Cambell do to injury hurt as they had to put a true freshman in at opposite and she had to grow into the role.
 
HockeyBuff said:
What do you all think it will be like for us in the Big 12? Pac 12 is so competitive. Can this team compete for championships in the big 12?
Click to expand...

With Texas leaving (I'd say they're probably one of the national Big 3 in terms of being both current and long time vball powers (with the Corn and Stanford)), I'd say there aren't ANY legacy powers in the Big 12, so it should be a nice opportunity for many teams to ascend.

But, for the Buffs, there will of course still be work to do, and it won't be like they'll be walking in as anything close to the favorite in next season's pre-season conference poll. Looking at all the statistical rankings/ ratings I can find (RPI, KPI and Massey), the Buffs (who as I noted in the OP are currently at #50 RPI) would be 8th or 9th out of 14 (including CU) in all those ratings if they were in the Big 12 this season.

Note- it does interest me that vball is one sport (assume there are others?) where the non P5 teams "promoted" to the Big 12 this season are not in anyway weakening the conference, but instead are largely enhancing the competition. Right now in RPI, BYU is 2nd in the conference (behind only departing Texas) at #11 nationally, Houston is #37 (6th in conference), and UCF is #42 (7th in conference). (The only "slacker" among the newbies is Cincinnatti, who is currently 2nd to last in the conference at #140 (West Virginia is last at #188).)
 
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AztecBuff said:
With Texas leaving (I'd say they're probably one of the national Big 3 in terms of being both current and long time vball powers (with the Corn and Stanford)), I'd say there aren't ANY legacy powers in the Big 12, so it should be a nice opportunity for many teams to ascend.

But, for the Buffs, there will of course still be work to do, and it won't be like they'll be walking in as anything close to the favorite in next season's pre-season conference poll. Looking at all the statistical rankings/ ratings I can find (RPI, KPI and Massey), the Buffs (who as I noted in the OP are currently at #50 RPI) would be 8th or 9th out of 14 (including CU) in all those ratings if they were in the Big 12 this season.

Note- it does interest me that vball is one sport (assume there are others?) where the non P5 teams "promoted" to the Big 12 this season are not in anyway weakening the conference, but instead are largely enhancing the competition. Right now in RPI, BYU is 2nd in the conference (behind only departing Texas) at #11 nationally, Houston is #37 (6th in conference), and UCF is #42 (7th in conference). (The only "slacker" among the newbies is Cincinnatti, who is currently 2nd to last in the conference at #140 (West Virginia is last at #188).)
Click to expand...
problem I have with RPI is that your schedule and OOC matters so much. With CSU being down and losing to a UNLV team that has fallen off it kills the RPI. I know it is hard but they need to get some better teams in the preseason. the Cambell's and Xaviers do not help the RPI. I dont think they need to play CSU twice and only one other team from Colorado and Wyoming should be on the schedule every year and if that imo. I dont really see the reason to play UNC or DU in Greeley or Denver
 
Definitely need to up the non-conference schedule. I'm not saying we need to play the national championship like WBB is doing, but we definitely need tougher opponents. I think this year's non-conference schedule was weaker than usual because of so many players lost which meant lots of new players.

Does the Big 12 do a challenge in volleyball?

**** Baylor has a monster of a program. One of the stars is the youngest Simpson sister. Remember when we had Taylor, Cierra and Gabby? Gabby transferred to Kansas after Kritzka was leg go. Never knew what the situation was with Liz, except her male assistant coach had a relationship with a player and Liz took the fall.

I like Jesse and he can take this program higher
 
buffgal said:
Definitely need to up the non-conference schedule. I'm not saying we need to play the national championship like WBB is doing, but we definitely need tougher opponents. I think this year's non-conference schedule was weaker than usual because of so many players lost which meant lots of new players.

Does the Big 12 do a challenge in volleyball?

**** Baylor has a monster of a program. One of the stars is the youngest Simpson sister. Remember when we had Taylor, Cierra and Gabby? Gabby transferred to Kansas after Kritzka was leg go. Never knew what the situation was with Liz, except her male assistant coach had a relationship with a player and Liz took the fall.

