Buffs Revive for Reverse Sweep Over Knights

BOULDER – The Colorado volleyball team (12-2, 3-0 Big 12) defeated UCF (10-4, 1-2 Big 12) in five sets (21-25, 30-32, 25-17, 25-23, 22-20) at CU Events Center on Thursday, Oct. 2.

The Buffaloes played their longest match of the season, with two deuce sets. Junior pin attacker Ana Burilovic saw a career-high 32 kills, and junior pin attacker Sydney Jordan recorded her second double-double of the season.

"Really gritty match. Really good volleyball played by both sides," head coach Jesse Mahoney said. "In my pre-match talk, I talked about how even these two teams are. It really just came down to one play here or there. […] Happy to get out with a win, and we have another really good team coming in here on Saturday. We have to get ready."

The Buffs out-blocked (17-15) and out-aced (9-6) the Knights. Colorado held UCF to .143 hitting in the fourth set.

"This is a really good league, and we're going to play 15 more hard-fought matches. We will take wins any way we can get them," Mahoney said. "We'll take them in three, we'll take them in five. We'll take 18-16 in the fifth. We'll take any way we can get it. Every match is going to be a learning experience for this team. We've had a lot of success, which is exciting. We feel good about that, but we come out flat and don't execute, and that success goes out the window. We did a really nice job of realizing that. We rebounded and played really clean after that first set, and hopefully it's a little bit of a lesson for us."

KEY PLAYERS:

Jr. PIN Ana Burilovic earned a career-high 32 kills and a season-high five aces. She also recorded a career-high six blocks (two solo), six digs and one assist. She also reached a career-high 41 points. Burilovic is the first person to have over 30 kills in a single match since Taylor Simpson at CSU on Dec. 6, 2014. She is the 13th player in CU history to reach 30 or more kills.
BURILOVIC ON FOCUS IN-MATCH: "I just try to stay calm. I actually feel emotions after the game, especially if it's crunch time. […] I just think about what I'm going to do next and how we can win the next point."
Jr. PIN Sydney Jordan earned her second double-double of the season (eighth of her career) with a season-high 18 kills – matching her career-high – and a career-high 18 digs. She also reached a career-high with 50 attacks and matched her career-high in blocks for the second time this season with four blocks, including one solo block and three block assists. She also reached a new career-high in points with 22.5.
Sr. DS/L Sarah Morton recorded 17 digs and four assists.
MORTON ON STAYING LEVEL: "I'm a very emotional player. […] We remind each other that pressure is a privilege. We take big, deep breaths as a team, and we tell each other we are confident in ourselves. We don't need to change anything that we're doing. This is the situation we are in, and we're grateful for that, and we're going to work our butts off, and at the end of the day, as long as we fight as hard as we can, that's all that matters."
So. MB Maria Splawska led the match in blocks with eight. She also saw three digs and two kills.
Jr. MB Cayla Payne matched her season-high of six block assists, and she had four kills and three digs.
Sr. S Rian Finley saw 47 assists, three kills, three blocks and three digs.
Jr. PIN Lily Dwinell recorded six kills, hitting .312 (1e, 16att), three blocks, two digs and matched her career-high with one ace.
Jr. DS/L Peyton Neal saw seven digs, two assists and one ace.
So. DS/L/S Katie Salonga recorded a career-high seven assists, as well as one dig, and So. PIN Gwen Schiff saw one kill.
For the Knights, Avah Armour recorded 30 kills and seven digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Colorado started the first set with a solo block from Burilovic and an ace from Jordan (2-0, CU). The Knights saw four unanswered points, but a kill from Finley brought CU within two (8-6, CU). The Buffs called their first timeout after three UCF points (13-8, UCF). Back-to-back kills from Payne and Jordan forced the Knights to call a timeout of their own (19-13, UCF). The Black and Gold went on a 4-0 run as the Knights approached set-point, including two aces from Burilovic (24-21, UCF). The Knights called a timeout and came back to the court to take the first set (25-21, UCF).
The Buffs started set two by doubling the score of UCF after back-to-back kills from Finley (6-3, CU). A kill from Jordan kept the Buffs tied with the Knights (13-13). A three-point run from the Buffs led to UCF calling its first timeout of the set (18-16, CU). UCF called its second timeout after a kill and a block from Payne (22-19, CU). After three points from the Knights, Colorado called its own timeout (22-22). The Buffs called their second timeout, seeing the continuation of the Knights momentum (24-23, UCF). CU became shareholders of the energy as they tied the match (24-24). Set two totaled eight set-points, but after transactionally trading scores, UCF took the second set (32-30, UCF).
The Black and Gold went on an early 3-0 run, seeing two kills from Burilovic (4-1, CU). The Knights called a timeout after a Burilovic ace (8-3, CU). The Buffs continued their seven-point run with two more aces from Burilovic (12-3, CU). A kill from Jordan put the Buffs at a 10-point lead (16-6, CU). UCF called its second timeout after another Burilovic kill (19-9, CU). After an investigation into a challenged call was unsuccessful, Colorado found its momentum with a kill from Payne and an ace from Dwinell to take the third set (25-17, CU).
The fourth set saw a slower start from the Buffs (4-1, UCF). A 3-0 run, including kills from Jordan and Burilovic, tied the match (7-7). A Splawska-Dwinell block put the Buffs in the lead (9-8, CU). The Knights called two timeouts during a 5-0 run from CU (18-15, CU). Colorado called its own timeout after UCF went on a short run (20-19, CU). UCF called its second timeout, and the Buffs returned to the court for a Splawska-Burilovic block (24-21, CU). The Buffs took the fourth set, 25-23.
Colorado went on two 3-0 runs to take the lead in the fifth set, causing UCF to call a timeout (7-3, CU). A Splawska-Jordan block continued the energy for the Buffs (10-7, CU). The Knights were forced to call their second timeout following a kill and block from Splawska (12-10, CU). Coming back from a CU timeout, Dwinell's kill brought the Buffs to match point (14-12, CU). The Buffs and the Knights battled over nine match points, with kills from Jordan, Dwinell and Burilovic, but Colorado ultimately took the fifth set (22-20, CU).

UP NEXT

Colorado hosts Houston this Saturday, Oct. 4, at CU Events Center at 1 p.m. MT. The matches will be streamed on ESPN+, and fans can follow along via live stats links on CUBuffs.com.

MATCH NOTES:

The Buffs improve to 5-0 all-time against the Knights.
Colorado had more kills blocks (17-15) and aces (9-6) than UCF.
Burilovic is the first person to have over 30 kills in a single match since Taylor Simpson at CSU on Dec. 6, 2014. She is the 13th player in CU history to reach 30 or more kills.
The Buffaloes got their second 3-2 win of the season and are 2-0 in five-set matches.
Five Buffs reached either a career or season high against the Knights.

For more information on the Colorado women's volleyball team, a complete schedule and results, please visit CUBuffs.com. Fans of the Buffs can follow the team through the camera lens on Instagram and on Twitter @CUBuffsVB.

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Team Stats

Ana Burilović

Sydney Jordan

Lily Dwinell

Cayla Payne

Players Mentioned

Lily Dwinell

Rian Finley

Sydney Jordan

Sarah Morton

Peyton Neal

Cayla Payne

Katie Salonga

Gwen Schiff

Taylor Simpson

Players Mentioned

Lily Dwinell

Rian Finley

Sydney Jordan

Sarah Morton

Peyton Neal

Cayla Payne

Katie Salonga

Gwen Schiff

Taylor Simpson