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Buffs Push Oregon State to Five Sets

Oct 29, 2011

 

CORVALLIS, Ore.  -The University of Colorado volleyball team rallied back from a 2-0 deficit and pushed Oregon State to five sets before falling in a close match (27-25, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25, 15-9) on Friday night at Gill Coliseum.

Kerra Schroeder recorded a match-best 22 kills and added a career-high 21 digs to become the first Buff since Alex Buth to record a double-double with at least 20 kills and 20 digs. Buth recorded her double-double (21 kills and 23 digs) against Texas Tech on Sept. 12, 2007. Schroeder became just the 11th Buff to ever accomplish that double-double in school history.

Schroeder hit .210 in the match with nine errors on 62 attacks. Nikki Lindow tallied 14 kills and attacked at a .345 clip with just four errors on 29 swings. Anicia Santos added nine kills for the Buffs and Kelsey English totaled eight in the effort.

Alyssa Valentine directed CU to a .209 hitting percentage, the best hitting percentage for the Buffs this conference season, with 56 assists on the night. She also added three kills. Both teams each hammered 66 kills in the match although the Beavers outhit CU .250-.209.

Megan Beckwith had a career-best 32 digs for the Buffs which is also the sixth best mark in CU history. She was just two digs shy of the CU record for digs in a five-set match (34, set by Rachel Wacholder on Sept. 3, 1995 against Georgia Tech). Elysse Richardson also had a good night and picked up 12 digs for the Buffs. CU outdug the Beavers 83-65.

Lindow led Colorado at the net, posting five total blocks (one solo and four assists). Santos added four block assists and Schroeder had a block solo and three block assists.

Camille Saxton led OSU with 22 kills and Becky Defoe had 18 digs for the Beavers.

Colorado took a 17-12 lead in the first set. The Beavers chipped away at the lead and came back to tie the game at 23-23. OSU took the following point, but CU came back with a kill from English to tie it back up. Once against OSU took the lead and had a set point. Schroeder answered back with a kill to tie the score at 25-25 but the Beavers were able to close out the game at 27-25 with the following two points.

OSU took a 9-6 lead to start the second set, but the Buffs stormed back to even the score at 14. The score would be tied again at 15, 16 and 17 before the Beavers would take a four point lead at 21-17. CU put together a 3-1 run to cut the lead to a pair at 22-20, but OSU came back with three straight points to take the set 25-20.

The Buffs took a 10-5 lead to start the third set and would never give it up. They extended it to 19-10, and despite a 6-0 run from the Beavers to get within three points at 19-16, CU was able to hang on and close the set 25-21.

Colorado played another close set, but came out on top again (25-23) in the fourth game. After allowing the Beavers to take a 15-9 lead in the set Colorado rallied back to tie the set at 17-17. The score would be tied six more times before the Buffs would hammer a pair of kills to close out the game.

The Buffs got out to a slow start in the fifth set, allowing OSU to take a 7-3 lead. The hole was too much for CU to come back from and they fell 15-9 in the frame. With the loss CU is now 5-17 overall and 0-14 in the Pac-12. OSU improved to 13-10 overall, 5-8 in the league.

Colorado returns to the court on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. to face the No. 16 Oregon Ducks in Eugene, Ore.

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.