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 (RV) starts Pac play hosting #23 Utah (Wed., 7:00) & #14 USC (Sun., 1:00)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

Club Member
Club Member
Moderator
Best wishes to the volleyball team as they start Pac 12 play at the CU Events Center hosting #23 Utah on Wednesday at 7:00 PM MT, followed by a match-up hosting #14 USC in a Sunday matinee match scheduled to start at 1:00 PM MT.

Hope a lot of AllBuffians in the area can make it out to support the team at one or both matches!



A few notes from me:
  • With 6 of their 1st 8 Pac matches at home, sure the Buffs will be looking to start the season strong (with a winning record over that span) to help solidify their likelihood of making the NCAA tournament, and to have any chance to earn a top 16 seed (which is needed to host the 1st 2 rounds).
  • The Buffs are un-ranked in the latest main coaches' (AVCA) poll, but are receiving the 30th most votes (Receiving votes (RV)).
  • The Volleytalk forum, which includes MANY obsessive fans who may evaluate things closer and follow more teams closely than the coaches' have time to do, has this season also started a weekly poll which just allows fans on their site to submit their own Top 25 ballots; it will be interesting as time goes on to see if it is more or less accurate than the coaches'. Anyways, in that poll this week (http://volleytalk.proboards.com/thread/74808/volleytalk-top-ncaa-ranking-week?page=1), the Buffs are at #23, while this week's opponents are at #11 (USC) and receiving the 28th most votes (Utes).
  • In volleyball, the 1st and last week's Pac 12 schedules are always a little different, as the Buffs will ALWAYS (at least so far) start and end the season against their rival/ travel partner Utah, with the other matches that 1st and last week always against the teams the Buffs only play once during the season in the 20 match Pac schedule, with the L.A. schools being those this year. (So, the 2nd to last match, without even looking at the schedule, must be in Westwood against the Bruins.)
________________________________________________________________________



Direct link to preview - https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/9/17/...ve-match-win-streak-into-conference-play.aspx

"
BOULDER, Colo. — The University of Colorado volleyball team is on a five-match win streak entering conference play this week. The Buffs kick off Pac-12 action at home, first with No. 23 Utah on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the CU Events Center, then with the University of Southern California Sunday at 1 p.m. Wednesday's match is deemed Players Night, while Sunday's match will give fans to take photos with Ralphie outside the CU Events Center an hour before the match. There will also be a youth clinic Sunday after the match for kids 8th grade and younger.

Colorado is coming off of an exciting match with in-state rivals Colorado State. The women took the first two sets against the Rams, then jumped out to a huge lead in the fourth set for the victory. The Buffs enter conference play with an 8-3 record and receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll.
...

SCOUTING THE UTES: The Utes come to Boulder ranked 23rd in the nation with an 8-3 record. The team has key wins against Denver and Temple, with the Denver win coming at home is a five-set match. Most recently Utah went to in-state rival Brigham Young University, the No.1-ranked team in the nation. The Utes were swept, finding their most success in the first set at 25-20. The duo of Dani Drews an Lauga Gauta lead the team with 160 and 148 kills, respectfully. Drews is averaging nearly four kills per set, while sophomore outside hitter Lauren Sproule leads the team with a .446 hitting percentage with 45 kills. Junior Bailey Choy is the offensive general for the team with 425 assists, just less than 10 per set.

Also for Utah, Drews has nearly a third of the team's aces with 21. The Utes as a whole have 68 aces this season, averaging nearly an ace and a half per set.

Defensively, Drews is second on the team with 113 digs, while Choy is third with 106. Libero Brianna Doehrmann lead the team with 143 digs, nearly 3.5 per set. Up front, middle Phoebe Grace has 53 of the team's 90 blocks. She is joined by a trio of Utes with 18 to 23 blocks in Kenzie Koerber, Sproule and Drews.

SCOUTING THE TROJANS: USC is off to an 8-3 start under new head coach Brent Crouch. The Trojans are the 14th-ranked team in the nation, with key wins against Florida in Gainesville, as well as a five-set win against Syracuse. USC was swept by No.1-ranked BYU, with the other losses on schedule coming from Central Florida in four sets and Marquette in five. The Trojans have a pair of players averaging more than four kills per set. Brooke Botkin leads the team with 186 kills, while Khalia Lanier has 172. The third outside hitter Emily Baptista has 110 kills, with the three of them accounting for more than 80 percent of the team's kills. Freshman setter Raquel Lazaro, who was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week the first two weeks of the season, leads the team with 471 assists, more than 11 per set.

On the defensive end, middle Jasmine Gross has 57 of the team's 84.5 blocks. She is joined by Lazaro with 31 and Madison Murtagh and Baptista with 21 apiece. Libero Victoria Garrick has 200 digs to lead the Trojans, while Lazaro and Brooke Botkin have 109.
"
____________________________________________________________________________

Media links -
Hosting Utah (Wednesday, 7:00 PM MT start)
Live video - match is being shown live on the Pac 12 Mountain and National channels. For those whose TV/ Satellite/ Cord Cutting subscription includes access to one of those Pac 12 channels, believe the match can also be streamed through a link at https://pac-12.com/womens-volleyball/event/2018/09/19/utah-colorado .
Live stats - https://cubuffs.com/sidearmstats/wvball/ .

Hosting USC (Sunday, 1:00 PM MT start)
Live video - match is being shown live on the Pac 12 Mountain and L.A. channels. For those whose TV/ Satellite/ Cord Cutting subscription includes access to one of those Pac 12 channels, believe the match can also be streamed through a link at https://pac-12.com/womens-volleyball/event/2018/09/23/usc-colorado .
Live stats - https://cubuffs.com/sidearmstats/wvball/ .
 
