What's new
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 in Champaign for B1G/Pac-12 Challenge play facing Iowa (Fri.,9/3/21,3:00 PM MT) and (RV) Illinois (Saturday, 1:00 PM MT)

AztecBuff

Club Member
Club Member
Moderator
As they have for many (except for last pandemic) seasons, the Buffs get to participate in a Big 10-Pac 12 Challenge series, with them facing the same opponents from recent seasons in Iowa and Illinois. (Washington is the other Pac 12 team participating.)

Go Buffs!!!

Preview -


Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/9/1/volleyball-colorado-ready-for-pac-12-big-ten-challenge.aspx

"
BOULDER – Colorado volleyball will take its unbeaten record to Champaign, Ill., this weekend for the annual Pac-12/BIG TEN Challenge featuring the Buffs, No. 11 Washington, Iowa and host school Illinois.

The Buffs are coming off a 2-0 weekend at the Charlotte Invitational to start the season and are led by the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week Leah Clayton who ranked fifth in the nation in kills per set. CU takes on Iowa (0-2) Friday at 3 p.m. MT before taking on the Illini (3-0) Saturday at 1 p.m.

Clayton had an explosive start to the season, leading the conference in kills and points per set. She is fifth in the nation in kills per set at 5.29 and seventh in points per set at 5.93. She is joined in the NCAA Top-10 by Jenna Ewert who ranks ninth in the nation in assists per set at 12.14, while the team is ranked seventh in the nation in both assists and kills per set.

Colorado will rely on its offense to carry them through this test as they are hitting .294 this season and averaging 15.43 kills per set. The defense was also strong allowing opponents to hit just .173 with 2.57 blocks per set. Both Brynna DeLuzio and Meegan Hart are in the top-10 in the Pac-12 in digs and blocks, respectfully, and the seniors will have a big role this weekend to remain tough against strong BIG TEN opponents.

Both matches will be streamed live on BIG TEN Plus. CU returns home next weekend to host the 2021 Buffs Invitational against Texas Tech, San Jose State and Northern Colorado.

SCOUTING THE ILLINI
Illinois won the Panther Invite to open its season, defeating UC-Santa Barbara in five sets before sweeping host Milwaukee and Valparaiso. Illinois deals with Washington the night before at 8 p.m. then face off with CU who has won three of the last four matches against the team including sweeping them in Iowa in 2019 when they were ranked fifth in the nation.

Illinois is hitting .191 as a team in their three matches with a mixed attack coming from five players with 20 or more kills. Raina Terry leads the team with 37 kills at a .112 hitting percentage, while Kennedy Collins has 32 while hitting .500. Libero Taylor Kuper owns the backrow with 44 digs (4.00 digs/set) while Kyla Swanson has 14 blocks (1.27 blocks/set).

SCOUTING THE HAWKEYES
Iowa started the season with a pair of losses in South Carolina. They opened the season with a five-set loss to Duke before getting swept by Coastal Carolina. Iowa is hitting .171 as a team led by Courtney Buzzerio who has 42 kills and is averaging 5.25 per set with a .316 hitting percentage. She has more than double the swings of anyone else on the team.

Defensively, Maddie Slagle has a team-best 32 digs (4.00 digs/set). Iowa only has nine team blocks this season compared to being blocked 21 times (2.62 blocks/set against).
"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A little more on the opponents -

Iowa:
Roster
- https://hawkeyesports.com/sports/wvball/roster/
Stats - https://storage.googleapis.com/hawkeyesports-com/2021/08/58c61160-season_stats.pdf
Schedule/ results for this season - https://hawkeyesports.com/sports/wvball/schedule/
Their preview article for the match with the Buffs - https://hawkeyesports.com/news/2021/08/31/notes-pac-12-big-ten-challenge/


Illinois:
Roster
- https://fightingillini.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/2021
Stats - https://fightingillini.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats#individual
Schedule/ results for this season - https://fightingillini.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule/2021
Their preview article for the match with the Buffs - Not available as I type this.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media links:

***
Live video for both matches looks to require a Big 10 Plus (premium) subscription. For those not already subscribed, Looks like it would cost at minimum $14.95 for a general monthly pass to watch both matches. To just watch one of the matches, looks like a monthly subscription for a specific school costs $9.95/ month. Link to sign up is https://www.btnplus.com/packages?type=0 .

Vs. Iowa:
Live stats -
Live Video*** -

@ Illinois:
Live stats -
https://admin.fightingillini.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Live Video*** - Live Audio (Looks like Illinois also provides a radio broadcast (hopefully free?) for its matches.) - https://fightingillini.com/watch/?Live=4753&type=Live

Match notes (For both matches) -
 
The match has just begun.

