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Matches Thread- Volleyball visits Cal (Weds., 4:00 MT) and hosts #15 Utah (Senior Night, Fri., 8:00)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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It's potentially the biggest regular season weekend opportunity in MANY years this week for the volleyball team (Unofficially #26 in the country), as a win in both matches could*** put the Buffs in line to host the 1st 2 NCAA tournament rounds in Boulder. (***See next post for more info.)

Also, with Friday being Senior Night, hope some folks can make it out to the Keg!

Preview -


Direct link - http://www.cubuffs.com/news/2017/11...-match-host-utah-friday-for-senior-night.aspx

"
BOULDER— Only two matches remain in the regular season of the 2017 campaign, and the Colorado Buffaloes are looking to finish on a strong note heading into post-season play.

The Buffs will start the week on Wednesday, Nov. 22, with a match against the California Bears in Berkeley, Calif., at 4 p.m. MT. Then on Friday, Nov. 24, CU will play its final regular season match, hosting No. 15 Utah at 8 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

SENIOR NIGHT: Friday's contest versus Utah will also be senior night. The Buffs will celebrate their three seniors: Joslyn Hayes, Anna Pfefferle and Stephanie Shadley.

HOW TO WATCH: Both matches will be televised live. Wednesday's match against California will be on Pac-12 Mountain and Bay Area. Krista Blunk will have the call. Friday's contest against Utah will be on Pac-12 Mountain. Thad Anderson will serve as play-by-play, while Amy Gant will provide the color.

LIVE STATS: Links to the live stats for both matches are available at CUBuffs.com.

ABOUT THE BUFFS: Colorado is 21-8 overall entering the weekend of action and is also 11-7 on Pac-12 play, which is tied for fifth with Oregon State. This is the first time since 2003 the Buffs have recorded a 21-win season and CU has also tied its single-season high for Pac-12 wins (11) with two regular season matches remaining.
...

SCOUTING THE UTES: Utah enters the match ranked 15th in the AVCA Division I Coaches Poll with a 21-8 overall record. The Utes are also 12-6 in Pac-12 play, which is tied for third. Adora Anae is fourth in the Pac-12 with 4.27 kills per set and is third in attacks per set (10.87). She is a six-rotation play who also averages 3.21 digs and 0.42 blocks per set. The Utes have a pair of players ranked in the league's top-10 for hitting percentage: Tawnee Luafalemana (.353) and Berkeley Oblad (.335). At the net, that duo also comes in with a pair of top-10 performances. Laufalemana is posting 1.21 blocks per set (tied for seventh), while Oblad is 10th with 1.15 blocks per set.
Utah took the first meeting between the two on Sept. 22 (3-1).

NCAA SELECTION SHOW: The NCAA Volleyball Tournament selection show will be televised live on ESPNU on Sunday, Nov. 26, at 7 p.m. MT.
CU is looking for its first tournament berth since 2014.
...
"
______________________________________________________________

Vs. Cal (Wednesday, 4:00 PM MT start)-
Live video - match is being shown live on the Pac 12 Mountain and Bay Area 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 http://pac-12.com/womens-volleyball/event/2017/11/22/colorado-california .
Live stats - http://www.calbears.com/sports/2016/8/22/live-stats.aspx

Vs. Utah (Friday, 8:00 PM MT start)-
Live video - match is being shown live on the Pac 12 Mountain channel. For those whose TV/ Satellite/ Cord Cutting subscription includes access to that Pac 12 channel, believe the match can also be streamed through a link at http://pac-12.com/womens-volleyball/event/2017/11/24/utah-colorado .
Live stats - http://www.sidearmstats.com/cu/wvball/
 
Got a shot to finish 3rd in the Pac-12.

Utah plays at Stanford while we go to Cal. We win, they lose, we'll be tied heading into the finale.

OSU hosts UCLA and rival Oregon. Both of those matches are pretty much toss ups.
 
***Expanding from the initial post for anyone interested.

Volleyball, unlike men's basketball, only seeds the top 16 teams in the NCAA tournament, with things like travel distances being considered more important than match-ups in determining to where the other 48 teams travel.
(An example of the advantage of the Buffs getting a seed- Right now, the projections are the Buffs will lose to the #15 Utes, and so "only" finish with a #20 or so RPI, and not earn a seed. If that happens, one Volleytalk bracketology I saw (obviously as with all sports, these bracketologies are always just guesses) had the Buffs going to Austin to face a VERY tough opponent (if they both won their 1st round matches) in #5 seed Texas, a team which has made the Final 4 of the Tournament 9 of the last 10 years. I'm sure the Buffs will feel they can beat anyone, but it would be nice to avoid that tough of a potential match-up that early in the tournament.)

