Buffs Travel To Oregon
BOULDER – Colorado volleyball heads to Oregon to kick off the second half of the Pac-12 conference schedule Friday at Oregon State at 8 p.m. MT and Sunday at 1 p.m. MT against No.17-ranked Oregon.
The Buffaloes (12-7, 3-7 Pac-12) lost a pair of matches against the Arizona schools at home last weekend and look to rebound in the second half of conference. CU has finished the same or better in the second half of conference play in the past four seasons.
Maya Tabron continues to lead Colorado offensively and is coming off a 30-kill weekend with a pair of double-doubles. In nine full matches this conference season she is averaging 3.45 kills per set with four double-doubles while averaging 2.54 digs per set. She is joined by Meegan Hart and Jill Schneggenburger with 142 and 134 kills, respectfully.
Setter Jenna Ewert is averaging a career-best 10.03 assists per set and is coming off her best weekend with 12 assists per set and a season-best 49 assists against Arizona State. She is four kills away from her 250th kill and is set to become just the seventh setter to achieve that mark with more than 3,000 career assists. She also ranks sixth among CU setters all-time in career aces (60), digs (885) and blocks (164).
Also joining the record books lately is the Pac-12 leader in digs per set, Brynna DeLuzio. The libero is averaging 4.79 digs per set this season and a ludicrous 4.94 digs per set in conference play with the next best athlete at 4.28 in the Conference Of Champions. She is outpacing her competitors by .3 digs per set in overall records. She just earned the 1,000 dig of her career and is on pace to become just the third Buff to have a 500 dig season. Her 4.79 digs per set is crushing the CU season record of 4.34 set by Karrie Downey in 1994.
Friday's match will be on the Pac-12 Network Oregon channel while the Sunday match will be on the Oregon Live Stream.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
The Beavers (3-17, 1-9 Pac-12) defeated Cal in three sets at home but have since lost four-straight matches. Outside of their three wins, the team has only won five sets and has only won four sets in conference, including the sweep of Cal.
Oregon State is hitting .157 this season while allowing opponents to hit .256. Kateryna Tkachenko leads the team with 180 total kills this season and is joined by Lindsey Schell with 172 and Maddie Goings with 146. Schell leads the team with 58 blocks while Grace Massey has 240 digs and is averaging 4.29 digs per set.
SCOUTING THE DUCKS
The Ducks (15-5, 6-4 Pac-12) have lost three of their last four matches including being swept at home by Washington State and losing to UCLA in a sweep on the road. They have had three five-set matches in conference since seeing the Buffs, including five-set wins against Stanford and at USC. They also lost in five sets at home against Washington.
Oregon is hitting .250 this season while holding opponents to .163, but more importantly, have 2.7 blocks per set and only are blocked 1.8 times per set. Brooke Nuneviller leads the squad in kills with 235 hitting .228, is second on the team in aces with 16 and is second on the team in digs with 229. Georgia Murphy leads the backrow with 290 digs (4.39 per set) and 19 aces. Abby Hansen leads the front with 97 blocks averaging 1.39 per set.