Colorado
5-6 (0-2)
Nebraska
9-2 (2-0)
Volleyball Falls To No. 8 Nebraska
September 19, 2009 | Volleyball
BOULDER— Despite putting up a season-best 13.0 total blocks, the University of Colorado volleyball team was unable to defeat the Huskers and fell 15-25, 22-25 and 13-25 on Saturday night at the Coors Events Center in front of 2,155 fans.
Colorado falls to 5-6 overall (0-2 Big 12) while the Huskers improve to 9-2 (2-0 Big 12).
The Buffs out-blocked Nebraska 13.0 to 7.0 in part to three players with four blocks apiece. Rosie Steinhaus put up one solo and three assists while Alex Penewell had four block assists and Kaitlyn Burkett recorded a pair of solos and a pair of assists. Nikki Kinzer added three block assists and Kerra Schroeder got in on the block party with one solo and two assists.
“Our team blocking performance tonight is very important to our team's progress,” head coach Liz Kritza said. “This team has to be strategic to be able to play this game at a high level. We are learning what it means to have different types of blocking strategies, and need to continue working on executing those strategies appropriately. Our team systems must be our team strength, and our blocking system tonight is responsible for a season high blocks against on the best teams in the country. That's a good highlight for this young group, and we are building on it.”
Colorado hit just .042 in the match and tallied just 19 kills. Becah Fogle hammered six of those and Steinhaus tallied five. Nebraska recorded a .183 percentage for the match with 41 kills. Lindsey Licht led the Huskers with 16.
The first set started off close for the two teams with Nebraska taking a slight lead at 9-7. After that, NU started to put back-to-back points on the board and pulled away from the Buffs. The Huskers took control of the set and ended the frame with a 9-2 run to take the set 25-15. Colorado was held to a .100 attack percentage and recorded just seven kills, while the Huskers hit .343 with 17 kills.
The Buffs took their first lead of the match in the second set at 5-4 and extended it to 8-4 on a 5-0 run before Nebraska called a timeout. The timeout worked for a moment as the Huskers took the next point, but CU came back with the next five straight to take the lead at 13-5; forcing NU to spend its last timeout. Nebraska used a 6-0 run to get back within a point at 16-17 and retook the lead at 19-18. The two continued to side out until the Huskers won 25-22. This time The Buffs held NU to a .000 hitting percentage but only hit .077 themselves.
“It started out kind of slow, but we gained some momentum in the second game,” Steinhaus said. “We have to capitalize on that and close when we have the lead.”
The Huskers got out to a 6-3 lead in the final set and never let go. CU wasn't able to side out well in the set and the Huskers put multiple points together to control the set. Nebraska ended the set with six straight points. The Buffs hit under .000 at -.115 with just three kills for the entire set. NU hit .179 with 11 kills.
“When playing a team like Nebraska, any time they put together four or five points; it can be very difficult to close that gap,” Kritza said. “They have enough offensive ability to side out at a high pace, so it's difficult to match that pace when we start off down by four or five points. We can close that gap in the first part of the set, but it gets harder in the last phase of the set. On the flip side, in set two, we were able to execute our game plan and gain a nice lead on them. Unfortunately, their same ability to sideout quickly allowed them to close that gap and put pressure back on us to the point where we could not hold our own serve receive together to fight off their surge. In volleyball, those are the perils of momentum swings.”
The Buffs will continue their home stand with a pair of matches next week. They will host No. 2 Texas on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Oklahoma on Saturday, Sept. 26. Both matches are set of a 7 p.m. start.
"We have another tough match ahead of us next week, so we will get back to work to prepare to play an even higher level of volleyball next time we take the court," Kritza said.
Don't forget to check out the latest news and highlights with head coach Liz Kritza on the Buffalo Stampede: Volleyball Edition, exclusively on BuffsTV at www.cubuffs.com/volleyball. New shows air every Tuesday.
COLORADO BUFFALOES
Quotes:
HEAD COACH LIZ KRITZA
“Our team blocking performance tonight is very important to our team's progress. This team has to be strategic to be able to play this game at a high level. We are learning what it means to have different types of blocking strategies, and need to continue working on executing those strategies appropriately. Our team systems must be our team strength, and our blocking system tonight is responsible for a season high blocks against on the best teams in the country. That's a good highlight for this young group, and we are building on it.”
“When playing a team like Nebraska, any time they put together four or five points; it can be very difficult to close that gap. They have enough offensive ability to side out at a high pace, so it's difficult to match that pace when we start off down by four or five points. We can close that gap in the first part of the set, but it gets harder in the last phase of the set. On the flip side, in set two, we were able to execute our game plan and gain a nice lead on them. Unfortunately, their same ability to sideout quickly allowed them to close that gap and put pressure back on us to the point where we could not hold our own serve receive together to fight off their surge. In volleyball, those are the perils of momentum swings.”
"We have another tough match ahead of us next week, so we will get back to work to prepare to play an even higher level of volleyball next time we take the court."
OUTSIDE HITTER ROSIE STEINHAUS
ON THE LOSS—“It started out kind of slow, but we gained some momentum in the second game. We have to capitalize on that and close when we have the lead.”
ON CROWD IMPACT—“You just have to block it out. You don't see the red. You just hear the cheering and sometimes it's for you.”
ON UPCOMING SCHEDULE—“We have Texas coming up, so that is going to be really tough too. We have to learn from the things we didn't do well, and from those we did do well. We have to carry that over into Next Wednesday.”
ON BLOCKING—“We had a strategy we were trying to put in place, and we did a good job of executing that.”
OUTSIDE HITTER BECAH FOGLE
ON MOMENTUM—“We need to keep our pace up and execute.”
ON CROWD IMPACT—“I like it. I like having people in the stands. “
ON GOOD BLOCKING—“Usually we have a good strategy, and we executed pretty well.”