There is a great poster in Volleytalk called Bluepenguin (BP) who, since the beginning of the season, has been calculating "RPI Futures" for all D1 teams by taking their current RPI's and then using something called the "Pablo Ratings" (a more accurate predicting rating than RPI itself) to predict the results of all future matches to come up with the predicted ending records for all the D1 teams. From those predicted records, BP then calculates every D1 teams' season-ending RPI's.

As the season grows near the end, BP also starts looking at the probabilities of what individual teams' RPI's may end up being based on the number of wins they end up with. In this week's version (http://volleytalk.proboards.com/thread/71498/rpi-futures-week-13-11?page=2), the probabilities for the Buffs are (Number in the far left is how many Pac 12 wins the Buffs would end up with, with the Buffs currently at 11):
"
20. Colorado - Pac 12, Avg RPI Rank - 20.12 (21) T4 - 0% T16 - 23% T45 - 100% T90 - 100%
13W (37%), Avg Rank - 15.7; 16th or better (62%), 17th (18%), 18th (12%), 19th (5%)
12W (51%), Avg Rank - 22.2; 20th or better (15%)
11W (12%), Avg Rank - 24.7; 25th or better (80%)
"

Assuming this is somewhat accurate and other results end up happening as anticipated, the Buffs have a >60% chance of finishing with a Top 16 RPI IF they win both matches this weekend. And, with there being 16 teams chosen to host sub-regionals, assume that should give them a decent chance, given other aspects to their "resume" of hosting in the 1st two rounds.
(Note- One thing I don't have any idea about is how big a factor RPI is when the Committee chooses seeds. How often they pick lesser RPI teams for seeds over the Top 16? I have no idea. If the Buffs won out, assume they would also have another advantage, if the committee cares a lot about travel distances, in that there are 2 other local teams, CSU and Denver, who are also projected to be in the tournament.)
 
Just want to add, reading that massive I just wrote above- another reason to say THANKS and CONGRATS to this team- It's awesome that there isn't even a question of the Buffs MAKING the tournament this year- it's all about whether they get seeded or not!
 
AztecBuff said:
Just want to add, reading that massive I just wrote above- another reason to say THANKS and CONGRATS to this team- It's awesome that there isn't even a question of the Buffs MAKING the tournament this year- it's all about whether they get seeded or not!
Click to expand...
YUP> Last year they had a shot at MAKING the tourney but had to win a bunch of matches near the end of the season to do it and they couldn't pull it off. This year, at least according to the probabilities from BluePenguin that Aztec quoted above, they are clearly in at this point. Great turnaround for this team!

Anyone who could make it, I urge you to come out and support this team at Senior Night at 8 PM on Friday.
 
This has been a fun team to watch as the team keeps working on things and getting better.
 
Bears timeout! Buffs up 24-20

Note - This set would be over if the Buffs would stop committing service errors.
 
Solid workman-like effort for the 25-20 1st set win other than one or two more service errors than ideal. After a slow start, very effective offense, with Ms. Deluzio ending with I assume one of her biggest assist numbers for a set (18) this season.

 
After The Buffs get out to a huge 18-9 lead, Cal makes it closer but the Buffs still get the set 25-18.
 
Buffs take their 1st timeout of the match in the 3rd set after losing a 9-5 lead and going down 9-10.
 
Cal gets it to within one, then the Buffs, behind a lively block and a HEAVY net service ace, get close to the win before Cal takes a timeout down 23-19.
 
Solid match. The Buffs were clearly the better team, even on the road.

Next up Utah. Unfortunately (for them) they have to deal with Stanford first.
 
The win gives the Buffs their best conference win total (12) since joining the Pac 12, and this 22nd total season win equals a win total mark last reached back in 1998!

Congrats to the team!

Hope they get home in a timely manner to rest up before facing the Utes, who have a tough match this evening (7:00 PM MT start) against Stanford.

 
Well, that was useful. Minimal energy expended in a quality road win with the short turn around before hosting Utah. Nice.

Also, UCLA swept Oregon State tonight so I think that means that the Buffs finish no worse than 4th in the Pac-12 standings (3rd if we beat Utah).
 
