Colorado Drops Close Match To Arizona

BOULDER – Colorado women's volleyball lost to Arizona in an extremely competitive 3-1 match (23-25, 25-16, 37-35, 25-21) here Friday to drop its second match at home.
 
The Buffs (12-6, 3-6 Pac-12) lost in four sets to the Wildcats (12-8, 4-5 Pac-12) as Arizona outhit Colorado .243 to .159.
 
Colorado was led by Maya Tabron who put together a double-double performance in the match with 12 kills and 14 digs. Jahara Campbell and Meegan Hart had solid offensive outings as they each had 11 kills. Hart also had an impressive hitting percentage of .345.
 
Also for the Buffs, Kelley Levaggi filled in late and hit for six kills and a .357 hitting percentage while Alexia Kuehl added 10 kills as four Buffs entered the double-digit mark. Setter Jenna Ewert finished with a double-double 47 assists and 12 digs and added four kills. Jill Schneggenburger had an off-night hitting but put down three aces to lead the team.
 
Brynna DeLuzio showed why she is the Pac-12 leader in digs/set as she averaged six this evening with 24 total. She had 10 digs in the first set which helped CU to take an early lead. DeLuzio was joined by Emma Torstenson who made her first-ever start and had 16 digs, an ace and a kill when she was forced into the front row after CU ran out of timeouts in the crazy third set.
 
For the Wildcats, setter Emery Herman shined as she put together an incredible performance consisting of 52 assists and 21 digs. Sofia Maldonado Diaz and Puk Stubbe also had great matches for Arizona as Maldonado Diaz had 26 total kills and Stubbe had 14 kills along with 20 digs. Libero Kamaile Hiapo added 22 digs as three Wildcats recorded 20 dig matches.
 
Arizona limited Colorado's attack with 10 blocks to the Buffs' four. Both teams recorded six aces and had the same number of attack attempts and nearly identical errors. The major difference was the dig count which was nine in the favor of Arizona which in turn led to 15 more kills in the match.
 
Colorado will look to turn things around against Arizona State on Sunday, Oct. 24th, at noon.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE: Arizona jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead before Colorado tied the match with three unanswered points of its own. The tie continued to 10 before Campbell picked up three straight kills to give the Buffs a 12-10 lead and force a Wildcats timeout. After the timeout, both teams found themselves in a hard-fought back-and-forth battle as CU took a 20-17 lead. Campbell got her seventh kill while hitting .500 which forced another U of A timeout. After two Arizona hitting errors, Colorado went up 23-20. Tabron set up a Buffs' set point as she picked up her third kill of the match. Arizona forced a CU timeout as they answered with two straight points from Stubbe, giving her a total of six kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Tabron had four kills and six digs as Colorado won the set 25-23. DeLuzio continued her outstanding dig success this season with 10 digs in the set.
 
SET TWO: After going down 3-2, the Wildcats went on a five-point scoring run to force an early CU timeout. Out of the timeout, Maldonado continued her offensive success, picking up her 11th kill to take an 11-4 lead. Campbell cut the Buffs' deficit to five at 14-9 after her eighth kill of the match. Colorado took its first timeout of the set after back-to-back attack errors, trailing 16-10. Arizona took a commanding 19-12 lead as Fellows got her third block of the match. Tabron cut the deficit to five once again after her ninth kill as CU trailed 20-15. U of A achieved set point and won the set 25-16 after two consecutive attack errors. The Wildcats outhit Colorado .423 to .097 in the set.
 
SET THREE: CU tied the match at four all after Schneggenburger's two straight service aces. Arizona's lead was cut to just one at 8-7 after a failed game challenge. The Buffs took their first timeout of the set after the Wildcats took a 12-7 lead. Ewert picked up her fourth kill of the match while hitting .444 to cut the Arizona lead to three at 13-10. U of A took a 16-12 lead which forced Colorado to take its second and final timeout of the set. Stubbe led the Wildcats to a 19-14 lead with an impressive 12 kill and 14 digs. The Buffs scored three consecutive points to cut the deficit to three and force an Arizona timeout. Shortly after the timeout, CU went on another three-point scoring run to force another U of A timeout while trailing 22-21. Colorado tied it up at 23 all before an attack error which set up an Arizona set point. Levaggi tied it up at 24 all after her fourth kill of the match while hitting .429. Both teams kept trading blows as the tie continued all the way to 34 before the Wildcats lost a game challenge setting up a set point for the Buffs. Maldonado tied it up once again for U of A as she picked up her 22nd kill. Arizona won the set 37-35 after Fellows got her fifth block of the match. DeLuzio led the Buffs with 21 digs through three sets and Torstenson added 11 digs of her own in her first start. Campbell continued her impressive performance with 11 kills for CU.
 
