Buffs Pull Off Upset Of No. 21 Arizona State

BOULDER — Senior Alexis Austin led the Buffs with 22 kills as Colorado pulled off a five-set upset of No. 21 Arizona State (27-25, 13-25, 21-25, 25-17, 15-12) on Thursday night at the Coors Events Center to earn the Buffs fifth win over a ranked opponent this season.

Austin had a lot of help as it was a team effort to defeat the Sun Devils. Gabby Simpson had 16 kills and Anna Pfefferle recorded 14 kills. But it wasn't just them. Stephanie Shadley, who had not played much offensive for the Buffs, had six kills and Katelyn Cuff added another five kills.

"I think it's a testament to the will of this team and understanding what a team actually is," head coach Liz Kritza said. "There will be matches when the usual suspects are out there. They're playing, they're holding their own, but for whatever reason – the matchup or someone's having an off night – that's why you have a roster of 15 players. Credit to the players that came off the bench and changed the game. That's what we want them to do.

"If something isn't working or we need a different look or a different matchup, we put somebody else on the floor like we did with [Stephanie] Shadley tonight and she makes an impact. That's what we're talking about with what our goals were at the beginning of the season: to have a complete team. Everybody wants depth and competition in the gym. A lot of times it's not apparent to the crowd, because they aren't in our practice gym every day. There are very few people in our practice gym that see what we see. We see that they're great players on both sides of the net and that's an important piece. It's good when we need them that they answer the call. I'm proud of them for doing that."

The Buffs notched 69 kills in the win and hit .182 with Nicole Edelman handing out a career-high 63 assists. She also added two kills, including the final kill of the match.

She had 63 assists but it was @Nicoleedelman's two kills that proved huge for @CUBuffsVB ending sets 1 & 5.... https://t.co/jIjbZI8XD0

— Colorado Buffaloes (@cubuffs) November 13, 2015

"Our passing was great tonight, which really helped me out," Edelman said about her career night. "We got our middles going, and once I could get them going, I could set both of the pins. It's all credit to the passing honestly, without that it's harder for me to get better sets to the hitters."

Cierra Simpson had an outstanding performance in the backrow, recording 23 of CU's 58 digs in the upset. Edelman and Shadley were second on the team with nine digs.

At the net, CU posted 10.0 team blocks, with eight players putting up at least one block. Naghede Abu led CU with four blocks, one solo and three assists, while Pfefferle and Simpson each posted three block assists.

The win puts the Buffs at 15-12 overall, 7-8 in the Pac-12 and helps to keep their postseason hopes alive. ASU is now 18-8 (7-8 Pac-12).

"It's a huge win," Cierra Simpson said. "Obviously, you want to defend your home court. In terms of looking toward postseason, Arizona State has a really good RPI (25), so this win helps us a lot in terms of bumping our RPI (69) up too. We just have to come in and take care of business on Saturday. It's going to be another tough match, but I think we'll be feeling confident going into it."

The Sun Devils were led by Cassidy Pickrell's 13 kills and BreElle Bailey added 10 kills. The team hit .174 with 49 kills and 24 errors on 144 swings.

The Sun Devils took a 12-7 lead to start the first set, but the Buffs rallied back to even it at 14-14.  The set was tied another three times before ASU had a two point lead (20-18), causing the Buffs to take a quick break. CU came back to even the set again at 23-23 and this time the Sun Devils were the ones to take a timeout.

An attack error by Whitney Follette gave CU set point, but Follette answered with a kill to even it back at 24-24. The Buffs had another set point at 26-25 after a kill from Gabby Simpson and Edelman finished it off with a kill of her own (27-25).

The second set was controlled by ASU from the start. The Sun Devils led 17-11 when CU took its first timeout. The Buffs had to take another timeout at 21-12. Unfortunately the deficit was too much and the Buffs fell 25-13.

The third set was tied at 12-12 before the Sun Devils took a 21-17 lead late in the frame. The Buffs took a timeout to regroup and answered with a kill from Austin (21-18).  Shadley and Gabby Simpson both tallied a kill after Austin's to bring the Buffs within one (21-20).  ASU sided out off a CU error, but Gabby Simpson responded with another kill (22-21). That was the final point for CU in the set as ASU recorded the next three points to close it out (25-21).

The Buffs came out strong in the fourth set, taking a 13-8 lead, but ASU came back to tie the game up at 14-14. CU went back ahead with four consecutive points (18-14). The Sun Devils took at timeout at 20-16, and Cuff answered out of the break with her fourth kill of the match, giving the Buffs a five-point advantage (21-16). CU went on to easily finish the set 25-17.

ASU led the fifth set 6-4 when CU took its first timeout of the game. ASU also had a two-point lead at the side-chance (8-6) and increased it to three points at 10-7. Consecutive kills from Shadley, Pfefferle and Austin evened the set at 10-10, forcing ASU to take a timeout.

The Buffs kept the momentum going, tacking on two more points to take a 12-10 lead. After another Sun Devils timeout, ASU sided-out (12-11), but CU answered with kills from Pfefferle and Austin to set to set point (14-11). ASU recorded a block on the following point, but Edelman finished it with a kill (15-11).

Colorado is back at the Coors Events Center on Saturday, Nov. 14, against No. 19 Arizona. The match is set for a 7 p.m. start.