Colorado Falls To ASU In Four Sets

BOULDER – Colorado women's volleyball fell to Arizona State in another hard fought 3-1 match (25-23, 30-32, 25-16, 25-21) here Sunday afternoon to close its first half of conference play.
 
The Buffs (12-7, 3-7 Pac-12) lost in four sets to the Sun Devils (11-10, 4-6 Pac-12) as Arizona State had four players with double-digit kills.
 
Maya Tabron had a strong match for Colorado as she put together another double-double performance. She had 18 kills along with 13 digs and two blocks in the match. Jenna Ewert recorded her 40th career double-double after her outstanding match today in which she had 49 assists and 13 digs.
 
Meegan Hart and Alexia Kuehl made their defensive presence felt as they combined for a total of 10 blocks. Hart also impressed offensively with 10 kills while hitting .381. Jill Schneggenburger and Kuehl were each one kill away from reaching double digit kills on the afternoon.
 
Brynna DeLuzio continued her great success this season as she recorded her 1000th dig of her career. She led the Buffs with 22 digs while averaging 5.5 digs/set. Thus far this season, DeLuzio leads the Pac-12 in digs/set with 4.79 which is greater than the CU record currently held by Karrie Downey who averaged 4.34 in 1994.
 
The Sun Devils were led by Ella Snyder who had 51 assists and 11 digs and Iman Isanovic who had a team high of 18 kills. Marta Levinska and Geli Cyr each had 13 total kills of their own for Arizona State. Levinska also recorded 13 digs while Cyr recorded 12. Claire Jeter had a match-best hitting percentage of .462 while racking up 14 kills for ASU.
 
Both teams had 10 total blocks on the day as Arizona State outhit Colorado .284 to .169. The Buffs struggled with 28 errors compared to the Sun Devils' 20 and also had 11 less digs.
 
CU will start the second half of conference play on the road when they travel to play Oregon State on Friday, Oct. 29th, at 8:00 p.m. MT.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE: Colorado started off strong with a four-point scoring run while Tabron racked up two early kills. After a successful game challenge, Arizona State gained some traction and shortened the deficit to one at 4-3. Tabron picked up another three kills as the Buffs took a 9-4 lead which led to a Sun Devils timeout. CU continued its early success while hitting .500 to take a 15-9 lead and force another ASU timeout. Out of the break, Arizona State went on a three-point scoring run to cut the Colorado lead to just three at 16-13. As ASU rallied back, Levinska got her third kill of the match which forced CU to take their first timeout while up 18-16. The Sun Devils put together another three-point scoring run to take a 22-21 lead before the Buffs took their second and final timeout of the set. The match was tied at 23 all before Cyr picked up her fourth kill of the match to set up an ASU set point. Arizona State won the set 25-23 after Cyr got another kill to bring her total kills to five.
 
SET TWO:  The Buffs took a quick 5-2 lead over the Sun Devils as Tabron picked up her seventh and eighth kills of the match. ASU went on a five-point scoring run to take the lead at 8-6 while hitting .500 in the set. Schneggenburger got her fourth kill of the match to tie everything up at nine all. Isanovic scored two consecutive points to give Arizona State a 12-9 advantage heading into a Colorado timeout. CU quickly worked their way back to tie it up at 12 all. The tie continued to 16 before Tabron had back-to-back kills to give the Buffs an 18-16 lead and force a Sun Devils timeout. Hart picked up her third block which led to another quick timeout for Arizona State as they trailed 21-18. Isanovic got her 10th kill to cut the ASU deficit to two at 23-21. CU took its second timeout of the set after an attack error while leading 23-22. Kuehl got her third block to set up a Buffs set point, but the Sun Devils returned the favor and tied it up at 24 all. Both teams fought back and forth as the tie continued to 30 before Arizona State gave Colorado set point after a service error. Tabron finished it off with her 14th kill while hitting .440 to win the set for CU at 32-30. DeLuzio had 11 digs through two sets to lead the Buffs in that category.
 
SET THREE: Arizona State was led by Jeter to start off the set as she had a solo block and two kills giving her a total of eight kills. As ASU took an early 6-2 lead, CU took its first timeout of the set. After the timeout, the Sun Devils scored two more points before a service error ended their five-point scoring run while leading 8-3. Colorado took another timeout after Arizona State put together a four-point scoring run. CU trailed ASU 14-6 while being outhit .462 to -.048 at the break. Schneggenburger cut the Buffs deficit to five at 15-10 after her seventh kill of the match. For the Sun Devils, Cyr got her 10th kill while hitting .476 to extend the lead to seven at 19-12. A Colorado attack error set up an Arizona State set point as they led by 10. Kuehl and Schneggenburger combined for a block which gave Kuehl five blocks on the day and forced an ASU timeout as the Buffs trailed 24-16. The Sun Devils won the set 25-16 after Cyr picked up another kill giving her a total of 11. Arizona State had an impressive hitting percentage of .419 in the set compared to Colorado's .095.
 
SET FOUR: Isanovic continued her offensive success after getting her 15th and 16th kills of the match to give ASU an 8-3 lead. Stahlke picked up her fifth block which forced CU to take a timeout. After the break, the Buffs trailed 12-6 while Kuehl racked up her ninth total kill. From down six, Colorado worked their way back and cut the deficit to just two at 14-12 after a series of Arizona State attack errors. Hart reached double digit kills which Levaggi followed up with two kills of her own to force a Sun Devils timeout at 18-17. Snyder picked up her second service ace giving ASU a 20-17 advantage which then led to a CU timeout. Isanovic got her 18th total kill to go up by three once again at 21-18. Arizona State set up match point with Levinska picked up her 13th kill of the match to go along with her 13 digs. Jeter finished the job off and gave the Sun Devils the win at 25-21 after her 14th kill. DeLuzio led the Buffs with 22 digs while Larson led ASU with 24 digs. Ewert had an impressive day, finishing the match with a total of 49 assists and four blocks.
 
 
QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On The Match
Arizona State played really well. We needed to win that first set. We certainly were in a position up 16 to 10 to win that first set and gave it away with some free points and unforced errors, serving and attacking. Then after that, it was a bit of a dog fight. I felt like we passed well enough to score. We were pretty high error on both ends and they've got some really nice arms and they wore us down there towards the end a little bit but, certainly a good match. These home matches,  just like Friday, are matches that to do what we want in this conference, we need to win. We didn't get that done. We got to go into the second half and find ways to be better and work through some of the issues and hopefully get healthy.
 
On Brynna
Everyone knows Brynna is a stud as a player. She could be setting for us and doing a great job. She can libero for us, and obviously is doing a great job. It's maybe the first season she's committed to being the libero for us and with that full focus I think she's really excelled. She's a great leader, outside of her being a great player, she lifts everyone else up. I'm excited for her, we need many more players to be playing at that type of level."
 
On Maya
It was nice to see Maya bounce back from Friday where she didn't have a good matchup. She played well tonight. She certainly took some very nice swings and she passed well and dug well. We need to have a match where both of our left sides are scoring, and we haven't had that essentially since Utah. One left scoring, or the other left scoring, we need to find a way to get both of them on track.