I like Jesse and he can take this program higher
Click to expand...
maybe CU can get some old pac 12 teams on the non conference. this year CSU had Kentucky, Stanford and Baylor in Ft.Collins. CU needs to get 1 or 2 teams like hat on the schedule every year. Who knows what happened with Kritza and all that. I never thought CU had a chance with the youngest Simpson girl when Gabby left. I think Baylor is the odds on favorite to be the top program, but CU can be in that mix and be in the top 5 program in the big 12 without Texas. It also helps that they are not trying to pull kids from Cali to compete with the Cali schools in conference. That is tough
 
Match day!



______________________________________________________________

And, a story on #ForeverBuff Nicole Edelman participating in a pro tourney in the U.S. (being shown on ESPN+), as well as a general catch-up on what's been happenning in her life.-




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/10/26/volleyball-nicole-edelman-fulfills-dream-of-playing-in-us.aspx

"
BOULDER - Nicole Edelman has played volleyball professionally all over the world. However, this season she's had the opportunity to realize her dream of playing close to home with Athletes Unlimited's third volleyball season.

Edelman, a 2015 Colorado graduate, was a phenomenal setter during her four years with the Buffs. She completed her college career with 4,278 assists and ranks fourth for career assists at CU.

Since graduating, Edelman has played in Switzerland, Spain, Poland, and spent three seasons playing in France.

"It was awesome," Edelman stated. "I got to travel the world and get to know different styles of volleyball while seeing how different parts of the world train and how they think strategically."

Despite Edelman's love of travel and having new experiences, she decided to take some time off after her international season concluded in 2022. At the time, she wasn't sure what the future held for her playing career.

"I have some USA teammates who play in AU's league, so I kept in contact with them, especially in season two. But I'd already signed a professional contract, so things weren't aligned at that moment for me to do," Edelman said. "As an American though, I was invested in the league and wanted it to succeed."

She kept in contact with her former USA teammates, and those teammates reached out early this year to see if Edelman would be interested in playing in AU's third season. Edelman decided she wasn't in a position where she wanted to sign another international contract, so she jumped at the opportunity to play in the United States.

"It means everything to be able to play in the US," Edelman said. "It was something that was a dream even four or five years ago. It's great to be able to play in a league where your family can easily watch you on TV and there's not an eight hour time difference."

Edelman said that she also loves seeing how much volleyball is growing in America.

"It means everything because you can see how much the sport is growing and how much that we can give back to our own communities. It's amazing to be able to talk to middle school and high school athletes and show them that there's pro volleyball in the US now and they don't have to go really far away from home where there's not as much visibility," she stated.

Edelman said that she also appreciates Athletes Unlimited's dedication to viewing athletes as more than just athletes and investing in causes that the athletes care about. Each season at AU, individual athletes select a charity they're passionate about. The league then matches each athlete's bonus with a donation to their selected charity.

Since Edelman is passionate about spreading volleyball and encouraging women in sports, she selected the Women's Sports Foundation.

"It comes back to empowering women and letting the next generation of these young girls have a bigger and better platform," Edelman commented. "I'm really happy to be able to work with them and grow women's sports and grow the game. I'm grateful that [Athletes Unlimited] lets us do that as well because that's unheard of."

Another unheard of thing for most professional athletes is having a full-time job. Before Edelman signed on to play with AU, she got a job in tech as a sales associate. The role has been understanding and flexible while Edelman has pursued her passion of continuing to play volleyball at the highest level. On the flip side, AU has also held professional development events for the athletes.

"It just goes back to the fact that they look at us as more than just athletes," Edelman said. "They really do want us to excel - whether it's in the business world or as an athlete."

Athletes Unlimited is about to enter the fourth week of their season on Oct. 27th. Edelman will be playing for Team Hilley this week with her first match airing on the 27th at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
"
 
USC gets the 1st 21-25. (The.Buffs lead for much of the set, but usc catches and passes them late.)
 
