Evan Sanders Lobato - Volleyball Coach - University of Colorado Athletics

Arkansas

Sep 12 (Fri)

6 PM

Evan Sanders Lobato

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
evangella.sanders@colorado.edu

Colorado native Evan Sanders Lobato joined the University of Colorado as an assistant coach in February of 2016. The 2025 campaign will be her 10th season with the Buffs.

During the 2022 campaign, Sanders Lobato's' seventh year with the program, the Buffs went 20-11, earning 20 victories in a single season for the first time since 2017. It also marked the 12th time since the program began in 1988 where the team recorded 20 wins or more in a season. The team also made their 19th NCAA appearance. It was the squad's third NCAA run since Sanders Lobato joined the program.

The sixth season was headlined by breaking the volleyball school record with an undefeated 9-0 start. The hot start to the season helped the team to improve its home nonconference record to 24-2.

The Buffs witnessed Brynna DeLuzio break a single-season school record as she averaged 4.67 digs per set. The team finished with a 15-14 record overall.

The fifth season was different than any before with COVID canceling the fall season and pushing it to a conference only season in the spring. The team went 8-3 at home but were winless on the road in nine tries. The Buffs also dealt with a school record eight-straight matches against ranked opponents.

The Buffs saw good success against ranked opponents at home, taking down both No.11-ranked Utah at home in five sets and No.12 UCLA in four sets at home.

The fourth season saw the Buffs upset a top-five opponent for the first time in the Mahoney-era, sweeping No.5-ranked Illinois to begin the season 5-0. The team had a rocky start in conference play, but finished the final 10 matches even with two top-25 victories at UCLA and against Cal.

The team saw Meegan Hart named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week following the Illinois victory along with Jill Schneggenburger being named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. Freshman Sterling Parker also finished a Pac-12 All-Freshman selection and was named a volleyballmag.com Freshman All-America honorable mention.

The third season saw the Buffs return to the NCAA Tournament in just the second time in three years. CU recorded an 18-14 overall record and an even 10-10 Pac-12 mark to finish tied for sixth with Utah and Washington.

Colorado begun with a 8-3 non-conference record with the team missing All-American Naghede Abu for the first 10 matches. Abu and Alexa Smith showed out to defeat CSU in the final non-conference match, with Smith recording her 1,000th career kill for the Buffs.

CU began Pac-12 action with a 2-6 record, but turned it around after an injury forced Colorado to run a 5-1 offense with freshman setter Jenna Ewert. The Buffs picked up key wins against No.21 Washington, No.16 Oregon and secured an NCAA berth with a sweep of UCLA in Los Angeles.

The Buffs’ success led to Smith and Abu being named First Team All-Pac-12, First Team AVCA All-Regional, and Abu being named Third team All-America while Smith was an honorable mention. Additionally, Ewert and Anyse Smith were named Pac-12 All-Freshman.

Following the 2018 season, Mahoney and staff recruited eight players to the Buffs, cumulating in the 10th-ranked volleyball class by PrepVolleyball.com.

In 2017, Sanders Lobato helped Colorado return to the NCAA Tournament and advance to the sweet 16 round for the first time in 20 years. The Buffs recorded a 24-10 overall record, which was the third best win total for CU since becoming a varsity program. Colorado also earned a 12-8 mark in Pac-12 play, the most conference wins since becoming members of the league. CU finished tied for fifth in the Pac-12 standings.

The Buffs started the season off with a 10-1 record in non-conference action, which included wins at Illinois (3-2) and No. 22 Colorado State (3-2). The win at CSU was the first for CU since 1995. During the Pac-12 slate, CU recorded four wins against ranked opponents, which included a season sweep of Oregon, which was ranked 12^th and 15^th, respectively when the Buffs faced the Ducks. CU also picked up its first ever win against No. 19 Southern California, and defeated No. 11 Washington, both 3-0 in Boulder.

