No. 19 Buffs Cruise Past California
BERKELEY, Calif. — The University of Colorado volleyball team completed the season sweep of the California Bears with a three-set victory (30-28, 25-16, 25-19) on Friday night at Haas Pavilion.
The win is the first in Berkeley for the No. 19 Buffaloes as they improved to 18-11 (10-7 Pac-12) with their third straight win. The Bears fell to 9-18 overall, 1-16 in the Pac-12. . The 10 conference wins are the most for the Buffs since 2006 when CU was 12-8 in the Big 12.
"I'm proud of the overall level of play,” head coach Liz Kritza said. “I'm proud that we were able to come in and take care of business in this fashion. I like that we saw new faces on the floor. It's important we keep players fresh, that we're making sure we have them recovered and healthy, and that we have as many players ready as we're going into these last three matches in conference play, and looking toward the postseason, because the competition is only getting tougher.
“Cal's record is not indicative of the level of play of this team,” she added. “They're a really good team with good players and they’re well-coached. I think there were some key points where they were testing us, and I think we got better as a team tonight. That's the biggest thing I'll take from this.”
Senior Taylor Simpson recorded a match-best 17 kills to lead CU and hit .333 with just three errors on 42 attacks, while junior Alexis Austin had 13 kills in the win. Simpson also had 10 digs and one block solo.
"Alexis [Austin] and Taylor [Simpson] do what they do for us,” Kritza said. “They were strong on the left pin. Alexis had a tough time in the first set but climbed out of it and that's what she does. She'll show up, she's a gamer and she makes sure she does what she needs to for the team. Taylor is steady and stable, as consistent as she's ever been, and I think that's her biggest strength. She had another double-double tonight; she leads this team in attacking but she also plays great defense and really keeps us together on the serve-receive.”
As a team, CU had 56 kills in the match and hit .305. Junior Nicole Edelman recorded 28 assists and freshman Gabby Simpson added 18 assists and also had eight kills.
"I thought it was a really good team performance,” Kritza said. “Both [Nicole] Edelman and Gabby [Simpson] did a good job flipping into the different line-ups that we have and we want to have everything prepared as we're getting into the tail end of the season. So credit to both of them.”
Three other Buffs added to the offense. Freshman Anna Pfefferle, sophomore Katelyn Cuff and senior Neira Ortiz Ruiz each tallied six kills. Cuff recorded a .600 hitting efficiency with no errors on 10 attacks.
CU out-dug the Bears 53-45. Sophomore Cierra Simpson had a match-best 21 digs, marking the 10th match this season that she has notched 20 or more digs in a match.
Christina Higgins led the Bears with 15 kills. Cal hit .195 with 40 kills and 17 errors on 195 attacks. Maddy Kerr had a team-best 15 digs.
The first set was a close one with 14 ties and five lead changes. The Buffs took their first lead of the match after Pfefferle posted a block (16-15), but Cal responded with three straight points (18-16), forcing CU to take a timeout. The Buffs fought back and evened the score at 19-19. The score was tied again four times before CU had its first set point (24-23). Cal answered and the two sides exchanged points before the Bears took two straight to get their first set point of the match (27-26). CU fought it off, but Cal took the next point for another set point (28-27). The Buffs had enough and recorded three straight points to finish the set 30-28.
"Cal pressed us in the first set, where they were ahead and we had to just buckle down and make sure we went back to playing high-level volleyball,” Kritza said. “We were undisciplined; I think we got a little unfocused for a few points and it's dangerous. All the teams in this league have people that can score and it's dangerous if we lose focus for those points. I'm glad we were able to come back and pull it out in the first set. We went back to basics and went back to running our offense quickly and playing disciplined defense.”
The Buffs took a 13-7 lead to start the second set, causing Cal to use its first timeout. CU didn’t let up and increased the advantage to 18-10, forcing the Bears to take their final timeout of the set. The Buffs kept attacking and had a nine-point lead at 20-11. Cal recorded a 4-2 run to cut into CU’s lead (22-15), but the Buffs held the Bears off, finishing the game 25-16.
Colorado had a great start to the third set, taking an 11-4 advantage. The Buffs increased the lead to 14-6, forcing Cal to take a timeout. The Bears took the first point out of the break and recorded a 5-3 run to cut CU’s lead to six points (17-11), causing the Buffs to spend a timeout. Cal kept chipping away and eventually got within three points (21-18), but the Buffs recorded the next three points to get to match point (24-18). CU took the set and the match two points later with a kill from Taylor Simpson (25-19).
"We got a far enough lead [in the third set] that we were having multiple players go in,” Kritza said. “Credit to them [Cal]; they made another big push and I'm pleased with how we responded. We really just had to buckle down, take a deep breath, and we had to regroup and go back to our point scoring, go back to scoring on the serve, making defensive plays and turning those into points for us, and that's what allowed us to pull away, come away with the third set, and eventually the match.”
The Buffs will face No. 1 Stanford on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. MT at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Calif. The match will be streamed live at http://pac-12.com/videos/stanford-university.