BOULDER ? No. 10 Texas hit .325 and had 24 kills from Brandy Magee as the Longhorns swept the season series from Colorado with a 30-19, 29-31, 30-17, 30-19 Big 12 Conference win Wednesday evening at the Coors Events Conference Center.
Colorado drops to 11-10 overall and remains in sixth place in the Big 12 at 6-8. Texas improves to 20-2 overall and is second in the Big 12 at 12-2.
The Longhorns demonstrated early why they entered the match as the top hitting percentage team in the conference (.318). Texas had eight kills on its first nine attacks and put down 12 of its first 15 to build a 20-9 lead. Magee had eight of her 24 kills in game one alone as the Longhorns finished at .516 (20 kills-4 errors-31 attacks). CU hit just .032 in game one with 10 kills on 31 attacks with nine errors.
Colorado did rebound in game two, and did it with defense. Texas' hitting percentage sank to .106 (17k-12-e-47att) thanks in part to Buffaloes blocking. After being shut out of the block column in game one, the Buffs had eight in the second frame. Sophomores Ashley Nu'u and Lara Bossow each had five block assists including a pair which erased one Texas match point and set the Buffs up with one of their own. CU took advantage of a Magee hitting error to take game two 31-29.
“In the second game we took advantage of some of their mistakes which is something we need to focus more on,” CU outside hitter Nicole Carr said.
Texas regrouped for games three and four hitting a combined .384 in the two frames compared to just .108 for the Buffaloes. The Longhorns took advantage of six and seven point spurts during the mid points of both games to pull away.
“We did a lot of good things,” CU head coach Pi'i Aiu said. “There were points where we were tied with them have seven straight points and we get beat. They (Texas) weren't beating us the whole game, they beat us in short blocks of time.”
Junior Allie Griffin had 12 kills and 11 digs but hit a season low -.048 as she had 14 errors on 42 attacks. Nu'u, who had 37 assists, hit .727 recording eight kills on 11 blocks with no errors. Bossow finished with a match-high seven blocks and had five kills. Amber Nu'u had six kills and registered 10 digs.
Colorado will play a ranked team for the second straight match as the Buffs travel to face No. 14 Texas A&M on Sunday, Nov. 7, in a 12:30 MST start in College Station, Texas.
