Buffs Rally Late In Loss To Washington

BOULDER — The University of Colorado women's volleyball team fell in four sets (25-19, 25-17, 22-25, 25-23) here Sunday afternoon to No.15-ranked Washington.
 
The Buffaloes (13-5, 5-3 Pac-12) rallied back late in the final two sets, but could not handle the attack from Washington (14-4, 6-2 Pac-12).
 
Maya Tabron had an exception game, hitting .333 with 19 kills to lead Colorado. Lexi Hadrych added in a dozen kills to go along with Meegan Hart's nine kills. Colorado spread out the offense with Taylor Simpson and Brynna DeLuzio recording 25 and 18 assists to six different hitters.
 
Defensively, Hart had a match-high seven blocks while libero Katie Lougeay had 15 digs. Simpson, Tabron and DeLuzio were all just a couple of digs shy of double-doubles with DeLuzio recording nine while Tabron and Simpson had eight.
 
Washington picked up the win leading every set in kills, including 19 in the second. The Buffs forced Washington into 25 attack errors, but Claire Hoffman's 22 kills proved to be the difference.
 
The Buffaloes close out the first half of Pac-12 play on the road at Oregon and Oregon State next weekend.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE:
Washington jumped out to a 6-3 lead, then the Buffs closed the gap to 8-7 on a three-point run. The teams traded ties with Washington keeping the advantage. UW took a three-point run into the media timeout, 15-11, hitting .238 to CU's .103. Tabron led all hitters early with five kills on a .500 hitting percentage. Washington hit the 20-point mark with a six-point lead. Set point came at 24-17, then finished two plays later at 25-19. Both Hadrych and Tabron had six kills, but eight attack errors were the difference in the set for Washington.
 
SET TWO:
Colorado had two three-point runs to a 7-5 lead before Washington responded with four of their own. Another kill forced a CU timeout at 10-7. Washington took the lead to 17-9 before CU took another timeout with Washington hitting .360 in the set. Hoffman continued to lead the Huskies with 12 kills hitting .600 without an error to a 22-15 lead. Set point came at 24-16, finishing it off a play later. Tabron and Hadrych had nine and eight kills, respectfully. Washington had 10 more kills in the set than the Buffaloes, finishing with 19.
 
SET THREE:
Colorado jumped out to a 4-1 lead behind a pair of kills from Hart. The Huskies claimed the lead on a four-point run at 8-7. Colorado challenged a play at 12-8 with Washington on a four-point run despite Tabron earning her 10th kill of the match hitting .381. The play was overturned and CU used the momentum to tie it up at 11. A block from Tabron and Hart flipped the lead on a four-point run for Colorado. The Buffaloes earned the slight lead at the media timeout, 15-14, with the team hitting .333 in the set. Washington flipped the lead to 18-16 on a four-point run to force a CU timeout. Hart served up an ace to tie things at 18. CU responded with a 4-1 run to 22-20, forcing a UW timeout. Tabron set up set point at 24-20 on a four-point run. After Washington turned back a pair, Mahoney called timeout to father for the next receive. Tabron finished it off a play later, leading CU to a .303 hitting percentage in the set.
 
SET FOUR:
Washington built a quick 5-1 lead, then pushed it to 8-3 before a CU timeout. The Buffs battled to a one-point game at 11-10, then traded points to 15-13 with Tabron earning kill 17. CU called its final timeout down 20-15 with Hoffman and Tabron battling with 19 and 17 kills, respectfully. Washington challenged a play unsuccessfully at 21-17 with the Buffs closing in on a tie. CU challenged a play at 23-18, successfully flipping the score to 22-19 with Lougeay at the line to serve. Tabron put down her 19th kill to give CU a four-point run and close the gap to one. The teams traded points before another Washington timeout at 23-22. CU tied it up at 23, but a service error set up match point for the Huskies. An over pass finished things off with a joust at the net being called a block error on Simpson.
 
QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
 
On The Overall Match
"Obviously frustrated with the loss. That being said, Washington's a very good team and they played at a really high level for four sets and I felt like we played at a really high level for two sets. After the match, in our quick huddle, we have that level in us, we just have to be able to sustain it throughout matches, especially against teams that put pressure on you the entire time, which Washington did, certainly from the service line and blocking and hopefully it's something we can learn from as we as we go on the road and play a couple of really good teams next week. Every week is another opportunity to get better and another opportunity for us to play at the level we need to. Overall, I do think it was a good weekend for us. We feel like we're in a really good place and we'll go back to the drawing board and get ready to get on the road."
 
On The Offense
"I think when we're passing well, both of our setters, I think do a really nice job and are deceptive and can spread the ball around. The outsides tend to get a lot more swings, we needed to find a couple more swings from some other of our players. That's not an indictment of our setting that's just us needing to be a little bit more in the system. Maya (Tabron) and Lexi (Hadrych) had been workhorses all season and especially against that block, I think we did a really nice job, finding ways to score."
 
Outside Hitter Maya Tabron
 
On Her Overall Performance Against A High-Ranked Team
"I would say the biggest thing was just telling myself to keep swinging. I know that they're going to get touches and they're going to get blocks and that rally is going to keep going. Sometimes we're going to get a kill and sometimes it's just going to be a good dig by them, so just telling myself to stay in the play, keep swinging high, knowing that my defenders are gonna be covering me. Also, I think that when we were able to get in system and our middles were able to hold, that really helped out the outside, and that really kind of started to scatter their block as well. That just really pushed us and levels us up as well."
 
On Playing More Ranked Teams
"I think that we've been able to see how well we can play against these teams. Obviously, we have two sets where we did pretty good and two sets where we did not so great. I think it's just finding that consistency and knowing that we can compete against these top teams. They're ranked 15th and we took them to four sets almost five. I think that we shouldn't be too down on ourselves like that because we have another chance to get them at the end of the season. If we just keep improving then we can do that."
 
Setter Brynna DeLuzio
 
On Her Season High In Assist
"I think we're good in system and rhythm it made it a lot easier to spread the ball around evenly throughout all our hitters. All of our hitters do a great job. It does make it harder when we do get out of the system but even in those times I know Maya took some really nice high tall swings even with a double block up so I think that's what we had to do and that's ultimately what they did when they forced us to give it to our outsides."
 
On Playing More Ranked Teams
"Well, we lost it. It doesn't feel good right now but we are playing. On Friday's match, I think that's some of the best volleyball we played all season and it's nice going into a team like Oregon and even Oregon State knowing that we can do it just by finding that consistency component this week with practice."