CUBuffs.com: Buffs Suffer Heartbreaking Loss To Utah (Volleyball)

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BOULDER — For just the third time this season and the first time at home, the No. 16 ranked Colorado volleyball team lost a hard fought match, this time to a feisty University of Utah team on Wednesday night in five sets (18-25, 25-15, 25-21, 16-25, 18-20).

WHAT HAPPENED: Sophomore Alexa Smith led the Buffs with 18 kills and added 12 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Teammates Gabby Simpson and Joslyn Hayes each added another 11 kills in the five-set thriller. Defensively, Cierra Simpson led the match with 23 digs and Naghede Abu posted a team-best seven blocks.
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RECORD SETTING PERFORMANCE: Cierra Simpson became CU all-time digs leader in the match, surpassing former Buff great Karrie Downey's mark of 1,540. Simpson now has 1,542 digs and looks to add a lot more to her total with 19 conference matches remaining.

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NEXT UP: Colorado hosts Arizona on Sunday, Sept. 25, at 1 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
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Other resources for the match-
Box score - http://www.cubuffs.com/boxscore.aspx?path=wvball&id=9275

Videos-
Highlights-


Press Conference-

 

[AztecBuff]

Obviously a tough achingly close loss for the team, but thankfully a lot of chances to still make noise in the Pac. Get ready for the cats!
(Per their website, AZ won their rivalry match at home over ASU 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 25-18 last night.)

Big congrats to Cierra Simpson for the CU digs record!

Note- Overall in the Pac, the 1st matches of conference season (with Oregon-OSU still to play this evening) were not kind to the home teams in these 1st "rivalry" matches, as Arizona was the only host team to win, with even the top ranked Pac team (#4 Washington) being upset in Seattle to WSU.

 

[buffgal]

Saw that Washington State knocked off Wazzou.

I just hope this loss does not come back to haunt them.

 

[MarkW]

Was in attendance last night. Both teams had their moments. As Jesse Mahoney pointed out the first four sets were not close, either way. In the first and fourth sets Utah used its quickness and precise passing to role the Buffs. It was impressive. In the second and third sets CU passed better and used its power. In the fifth set CU was down by something like four points, which at this level can be a mountain, but they were able to come back and had multiple set points. Needless to say they could produce.

CU really struggled with Utah's speedy play. When the Utes made a clean pass off of a reception of a serve and got the ball to the setter they were very effective. The set was often short and quick and in the first and fourth sets CU had almost no answer. When I say no answer, I mean the kill was uncontested by the Buffs.

 

[BeBe]

Saw that Washington State knocked off Wazzou.

I just hope this loss does not come back to haunt them.

Unfortunately any loss can come back to haunt. I believe it was the loss to Oregon here at the CEC late in the season last year, combined with the early season loss at Rice, that kept them out of the NCAA.

 

[buffgal]

That was my memory of last season. You have to defend your home court.