Last edited:
Buffs had a couple tough 1st points on the utes serve, but have been playing VERY solidly since, leading to a ute timeout at 8-5 CU.
 
Buffs with some strong swings in a row to go up 20-17. t.o. utes.

Note- for the 1st time, the announcers said what Lauren Dorrell's injury is, a torn hip labrum. Kudos to her fighting through this all season.
 
Thankfully (as it turns out), my wifi went out for awhile, as the Buffs evidently lost ALL their passing skills in the 3rd set and get skunked 13-25 (after I believe being tied at 7). (One of those times I definitely appreciate the sets determining winners in volleyball rather than just points.)
 
Coach Mahoney must not be liking what's he seeing as he calls a QUICK timeout in the 4th with the Buffs down 0-2.
 
Buffs get what they want a couple points in a row, but come away with zero. Down 11-13 as they take a timeout.
 
Buffs come back and get 2 straight, the last on an ace, to tie it up at 13. t.o. utes.
 
Article on tonight's win-

Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2018/9/20/volleyball-buffs-down-no-23-utah-in-five-sets.aspx

"
BOULDER, Colo. — It took numerous comebacks in sets and points in sets, but the University of Colorado women's volleyball team took down the 23rd-ranked University of Utah Wednesday night in Boulder to open the 2018 Pac-12 season. The Buffs were down in sets twice in the match as well as the fifth-set in points, but in the end the Buffs rallied to a 21-25, 25-21, 13-25, 25-18, 15-13 in the CU Events Center.

Senior Alexa Smith was the key to the Buffs success. The All-American had a match-high 23 digs, including an 11-dig second set. Her defensive resilience kept rallies alive for Colorado and was a huge part of the success. She also turned on the burners late for the Buffs, accounting for five of the team's nine kills in the final set. Entering the fifth set she only had 10 kills, but she stepped up when the team needed her most and delivered the final blow to close out the match.

The other Buff that was huge tonight in key moments was redshirt freshman Anyse Smith. Smith finished with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .241. She was joined by Naghede Abu with eight kills and Justine Spann with seven.

The offensive generals Brynna DeLuzio and Jenna Ewert had a good night altogether. DeLuzio led the team with 21 assists, while Ewert had 19 assists. DeLuzio was second on the team with nine digs, while Ewert led the team with a pair of aces.

The front row was all over the Utes attack throughout the match, led by sophomore Lauren Dorrell and her nine block assists. The team as a whole put up 11 blocks, but the tough pressure helped ease the back row in passing. Abu was second on the team with seven block assists, while Danielle Price chipped in four.

The match was a tight one that featured 24 ties and eight lead changes, including three in the final set. Neither team hit outstanding as Utah led with a .208 hitting percentage and Colorado tallied a .161 percentage. The Utes led in nearly every statistical category, with the major factors of the outcome being the difference in serve errors and blocks. Though the Utes blocked well, CU finished the game with one more block at 11. The Colorado pressure up front continually stopped Utah and put them out of system. The Utes also committed a dozen service errors compared to the Buffs' four.
...

QUOTABLES:
HEAD COACH JESSE MAHONEY
On the win
"It was a strange match because in two of those sets, one was competitive, and that always makes the match have kind of a strange energy. Two really good teams, but I also think two young teams and two teams that have a little different pieces than they had the year before. You can kind of see that on both sides. When we want to be good, I think we can be really good. The last five points in the fifth set I thought was really crisp, good volleyball. When we allow ourselves to be bad, unfortunately we can be really bad. We have to continue to harp on that and work on that. I think our head is in the right place and our kids want to be good and want to be better. We just know it's going to be a process. I think we kind of escaped one tonight, and hopefully we learn from it because we have a really good team coming in on Sunday."

On the team's resiliency
"I don't think we ever felt like we couldn't win that match. We never talk about what the score is or whether we're down. We talk about the next play and talk about what we can improve on from play to play. Hopefully the cumulative effect of that has us playing better. With that being said, we gave up some loose points in the start of the fifth (set) and had to earn those back. We gave up five easy points and had to earn five tough points. That's this team in a nutshell. We can do that. I love the fact that we can earn those tough points. We just have to limit the easy ones that we give them."

On Sunday's match
"We have another great team. I don't know what USC is ranked, but I'm sure it's pretty high. I've seen them on film. They have a lot of weapons. They are very good. We'll have to play well. That is what the Pac-12 is all about. We are going to play a lot of matches against a lot of really good teams. It's a grind, but we love it. We'll take one day off then get back to the grind."
...

UP NEXT: The Buffs have one of the longest stretches between weekly opponents with four days until they play the University of Southern California. No.14-ranked USC comes to town Sunday at 1 p.m. in the CU Events Center. USC swept rival UCLA Wednesday night in a top-25 battle of 14th and 17th ranked teams in the nation, respectfully
"
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Box score - https://cubuffs.com/boxscore.aspx?path=wvball&id=11348

Interview with redshirt Freshman Anyse Smith-


Pac 12 Network recap -
 
For whatever reason, Utah has always been a touch match for the Buffs. I'm happy they got the win in 5, especially the way the 5th set started.

More and more impressed with Anyse Smith and Jenna Ewert with every match. Of course, I'm already impressed with Alexa Smith, Naghede Abu, Justine Spann and Brynna DeLuzio.
 
I upped my Dish service to include all the Pac-12 networks. However, I only get Pac-12 National on my television. I don't know why. I was able to sign in with my account and can watch online.

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