Colorado Set For Showdown With Bay Schools
BOULDER – Colorado women's volleyball team returns home for a matchup against No.19-ranked Stanford Thursday at 7 p.m. MT, followed up by a match against Cal Sunday at noon.
The Buffaloes (14-11, 5-11 Pac-12) have lost three straight but have an opportunity to make history against Stanford (14-10, 9-7 Pac-12), a team the Buffs have only defeated once before in 2015.
Maya Tabron eclipsed the 300 kill mark last weekend to become the fourth Buff in the Mahoney era to achieve the mark. She is joined by Jill Schneggenburger with a career-best 180 kills this season and Meegan Hart who is just 25 kills from matching her career-best season total in kills.
Defensively, Brynna DeLuzio is making history after a career-high 31 digs in four sets against Arizona State. She is leading the Pac-12 in digs per set and top-40 in the nation in the mark, and after Friday's performance, she became just the third Buff to have multiple 30-dig matches in a single season. The next main mark for the libero is the CU single-season digs mark of 519. DeLuzio is 75 digs away from that mark with four matches remaining, meaning she needs to average 18.5 digs per match for the remainder of the season. She has recorded 18 or more digs in 13 of 25 matches this season.
Also for Colorado on the defensive end, Hart is sixth in the conference in blocks per set at 1.1. This is the first time in her career she has put up 100 blocks in a season. Alexia Kuehl has 75 blocks as well this season while Schneggenburger and Jenna Ewert each had 53.
Ewert is also having a career season and is just 105 assists away from tying her career-best season total. In addition to that, she is just 35 digs away from 1,000 career digs and 25 blocks away from 200 career blocks. She is looking to become the fourth CU setter with 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs.
Thursday match is televised on the Pac-12 Mountain channel, while Sunday's match will be on the Colorado Live Stream.
SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
The Cardinal have lost five matches since seeing the Buffaloes. They have wins against Washington State in Pullman in five sets, Oregon State in four at home and Washington State at home in four. In the losing streak though, the team fell to Washington twice, both Arizona schools on the road and were swept by Oregon at home.
Stanford is led by defending Player of the Week Caitie Baird hitting 4.13 kills per set with a .279 hitting percentage. She also is tied with teammate Kendall Kipp (3.54 kills per set) with 23 aces. Elena Oglivie averages 4.39 digs per set but the real trouble comes from McKenna Vicini who is averaging 1.34 blocks per set. The Cardinal have three players averaging more than a block per set with the team averaging 2.66 blocks per set.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
Cal (7-20, 0-16 Pac-12) has lost 17 straight matches, including seven straight sweeps. They have only won five sets in conference this season. The Bears are allowing opponents to hit .238 while only hitting .179 themselves. Katie Smoot leads the team with 3.1 kills per set while Bella Bergmark is second in total kills with 199 and hitting .376. Outside hitter Mima Mirkovic leads the team with 3.18 digs per set.