Volleyball Falls to No. 9/8 ISU
BOULDER— The University of Colorado volleyball team fell in three sets (25-21, 25-14, 25-16) to the No. 9/8 Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday evening at the Coors Events Center.
The loss moves the Buffs to a 6-16 overall record and 1-12 in the Big 12 while Iowa State improves to 19-3 overall (11-2 Big 12). With this win, Iowa State has swept Colorado in this season’s series and improves to 58-17 in sets victories this year.
“Tonight was a tough match, and while we were able to put together a solid performance in the first set against a top ten team, that same high-level performance eluded us in the final two sets,” head coach Liz Kritza said.
Becah Fogle led the Buffs with 12 kills, 12 digs and a hitting percentage of .290—all team-highs. Rosie Steinhaus also led offensively with another 12 kills, and hit .222. Kritza noted, “Both teams were fairly inefficient offensively in the first set, and we both rebounded after that, but the difference is that they rebounded to hitting above .400 and we rebounded to hitting around .240.”
While the Buffs started off quickly in the first set with two initial kills by Steinhaus and Kerra Schroeder, the Cyclones answered back taking a 7-4 lead, and were able to hold onto the advantage for the remainder of the set. Colorado took two timeouts each resulting in a three-point rally that closed the score gap to 10-8, and 20-17, respectively. CU was unable to even the score and fell 25-21.
The Cyclones came out strong with a 13-5 lead in the second set that included an Iowa State 6-0 run. The Buffs tried to fight back but ultimately fell 25-14.
Colorado remained within three points of the Iowa State lead in the third set until the Cyclones were able to score three points in a row, increasing their lead 11-6. The Buffs took a timeout and were able to answer back with a quick kill by Schroeder. Despite the Buff’s ability to fight off a pair of set points, they lost the set 16-25. CU hit .175 in the set, up from .070 in the first and .139 in the second.
“Our belief is not shaken in what we are doing, but rather these difficulties thus far fuel our fire to be diligent in our training and preparation and know that success will be ours in the future, it needs to be the near future though,” Kritza said.
“While this inexperienced team is showing signs of improvement, the attitude and mentality of all the players and coaches is that we are not satisfied until we get this thing right. We are clearly making steps in the right direction, but we want success in the win-loss column.”
Ultimately, “the offensive difference gave them an advantage that we could not close and allowed them to run away with the final two sets and unfortunately, the match,” Kritza noted.
The Buffs will return to the Coors Event Center to face off against the Kansas Jayhawks on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. The match will be televised on FSN Rocky Mountain.
Don’t forget to check out the latest news and highlights with head coach Liz Kritza on the Buffalo Stampede: Volleyball Edition, exclusively on BuffsTV at www.cubuffs.com/volleyball. New shows air every Tuesday.
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Head Coach Liz Kritza
“Tonight was a tough match, and while we were able to put together a solid performance in the first set against a top ten team, that same high-level performance eluded us in the final two sets.”
“Both teams were fairly inefficient offensively in the first set, and we both rebounded after that, but the difference is that they rebounded to hitting above.400 and we rebounded to hitting around .240. That offensive difference gave them an advantage that we could not close and allowed them to run away with the final two sets and unfortunately, the match.”
“Our performance on the service line tonight resulted in an imbalanced error ratio, and while we were attempting to serve very aggressively to disrupt their first tempo offense, we did not have enough out of system plays to balance six serving errors.”
“While this inexperienced team is showing signs of improvement, the attitude and mentality of all the players and coaches is that we are not satisfied until we get this thing right. We are clearly making steps in the right direction, but we want success in the win-loss column."
“Our belief is not shaken in what we are doing, but rather these difficulties thus far fuel our fire to be diligent in our training and preparation and know that success will be ours in the future, it needs to be the near future though.”
Kerra Schroeder
"I think we've improved a lot in terms of our system and our speed of play in our fast-paced system. I think we are improving."
Rosie Steinhaus
"When you look at video from the past at the beginning of the season, we've really come a long way. There are a lot of things we have to work on."
"Our mentality is that we go into every match thinking that you're going to do everything you can to win the match. I think that's something that we're struggling with right now."