SET FOUR: Colorado put together a four-point scoring run early in the set to go up 7-5. U of A answered with a four-point scoring run of their own to take a 10-8 lead. Gedikoglu scored two consecutive points as the Wildcats went up 13-9 and forced a CU timeout. Kuehl ended the Arizona four-point scoring run with her eighth kill of the match. U of A took a six-point lead at 17-11 when Maldonado picked up her 24th kill. Meegan got her 10th kill while hitting .321 as the Buffs were losing by six. Colorado took its second and final timeout of the set after trailing 19-13. Out of the timeout, Kuehl got two kills, giving her a total of 10, and cut the Arizona lead to just four. Tabron cut the deficit to three at 21-18 as she got her 12th kill of the match. Stubbe set up a U of A set point with her 14th kill while hitting .324. Maldonado capped off her impressive offensive performance with her 26th kill of the match to give Arizona a 25-21 victory in the set. DeLuzio finished the match with a team-high of 24 digs while Hiapo led the Wildcats with 22 digs.
 
QUOTES
 
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On The Match
Obviously (this was) a match that we needed to win. Arizona was compromised in its travel plans. We handed over points in bunches when we didn't need to with unforced errors. (We) really didn't execute simple systematic things very well. That match was a match we needed to win at home. We need to find a way to -- no one's going to feel sorry for us, and we can't feel sorry for ourselves -- so we need to find a way to recover and play better on Sunday. We got to find a way to play better in the second half (of the season) than we went through the first half at this point.
 
On Surviving the Third Set with No Substitutes
It is what it is. You don't go into a set thinking you're going to be in the 30 (point range). We ended up running out of subs at the end. We had point-scoring opportunities to win that set and made mistakes. I do think that was a set that showed some of the character that we have, (being) down and coming back and tying things and playing really good volleyball. We followed that up with putting ourselves in a hole in the next set though.
 
On Struggling After the First Set
I thought the first set was well played by both teams. We still had our opportunities, but we were siding out at a high enough level. It masked some of the blocking issues that we had (in the first set). Then Arizona stabilized a little bit. We didn't execute. When you get another team out of system you should get a swing at the ball. We let their pins hit for really high numbers out of system. That's something that we need to be better at. It's something we talk about and work on every day in practice and we didn't execute (tonight).
 
Middle Blocker Meegan Hart
On the Back-and-Forth Third Set
We all do a good job of adjusting and going with the flow. To me, I used to serve. I tried to remember (that) I can do this, it's just a serve. We trusted each other like "Alright, I see what I've got to do." We'll make it happen. (Serving) was really fun. We can come back and fight, but we put ourselves in positions to have to come back to fight, which we need to work on. The intensity is great and (we are) finding a way to be that intense throughout the entire match.
 
On Trying to Rebound from Losing the Third Set
Maybe it gets a little harder, but in the Pac-12 you're not going to win games easy. It put our mental strength to the test. We're talking about (how) we got to come out even harder and get that momentum and energy from that set into the fourth. We lost it there. Mentally, you've got to push hard and realize that it's not going to come easy. You've really got to find it yourself to work hard and win.
 
Defensive Specialist Emma Torstenson
On the Back-and-Forth Third Set
I don't play outside, so relying on my teammates and my coaches to tell me what to do and trying to put my team in the best place to win.
 
On Trying to Rebound from Losing the Third Set
It was a long set, but we tried to carry the momentum we got at the end of that set into the next one. We have to learn to be a little more mentally tough for a longer period of time.