It's a rare meeting against a challenging SEC squad against "the other USC" (U. of South Carolina) to start up the Buffs' 2018 tournament. The winner will likely face (on Saturday) overall #2 seed Minnesota, who is hosting these 1st 2 rounds. Buffs had better bring the "A Game against" the Gamecocks, with the below preview indicating a special need (as usual) for a STRONG serve-receive needed by the Buffs in this one against one of the tougher serving teams.
Go Buffs!!!
Preview -
Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/11/28/volleyball-buffs-set-for-showdown-with-south-carolina.aspx
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BOULDER – The University of Colorado women's volleyball team is off to Minneapolis, Minn., to take on the University of South Carolina Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. MT for the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
The Buffaloes (18-13, 10-10 Pac-12) are in familiar territory in their 20th appearance in the postseason in program history. This is the fourth appearance in Minnesota for the program in the postseason, with the team earning a 1-1 record in first round action. The first-ever postseason appearance for the program in 1989 was a first round loss to Minnesota in Minneapolis.
CU's counterpart in the first round is South Carolina (19-9, 10-8 SEC). The Gamecocks are returning to the big dance for the first time since 2002 after earning an at-large bid due to their strong conference play early in the season. South Carolina has been a streaky team, winning its first four matches by a set-score of 12-1. They started their overall season with a 13-1 record with a lone loss to Rice on the road. Of the 13 wins to start the season, eight came by way of sweeps. A sweep by Missouri ended a nine-match win streak and started a stretch where the Gamecocks went 2-5 including four losses by sweeps. A five-set homestand against No.20-Missouri reignited the team to four-straight wins, but the team has finished on a downslide with three-straight losses at LSU, against Kentucky and at Florida.
The Gamecock's most dangerous weapon as a team is the service game. South Carolina boasts the 28th-best serving game in the nation and lead the SEC with 1.57 aces per set.
Both teams have a nearly identical hitting percentage at .237 for South Carolina and .238 for Colorado. The Buffs edge their opponent by an assist per set more and nearly a full kill per set. CU also has a more prominent defensive game with 14.3 digs per set compared to just 13. The defensive battle heavily favors Colorado with 319 total team blocks compared to just 191. The Gamecocks are averaging 1.8 blocks per set while CU is at 2.7, good for 24th in the nation.
The key for Colorado is going to be their ability to quickly sideout, especially when Aubrey Ezell is at the service line. The libero is second in the nation in aces per set with 0.67 and is third in the nation in total aces this season with 70. If the Buffs can limit her jump serve and sideout to more favorable rotations the superior blocking game should be enough to send CU to the next round.
The Gamecocks, under the supervision of first-year head coach Tom Mendoza, were led by two All-SEC players at right side and in the middle. Junior Mikayla Shields leads the team with 335 kills but has not had a single 20-kill match this season. She is hitting a respectable .272, has 26 aces, nearly 250 digs and 57 blocks. The other All-SEC performer is sophomore middle Mikayla Robinson who leads her team with 96 blocks and has a team-high .298 hitting percentage. She also has 225 total kills.
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Friday's match will be streamed by Minnesota Athletics and is available here. Should Colorado advance along with host and No.2-ranked Minnesota, the match Saturday will move to an 8 p.m. CT start and will be televised by the BIG TEN Network. For more information and game-time updates, follow Colorado Volleyball on Twitter at @cubuffsvb.
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NCAA Volleyball homepage - https://www.ncaa.com/sports/volleyball-women/d1
Full updating tournament bracket - https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2018
Buff - Gamecock NCAA match homepage (Hopefully will become or link to a live stats page when the match starts. It's the equivalent to this page for their match that Minnesota is linking to in for live stats.) - https://www.ncaa.com/game/volleyball-women/d1/2018/11/30/colorado-south-carolina
Match notes - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2018/11/28//Match_Notes_NCAA_First_Round.pdf
Match Media links -
Live video (Looking like it's a free live stream.) - https://www.btn2go.com/game/ncaa-1st-round-south-carolina-vs-colorado
Link to link to live stats -See NCAA Match homepage link above. Edit- And/ or https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=241947 .
(IF the Buffs manage to win their tough 1st round match, anyone wanting to check out the 2nd round opponent may view the Minnesota - Bryant match (scheduled to start 6:00 PM MT) via another free stream, which is available at https://www.btn2go.com/game/ncaa-1st-round-bryant-vs-minnesota . (Note- I'm getting a security warning (Not private- security error message) before reaching this webpage. Assume the Big 10 just needs to update their certs?))