CU Lineup per livestats:
"COL starters: Ewert, Jenna; Tabron, Maya; Kuehl, Alexia; Hart, Meegan; Clayton, Leah; Schneggenburger, Jill; libero DeLuzio, Brynna."
 
I paid for a monthly pass. While the Big Ten Network shows a lot of volleyball matches, they have too many good teams to have them all on tv. So I will see how much I use it and I might extend it. I will probably sign up again to watch Iowa women's basketball and will pay by the school.

Looks like Washington beat Illinois last night in 4 sets. The set scores indicate Illinois gave Washington a match.

That was supposed to be televised but the Nebraska match started late. Apparently they were having a tournament and all of the matches for the day had gone 5 sets. I fell asleep before it ended.
 
As I also mentioned in the original post, anyone who wants to follow the Buff-Illini match (scheduled to start in ~1 hour and 40 minutes) but doesn't want to spring for Big 10 Plus, looks like there will be an audio stream of Illinois' radio broadcast hopefully available at https://fightingillini.com/watch/?Live=4753&type=Live .
 
Last edited:
Match has just begun. Buff Starting lineup-

"COL starters: Ewert, Jenna; Tabron, Maya; Kuehl, Alexia; Hart, Meegan; Clayton, Leah; Schneggenburger, Jill; libero DeLuzio, Brynna."
 
I did watch. Buffs gave Set 4 away by letting a large lead go. Did the same thing in Set 5, but managed to win in the end.

My biggest criticism of Coach Mahoney has always been he doesn't call timeouts soon enough. Nothing like what Pi'i Aiu did in waiting until the opponent caught up and went ahead 5 or 6 points. Jesse waits until they catch up and maybe one point.

Set 5 was fun to watch at the end. Illini had figured Leah Clayton out so Maya Tabron had to take over. Jenna Ewert was as steady as ever. I know Savannah Perry was injured much of last year, but she is serving much better than I have ever seen her serve
 
Article after yesterday's win.



Direct link- https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/9/4/volleyball-colorado-fends-off-illinois-in-five.aspx

"
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Colorado volleyball survived a five-set comeback 3-2 (25-21, 25-18, 16-25, 22-25, 18-16) here against host Illinois Saturday afternoon in the 2021 Pac-12/BIG TEN Challenge to remain unbeaten on the season.

The Buffs (4-0) took an early two-set lead but had to fight off a pair of match points from Illinois (3-2) to finish off a fifth-set comeback 18-16. This is the third straight season Colorado has opened 4-0 as a team and the fourth time in head coach Jesse Mahoney's six seasons.

Leah Clayton led all hitters in the match with 19 kills on a .213 hitting clip. She was joined by Maya Tabron who had 16 kills and Jill Schneggenburger with 10 kills. All three women captured double-doubles with 11 digs.

Defensively, Brynna DeLuzio put up a career-high 28 digs, becoming just the second player in the Mahoney era to achieve that mark and 17th in school history to do so or better. Up front, Alexia Kuehl had a team-best six blocks while Meegan Hart had five.

Also for Colorado, Jenna Ewert had 44 assists while DeLuzio had both of CU's service aces.

Illinois was led by Megan Cooney who had 15 kills, four aces, nine digs and six blocks. Raina Terry and Kennedy Collins each added a dozen kills while Taylor Kuper had 21 digs.

Both teams finished with 11 blocks as the Buffs outhit the Illini .186 to .124. Illinois owned the service line, putting down 15 aces including six in the third set. The Buffs finished the match hitting .360 as a team in the fifth set to make the difference.

Colorado returns home for the first time this season to host the Buffs Invitational Friday against Texas Tech at 10 a.m. They will play night matches at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday against San Jose State and Northern Colorado, respectfully.
...

QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
That was a great win against a very physical and well-coached team. Credit to our players for their resiliency and response in the fifth set after giving up sets 3 and 4. Even when down in the fifth our side had a sense of calm and confidence that allowed them to make plays when it mattered. Once again Leah was a workhorse for us all match but I thought Brynna Deluzio was the best player on the floor tonight defending at a high level and keeping us in system in serve receive.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Claire Hoffman (UW) – MVP
Ella May Powell (UW)
Marin Grote (UW)
Leah Clayton (COLO)
Brynna DeLuzio (COLO)

TBD (ILL)
Courtney Buzzerio (IOWA)
"
 
Back
Top