Media after last night's big win:

Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/10/27/volleyball-buffs-defeat-trojans-in-five-sets.aspx

"
BOULDER – The Colorado Women's Volleyball team (13-9, 5-6) took the USC Trojans (13-8, 7-4) to a full five sets, coming away with the win and earning their third match and conference win in a row.

This is just the fourth time the Buffaloes have defeated the Trojans in program history but have now won the last three match-ups in Boulder. The two split the season series after Colorado dropped the first match earlier in the season in Los Angeles.

Three different Buffs had double-digit kills, with Maya Tabron leading the way with 18 and earning a double-double with 11 digs as well.

With CU's top scorer Lexi Hadrych absent due to injury, it was freshmen Cayla Payne, Lily Dwinell, and Ana Burilović who stepped up for the Buffs en route to their victory.

Payne, Dwinell, and Burilović combined for 30 of the 57 kills including a career-high 15 kills from Lily Dwinell. Skyy Howard was the only other non-freshman in the kills column tonight, with nine kills and four blocks on top of it.

Friday nights' win gets the winning streak to three, with UCLA coming to town Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. MT.
...

Quotes:

Head coach Jesse Mahoney

Opening Statement:
"It was just a really nice high-level volleyball match. I thought both sides played really well. Obviously, on our side, we lost Lexi to an injury in the middle of the week and didn't really have a ton of time to adjust, but the team did a really nice job of adjusting. I thought Ana played really well in that position. And you can't replace four kills per set, but I think we did an excellent job of just chipping in a little bit more. We passed extremely well. I thought we served well at times. And I'm so excited for our team because we're playing good volleyball. Even if we had lost that match, I would have been excited for us because I think we're playing really good volleyball, and we've got a goal for the second half of the season, and this is a nice step towards that goal."

On playing USC now vs. last time:
"I mean, it was a little while ago. Playing at home is a lot better obviously for everybody. We were just out of sorts in that match, and we didn't play particularly well in all phases. And if you do that against a top-25 type of team, you're not going to be successful. I thought we played really well in all phases today. And that's the result you get which is a little bit of a coin-flip match for who's going to make plays down at the end, and we were the ones who did it."

Maya Tabron on the advantage of playing at home versus USC:
"We came off a really good weekend last weekend with Arizona. I think we really just wanted to capture that same energy and bring it into this weekend of play. We really wanted that redemption. It's really a new set of games, and you try to see it kind of as a new set of teams, but also learn from our mistakes from the last game. So I think we did that really well."

Lily Dwinell on the advantage of playing at home versus USC:
"I think our biggest thing that we said today was to focus on the next point. We got to move on to the next one, we got to win this one to put ourselves in a better position to win the whole game. We don't want to look too far into the future but also we were trying to not dwell on what happened in the past. So it's just focusing on that next point, making sure you're doing everything you can to get it and then obviously a quick turnaround for UCLA."

Maya Tabron on having a self talk on how to approach this match without Lexi Hadrych:
"I told myself that I'm going to channel my inner Lexie and just go out there and hit the ball hard. That's what she does. That's kind of what we needed to fill on the court. I think everybody on the team was saying to themselves, 'hey, we did just lose our biggest point scorer, but we are going to make it up in other ways.'"
"
______________________________________________________________________________________

Box score - https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats/2023/usc/boxscore/16512




Edit - Buff's Youtube account highlights added -

 
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Buffs get up 23-20 but the Bruins score 3 straight and, although the Buffs had a couple set points, ucla ends the set with another 3 straight to go up 0-1 after a 25-27 1st set.
 
Does not go well for CU in the 2nd half of set 2 and ucla goes up 0-2 by a 20-25 score.
 
The Buffs didn't seem in set 3 at all, but with some substituting and continuing fight they at least make the score respectible before going down 21-25 and 0-3.

Oh well, I would still call this 3-1 homestand a success, and hopefully leads them on as they become road warriors for most of the remaining regular season.
 
Most of the remaining matches are on the road, which does not bode well for the remaining matches.
 
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