Updated standings (Again- thanks to poster mikegarrison at Volleytalk and his http://volleytalk.proboards.com/thread/71487/pac-12-week-10-2017 thread) -

(3) Stanford 17-1
(17) USC 14-5
(13) Utah 12-6
(10) Washington 12-6
(26) Colorado 12-7
(24) OSU 11-8
(15) UCLA 11-8
(24) Oregon 9-10
(37) WSU 5-13
(75) Arizona 4-14
(85) Cal 4-15
(79) ASU 0-18

Above doesn't include a win today yet for Washington, but they are cruising right now through 2 sets against Arizona. Given this, the Buffs most likely finish with a win over Utah is probably 4th place, although Washington will still have their rivalry match against WSU Friday to contend with. If they lose to Utah, CU will end up in 5th (possibly in a tie with OSU and/ or UCLA).
 


Article on today's win-


Direct link - http://www.cubuffs.com/news/2017/11/22/volleyball-buffs-cruise-past-bears-to-improve-to-22-8.aspx

"
BERKELEY, Calif. – For the first time since 1998, the Colorado Buffaloes have recorded 22 wins in a single season.

The 22nd victory of the 2017 season came on Wednesday afternoon as CU defeated the California Bears in straight sets (25-20, 25-18, 25-19). CU is now 22-8 on the season.

The win is also the 12th for the Buffs in conference play, which marks the first time CU has recorded more than 11 wins in Pac-12 play since the 2011 season. CU's previous best Pac-12 record was 11-9, which the Buffs did twice in 2014 and 15. The Buffs are currently 12-7 in league matches with one regular season contest remaining.

The loss moves Cal to 13-17 (4-15 Pac-12).

WHAT HAPPENED: Junior Frankie Shebby led the Buffs with 17 kills and hit well at .265. She also added eight digs and three blocks, one solo and two assists. Alexa Smith had 14 kills in the match and hit .429 with just two errors on 28 attacks. Naghede Abu also recorded double-digit kills with 11 and hit a match-high .526 with only one error on 19 swings.

Brynna DeLuzio had an excellent night with 44 assists and a match-best 14 digs as she directed CU's offense to a .349 hitting efficiency. Gabby Carta-Samuels had the second best mark of the night in digs with 11. Four Buffs posted three blocks. Shebby, Abu, Anna Pfefferle and Joslyn Hayes.
...

NOTES: The Buffs now lead the all-time series 8-6 and have won six of the last seven matches against the Bears…CU has recorded six sweeps in conference play, 11 overall this season…CU hit .349 in the contest, a Pac-12 season-best. The previous best was .340 against Washington. It is also the third best overall this season.

TEAM STATISTICS: Colorado recorded a .349 hitting efficiency with 53 kills and 16 kills on 106 attacks and held the Bears to a .160 hitting percentage with 32 kills with 16 errors on 100 attacks. CU served up three aces, while Cal had one. The Buffs also led in digs (43-30) and blocks (7.0-5.0).

NEXT UP: Colorado will finish the regular season on Friday, Nov. 24 against No. 15 Utah at the Coors Events Center. The match is slated for an 8:04 p.m. start and will be televised live on Pac-12 Mountain.

QUOTES:
Head coach Jesse Mahoney
"As I've said before, sweeps are hard to come by in this league and they are doubly tough on the road. I thought we played a very steady match - especially on the offensive side of the ball with four of our attackers hitting for very high numbers. Our match this Friday against Utah now has bigger implications - a win gives us a shot at hosting the first round of the NCAA's."
"
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Other media
Boxscore - http://www.cubuffs.com/documents/2017/11/22//11_22_17_Cal.pdf

Pac 12 Network video's-
Post-match interview with frosh setter Brynna Deluzio - http://pac-12.com/videos/colorados-brynna-deluzio-strong-last-two-matches-we-really-gave-it-our-all
Recap/ highlights - http://pac-12.com/videos/recap-colorado-womens-volleyball-sweeps-cal-berkeley

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

And, yet another nice reminder it's Senior Night Friday!
 
Well, with Stanford's win over Utah tonight, it sets up a perfect finale to the regular season .... both Utah and Colorado come into the match here Friday night with in-conference records of 12-7. Overall, Colorado 22-8 and Utah 21-9, both teams with similar resumes with, imo, the edge to Colorado. So possibly this match could result in the winner getting a top 16 seed and then hosting first 2 rounds of the NCAA tourney on their home court and the loser being sent on the road for the tourney. Right now Utah has the edge in RPI so would probably get to be the hosting school but a Buffs win on Friday could possibly change that in our favor. So much might be riding on this match! Be there if you can.
 
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