Colorado Falls In Four

FORT COLLINS — The University of Colorado women's volleyball team dropped a four-set match to CSU (25-18, 25-19, 21-25, 28-26) here Thursday night in front of the first-ever sellout crowd in Moby Arena for CSU volleyball.
 
The Buffaloes (7-2) adjusted after the first two sets to take the third in convincing fashion but fell in extra points to the Rams (7-3) in the fourth after fending off numerous match points.
 
Colorado shifted to the 6-2 in the last two sets, spreading the offense out with three Buffs recording double-digit kills. Maya Tabron led the way with 13 kills and a .273 hitting percentage to go along with a double-double, while Jill Schneggenburger was close behind with a dozen kills hitting .212 with 11 digs. Meegan Hart had 11 kills and eight blocks.
 
Katie Lougeay led the backrow with 13 digs while Hart was on eight of CU's 10 blocks. Colorado's defense held the Rams to just .071 hitting in the third set after switching to the 6-2.
 
Malaya Jones led the Rams with 19 kills hitting .293 on the pin. Kennedy Stanford also had 16 kills to go along with 16 digs while Ciera Pritchard had 46 assists.
 
CSU led the blocks battle 14-10 and also recorded a .285 hitting percentage while holding CU to .171. Both teams recorded eight service aces in the match.
 
The Rams had an attendance of 8,396 the second in NCAA volleyball this season and first sellout in CSU volleyball history. The two teams return to Boulder tomorrow to complete the Battle For The Golden Spike as 7 p.m.
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE
Colorado took the first lead before letting up three attack errors to a 5-2 Rams lead. CSU pushed the lead to 10-4 behind a .545 hitting percentage as Hart led with a pair of kills on two attacks. The Buffs turned to Kuehl who put down a pair of kills and a block in a four-point run to force a CSU timeout up 10-9. Following a Rams' response to a 14-12 lead, CU switched to Sterling Parker at right side with both Simpson and DeLuzio in the back row. Kuehl tied things up with her third kill as the middles paced the way for Colorado with seven of 12 kills. The Buffaloes let up a pair of points after the match was evened, forcing a timeout from Mahoney.  CU tied things back up at 18 when a CSU challenge stopped play. The challenge was reversed to flip back to a two-point CSU advantage. A pair of aces grew the lead, but Hadrych snapped the run with a monstrous kill. CU called timeout at 23-18 as CSU was hitting .389. Set point came a play later, with match point coming a play later on a controversial ball handling error from Simpson. Kuehl and Hart led the way hitting a combined .636 with half of the team's kills.
 
SET TWO
The Buffaloes stampeded out of the gate to an early 5-0 lead behind three early blocks. After Schneggenburger put down her third kill of the set to give CU a 7-1 lead, CSU called timeout with the Buffs hitting .800 to -.250. The Rams cut the lead down to three after the Buffs were leading 10-3, but CU pushed the lead to 17-12 to force another CSU timeout hitting .385. A three-point Rams run forced a timeout from Mahoney at 17-15. CSU tied things up two plays later on an ace after a five-point run, then took the lead a kill later. The Buffs subbed setters and put Kelley Levaggi in after tying it back up, but another controversial play went to the monitor after Mahoney challenge. The play stood as called and the Rams found their first two-point advantage at 21-19 before following it up with a kill to force another CU timeout. The run extended to five-straight for CSU to bring up set point at 24-19. The next play was challenged by CSU on an out call and successfully flipped to end the set on a six-point run.
 
SET THREE
Colorado broke open the scoring with a four-point run to 8-4 with DeLuzio in at setter for CU. CSU tied things up at nine all before the Buffs rallied to a 12-9 lead. Colorado broke a 13-point tie with a three-point run to force a CSU timeout with Schneggenburger hitting .421 with 10 kills. The refs came together to meet after CSU tied it up at 16, flipping the play results with a block error from the Rams who then challenged the call. The call was reversed to tie things up. Tabron put down a pair of kills to bring the lead to a pair, then a second overpass kill in a row forced a CSU timeout at 20-17. Set point came at 24-20, then was finished off two plays later on a Schneggenburger kill.
 
SET FOUR
An early challenge flipped the score to CSU for a 4-3 lead, CSU's fourth won challenge of the night. A three-point Buff run opened up the scoring to 10-7, forcing a CSU timeout. A call went CSU's way at 10-9, challenged by Mahoney successfully for a three-point lead at 11-8. CU grew the lead to five before the Rams strung together three-straight at 14-12. CSU tied things up at 15 off of a pair of blocks to force a CU timeout. Mahoney challenged the following play that had a called tip, but the play stood. Colorado flipped the lead on a three-point run to 18-17, then the Rams returned the favor as the teams kept trading leads. The trade continued to a 22-21 CSU advantage, forcing a CU timeout. Match point came two plays later at 24-21, but the Buffs turned back two match points to force a CSU timeout at 24-23. A set error tied things up at 24, then an attack error flipped to set point for Colorado. A kill and a block error flipped it back to match point. Colorado survived one more after losing a net battle, but fell 28-26.
 
QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On The Match
"It certainly was a competitive volleyball match, great match environment. We struggled in the first sets, kind of going down towards the end of that, I felt like we're in a good place in set two. We were up a decent amount and started struggling with our serve and pass. Switched to the 6-2 in sets three and four. We did that mostly just because they were scoring really well with their left side hitters and we wanted to put a bigger block up as much as possible and I think that was successful in sets three and four. Came down to endgame in set four. Some plays we normally make we let go. The good thing is everything we struggle with tonight is under our control and we get to turn right back around and play a match tomorrow which I think it'd be really competitive as well and I expect us to play better."
 
On Adjustments For Tomorrow
"We've got to watch film, right. So we will watch film and see what they're doing. We have a sense of it during the match but films a better way of being objective. We'll see how they set up their defense. See what worked for us and what we struggled with. But I'm not sure we need to adjust what we were doing against them. We just have to execute what we need to do a little bit better."
 
On The Sellout Crowd
"It's a great environment. We really enjoyed it, it was competitive. The only issue is being able to hear each other out there but that's for everybody. That's not just us. That's both sides. I don't think that was a factor that affected us too much. We are excited to play tomorrow."