Arizona Downs Buffs In Close Fourth Set

TUCSON – Colorado women's volleyball dropped a 3-1 (25-17, 19-25, 25-18, 32-30) match here Sunday afternoon after Arizona served up a dozen aces.
 
The Buffaloes (14-11, 5-11 Pac-12) had six opportunities to send the match to a fifth set, but Arizona (15-12, 7-9 Pac-12) survived every set point to take the win and the season sweep.
 
Maya Tabron had a match-high 16 kills while Jahara Campbell had 13 kills with a .242 hitting percentage. Alexia Kuehl had a strong match as well with 11 kills and a .455 hitting percentage as Jenna Ewert finished with 41 assists and 16 digs. Her double-double is the 43rd in her career, moving her into a tie for 10th in CU history with her former teammate Alexa Smith.
 
On the defensive side, Brynna DeLuzio finished with a match-high 18 digs and seven assists. Jill Schneggenburger also had a good day in the backrow with 15 digs. Meegan Hart was a part of all but one block for Colorado with five block assists.
 
Also for the Buffs, Savannah Perry tied her career-high with four service aces in the match.
 
The Wildcats were led by Sofia Maldonado Diaz with 15 kills hitting .244 with 11 digs and four service aces. Puk Stubbe added 13 kills and as many digs, while Zyonna Fellows had a match-high seven blocks including five in the third set alone. Libero Kamaile Hiapo also had four service aces.
 
Arizona owned the service line with a dozen aces to CU's six and also had similar numbers at the net with 11 blocks to Colorado's six.
 
The Buffaloes return home for three-straight matches against Stanford, Cal and Washington. They close out the regular season on the road at Utah on Nov. 27.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE: The Buffs earned a 5-4 lead after back-to-back aces from Perry. Colorado brought things within one at 11-10, but then Arizona strung together three straight to 16-11 and force a CU timeout with four Wildcat aces. Maldonado Diaz was started early with five kills hitting .500 as Arizona outhit CU thus far .320 to .146. A second timeout came early at 20-13 as CU struggled in serve receive, allowing another ace. Set point came at 24-16, with it finishing off two plays later at 25-17. Arizona finished the first set hitting .441 with five service aces.
 
SET TWO: Colorado took an early three-point run to lead 7-3 and force an Arizona timeout. The Wildcats responded with a run of their own to bring it within one at 8-7 with Tabron hitting .636 with eight kills. Colorado started a three-point run off of Arizona attack errors to a 14-10 lead hitting .500 in the set compared to .176 as the Wildcats called timeout. UofA put together a run of three to close the gap to 16-13. Arizona put together another run of three to force a CU timeout with the Buffs leading 17-16. A Kuehl kill sparked a run of three for Colorado to 21-17 as CU was holding Arizona to a .042 hitting percentage in the set. Set point came at 24-18 and the Buffs finished it off two plays later to finish the set hitting .367. After a slow two dig set, DeLuzio recorded seven in the second to take the team lead with nine. Tabron finished with nine kills hitting .538 with Kuehl hitting .625 with five kills.
 
SET THREE: Arizona put down four straight for a 6-3 lead. An ace extended the run to five and forced a CU timeout at 7-3. Fellows earned her third block of the set at 9-5 as she began to take over. She followed it up with a ball handling error and then a kill to 10-6 before CU challenged a play unsuccessfully. Arizona challenged a call at 13-9 despite leading .295 to .105 hitting in the set thus far. The call stayed, but CU put down three-straight trailing 17-14 to force an Arizona timeout. Arizona hit the 20-point mark up five as Zellows led with five blocks this set alone, forcing a CU timeout. The Wildcats finished off the set on a three-point run to 25-18. Colorado hit just .053 in the set.
 
SET FOUR: The teams battled to a four-point tie before Arizona put together four straight for a 7-4 lead. Colorado went on a three-point run to take the lead at 11-10 to force an Arizona timeout as Campbell and Kuehl combined for five kills in a 6-2 run. The CU run extended to five with a CU block and Wildcat error to force another timeout at 13-10. Arizona responded with a four-point run to take the lead 15-14 and force a CU timeout. The Buffs tied things up at 16 all with Perry's fourth ace of the match. A challenge came from CU on a touch call at 17-16, which went CU's way. The teams battled to a 20-point tie. Arizona earned a one-point lead at 23-22 to force a CU timeout. Colorado flipped it to set point off a Hart kill and Neverdowski ace, but a Maldonaldo Diaz kill tied it up at 24 all. Tabron committed an attack error to set up match point at 25-24, but Mahoney challenged the call. The challenge went unsuccessful but a service error tied it up at 25. Another set point came at 27-26 off a Tabron kill, her 15th of the match. She set up another set point at 28-27. Kuehl earned her 11th kill for a set point at 29-28. The teams continued the back-and-forth play to 30 all. Arizona finally put together two points to earn match point at 31-30, then finished it off with a third-straight kill.
 
QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On The Match
I thought we played hard all match. We didn't necessarily play smart at critical times. We fought well and had our opportunities in set 4 to extend it to a 5th but couldn't convert to get it done. Overall we are a few plays away each match and have to find a way to make those plays in the future.