After finishing the regular season with a 22-9 record, the Buffs earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. CU swept its competition, first downing James Madison before knocking out the host, No. 17 Baylor, for CU’s first-ever true road match in the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs eventually fell to No. 5 Nebraska, the 2017 NCAA Champion, to finish the season. CU was ranked 19^th in the final AVCA Coaches Poll of the season.

In addition to the team’s success, several Buffs had outstanding individual seasons. Junior outside hitter Alexa Smith became CU’s first AVCA Second Team All-American and was named to the AVCA All-Pacific South Region and All-Pac-12 Teams.

Freshman setter Brynna DeLuzio had one of the best freshman seasons for a Buff, earning AVCA All-America honorable mention honors in addition to the VolleyballMag.Com All-Freshman Team and PrepVolleyball.Com All-Freshman Second Team. DeLuzio was the first Buff to earn the AVCA Pacific South Region Freshman of the Year award and was also selected to the AVCA all-region honorable mention team. She was a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honoree and earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention honors.

Three other Buffs earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention status: junior Naghede Abu, senior Joslyn Hayes and junior Frankie Shebby.

Sanders Lobato helped the Buffs to a 14-16 overall record in 2016, as well as a 6-14 mark in Pac-12 play. CU finished its non-conference slate with an 8-2 record, which included many huge wins. The Buffs recorded back-to-back wins against ranked opponents for the first time in school history when they took down No. 13 Penn State and No. 17 Illinois at the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge. CU also earned its first win against Colorado State since 2002, defeating the Rams 3-1.

During the Pac-12 schedule, the Buffs knocked off three more ranked opponents, one at home and two on the road. CU recorded a 3-1 win over No. 12 UCLA at Coors Events Center and knocked off No. 13 Washington State (3-2) in Pullman, Wash., which was the Cougars first home loss of the season. CU took down No. 17 Utah (3-2) in the final contest of the season in Salt Lake City.

The Buffs were ranked in the AVCA Poll for five weeks and reached as high as 16th. After they fell out of the poll, they were still receiving votes for another five weeks.

Several individual Buffs earned recognition during the season, most notably Gabby Simpson who was named to the AVCA All-Pacific South honorable mention team after she was selected to the All-Pac-12 honorable mention team. Simpson was joined on the all-conference team by Abu and Smith.

Sanders Lobato came to Colorado after serving one season as a volunteer assistant at the University of Texas. The Longhorns were the NCAA runner-up and finished the season with a 30-3 overall record. UT also won the Big 12 Conference with a 15-1 mark.

Prior to her year at Texas, Sanders Lobato played professional volleyball around the world, including Albi, France, Markopoulos, Greece and in the Professional Volleyball League for the Florida Wave.

During her collegiate career, Sanders Lobato spent time at Colorado State and the University of Washington. She played her senior season at UW, helping the Huskies to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Sanders played in all 32 matches and started in 21. She led the team with 794 assists and averaged 7.78 assists per set, which ranked 10^th in the Pac-12.

Sanders Lobato played three seasons at CSU (2008-10) while Mahoney was an associate head coach. The Rams advanced to three NCAA Tournaments and won three Mountain West Championships in that time. She was selected to the All-Mountain West team twice (2009 and ’10) and was an academic all-conference honoree (2010).

In the spring of 2010, Sanders made the U.S. National A2 Team as one of four setters on the select 24-player roster. She competed on the USA Blue squad that won the gold medal at the 2010 Volleyball Open National Championships in Phoenix.

The Lafayette, Colo., native graduated from Centaurus High School in 2008 where she lettered in volleyball, basketball and track. Lobato was a three-year captain and a four-year letterwinner on the volleyball team. During her senior year, she was named All-Colorado and to the Denver Post 4A First Team. Sanders was the Skyline Conference Player of the Year her senior, sophomore and freshman years and was an all-conference selection all four years. As a freshman, she was named a Volleyball Magazine Fab-50 Freshman.

Sanders Lobato is married to Seth Lobato and has three sons.