Spikers Fall At No. 4 Hawaii

HONOLULU - The No. 21 Colorado volleyball team (0-3) dropped their third loss of the season to the No. 4 Hawaii Rainbows (2-0) 18-30, 21-30, 22-30 Sunday night in their third match of the 15th Annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic here at the University of Hawaii.

"I'm really pleased with our performance this weekend," Colorado head coach Pi'i Aiu said. "We have some things to work on, but I think overall we got a good look at our freshmen and we know now what areas we need improvement in. We fought pretty hard tonight. We are capable of playing a little better than we did tonight against Hawaii, but not much. Hawaii presents so many match-up problems for us. We have to play pretty much perfectly in order to have a chance against them. All in all though, I think we played pretty well."

Junior middle blocker Monique Gerlach finished the match with a team-high 12 kills on the night with six digs as she hit .273 for the Buffaloes. Freshman right side Drew Hays led CU with a .385 mark on the night, grabbing six kills with only one error on 13 attacks. Senior setter Elizabeth Gower grabbed a double-double for the Buffs as she tallied 32 assists and 13 digs.

CU hit .141 to UH's .319 hitting percentage. The Rainbows out-blocked the Buffs 10.5 to three. Colorado hasn't opened a season 0-3 since 1986 when they dropped season openers to Iowa State, Montana State, and New Mexico and finished 6-18 overall in the program's first season, but has never opened a season against three ranked teams.

The Buffaloes will now return home to Boulder, where they will have a two-day layover before venturing to the Loyola Marymount University Classic September 6-7 in Los Angeles, Calif. There Colorado will face Saint Louis, Notre Dame, and Loyola Marymount before they open the regular season at home against Colorado State Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Coors Events/Conference Center in Boulder.