Go Buffs!!!
Preview -
Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/11/28/volleyball-buffs-set-for-showdown-with-south-carolina.aspx
"
BOULDER – The University of Colorado women's volleyball team is off to Minneapolis, Minn., to take on the University of South Carolina Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. MT for the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
The Buffaloes (18-13, 10-10 Pac-12) are in familiar territory in their 20th appearance in the postseason in program history. This is the fourth appearance in Minnesota for the program in the postseason, with the team earning a 1-1 record in first round action. The first-ever postseason appearance for the program in 1989 was a first round loss to Minnesota in Minneapolis.
CU's counterpart in the first round is South Carolina (19-9, 10-8 SEC). The Gamecocks are returning to the big dance for the first time since 2002 after earning an at-large bid due to their strong conference play early in the season. South Carolina has been a streaky team, winning its first four matches by a set-score of 12-1. They started their overall season with a 13-1 record with a lone loss to Rice on the road. Of the 13 wins to start the season, eight came by way of sweeps. A sweep by Missouri ended a nine-match win streak and started a stretch where the Gamecocks went 2-5 including four losses by sweeps. A five-set homestand against No.20-Missouri reignited the team to four-straight wins, but the team has finished on a downslide with three-straight losses at LSU, against Kentucky and at Florida.
The Gamecock's most dangerous weapon as a team is the service game. South Carolina boasts the 28th-best serving game in the nation and lead the SEC with 1.57 aces per set.
Both teams have a nearly identical hitting percentage at .237 for South Carolina and .238 for Colorado. The Buffs edge their opponent by an assist per set more and nearly a full kill per set. CU also has a more prominent defensive game with 14.3 digs per set compared to just 13. The defensive battle heavily favors Colorado with 319 total team blocks compared to just 191. The Gamecocks are averaging 1.8 blocks per set while CU is at 2.7, good for 24th in the nation.
The key for Colorado is going to be their ability to quickly sideout, especially when Aubrey Ezell is at the service line. The libero is second in the nation in aces per set with 0.67 and is third in the nation in total aces this season with 70. If the Buffs can limit her jump serve and sideout to more favorable rotations the superior blocking game should be enough to send CU to the next round.
The Gamecocks, under the supervision of first-year head coach Tom Mendoza, were led by two All-SEC players at right side and in the middle. Junior Mikayla Shields leads the team with 335 kills but has not had a single 20-kill match this season. She is hitting a respectable .272, has 26 aces, nearly 250 digs and 57 blocks. The other All-SEC performer is sophomore middle Mikayla Robinson who leads her team with 96 blocks and has a team-high .298 hitting percentage. She also has 225 total kills.
...
Friday's match will be streamed by Minnesota Athletics and is available here. Should Colorado advance along with host and No.2-ranked Minnesota, the match Saturday will move to an 8 p.m. CT start and will be televised by the BIG TEN Network. For more information and game-time updates, follow Colorado Volleyball on Twitter at @cubuffsvb.
"
____________________________________________________________________
NCAA Volleyball homepage - https://www.ncaa.com/sports/volleyball-women/d1
Full updating tournament bracket - https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2018
Buff - Gamecock NCAA match homepage (Hopefully will become or link to a live stats page when the match starts. It's the equivalent to this page for their match that Minnesota is linking to in for live stats.) - https://www.ncaa.com/game/volleyball-women/d1/2018/11/30/colorado-south-carolina
Match notes - https://cubuffs.com/documents/2018/11/28//Match_Notes_NCAA_First_Round.pdf
Match Media links -
Live video (Looking like it's a free live stream.) - https://www.btn2go.com/game/ncaa-1st-round-south-carolina-vs-colorado
Link to link to live stats -See NCAA Match homepage link above. Edit- And/ or https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=241947 .
(IF the Buffs manage to win their tough 1st round match, anyone wanting to check out the 2nd round opponent may view the Minnesota - Bryant match (scheduled to start 6:00 PM MT) via another free stream, which is available at https://www.btn2go.com/game/ncaa-1st-round-bryant-vs-minnesota . (Note- I'm getting a security warning (Not private- security error message) before reaching this webpage. Assume the Big 10 just needs to update their certs?))
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