Buffs Lose Tough Battle To No. 1 Cal

BERKELEY, Calif. - The No. 1 University of California Golden Bears proved to be a tough competitor as they defeated the University of Colorado volleyball team 25-17, 26-24, 25-15 on Friday night at Haas Pavillion.

"While I don't believe in moral victories, I am proud of the way my players fought tonight," coach Liz Kritza said. "We put ourselves in the position in the second set to beat the top team in the country through our aggressive serving and tenacious defense.

"We got better tonight as a team despite the loss simply because we were able to stick to our overall game plan for a higher percentage of the match than we had been before. If we keep playing with the fight that we showed tonight and are diligent and discipline enough to correct our unforced errors, then we will be playing a very high level of volleyball and be able to compete in this conference."

Kerra Schroeder hit a match-high 14 kills and recorded 17.0 points for the Buffs with two aces and a block solo. Emily Alexis added eight kills and Kelsey English had seven kills in the effort. Nikki Lindow also chipped in six kills for the Buffs.

Cal was led by Tarah Murrey's 13 kills. As a team the Golden Bears outhit CU .343-.198. They had 45 kills compared to 39 for the Buffs.

Megan Beckwith had 18 of Colorado's 48 digs. Alyssa Valentine had nine digs, while Schroeder accounted for eight of CU's digs. Cal had just five more digs than the Buffs with 53. Robin Rostratter had a match-best 23 dig performance.

The Golden Bears improved to 12-0 on the year, 2-0 in the Pac-12, while CU fell to 5-5 overall, 0-2 in the Pac-12.

The Buffs took a 4-2 lead to start the first set, but then Cal put together a 7-1 run to take a 9-5 advantage. The Golden Bears followed that up with a 6-3 run to increase the score to 15-8. At that point the Buffs recorded a 4-1 run to get the score to 16-12, but that was the closest they would get in the set as Cal finished the frame 25-17.

The second set was very close and had 10 ties and six lead changes. Colorado started the second set with a 10-7 lead, but Cal tied it up at 11-11 with a 4-1 run. Cal started to pull away from the Buffs, taking a 19-17 lead, but CU wouldn't go away and tied the set up at 20. Again the Golden Bears tried to get away from CU, taking a 23-21 lead and again CU came back to even the score and this time added another to make the score 24-23. Cal answered back with a kill and finished the set with the next two points (26-24).

Cal started the third set with a 9-4 lead. The Buffs fought back to within four points at 16-12, but then the Golden Bears recorded a 4-1 run to go back up by seven points at 20-13. Cal finished the set with a 5-2 run, winning 25-15.

The Buffs will conclude their trip to the Bay Area with another tough match against No. 2 Stanford on Saturday, Sept. 17. That match will start at 8 p.m. MT.

"Now we are looking ahead to an equally challenging opponent tomorrow night in Stanford and we will take the positives from tonight and use it as fuel to progress even further tomorrow night," Kritza said. 

And don't forget to check out the latest news and highlights with coach Kritza on This Week in Colorado Volleyball, exclusively on BuffsTV at CUBuffs.com/volleyball. New shows air every Tuesday.