BOULDER?The University of Colorado volleyball team defeated Texas Tech 30-25, 30-23, 30-19 here tonight at the Coors Events Center. CU improves to 13-7 overall and is 9-6 in the Big 12 while TTU fell to 11-14 overall and 4-10 in the Big 12.
It is the seventh straight win for the Buffs and is the longest win streak for CU since 1998 with the Buffs won 10 straight.
“I think we started out really well,” Colorado Head Coach Pi'i Aiu said. “We didn't play really good defense early on and I think we keep turning up the heat and turning up the heat on them.”
Colorado got on the board right away and took off with a 4-1 lead. The Buffs held on to the lead, but the Red Raiders closed in on CU at 13-12. Amber Sutherland hammered one down to put the Buffs up again by two and Ashley Nu'u tacked another on point. The Red Raiders closed in again on the Buffs, and tied the score at 17. CU took a timeout and took the next four points to regain the lead and forced TTU to use its own timeout. This time the Red Raiders came back with three of their own before Allie Griffin recorded a kill for CU. TTU came back again to tie the score at 23, but once again a kill from Sutherland put the Buffs ahead. Lara Bossow added another point for Colorado and the Red Raiders took their final timeout. CU went on to take the game 30-25, while hitting .444.
The second set started with each side exchanging points until the Buffs went up 12-10. The Red Raiders quickly tied it back up at 13 and the two teams continued to go back and forth. The Buffs took their largest lead of the match at 20-17 and extended it to 23-19. Colorado controlled the rest of the game and went on to a 30-23 win in the second frame. The Buffs hit .368 in the frame and held TTU to a .184 attack percentage.
The Buffs got out to a 6-2 advantage in the third frame, but TTU came back with the next four points to even the score. Griffin came back with a kill to give the Buffs back the lead. CU went on a 6-0 run and led 12-6. Colorado continued the attack, forcing Texas Tech to take a timeout at 16-8. The Buffs wouldn't let up and finished the match 30-19. CU finished off the match hitting .312.
Lauren Schaefer was perfect with seven kills and hit .700 for a match-best. Sutherland collected 14 kills and hit .320 to lead the Buffs. Griffin tallied 13 kills and added four assists, five digs, an ace and one block. Nicole Carr came up with 10 kills, five digs and hit .391. Nu'u handed out 45 assists and added four kills and three blocks.
“The better and better she (Lauren Schaefer) plays, the better and better the team plays,” Aiu said. “A lot of that has to do with how she is playing in practice and how she is being challenged in practice. I think everyone is doing a real great job right now and we are real happy with the team. I think we are doing a lot of great things.”
Colorado hit .377, the second-highest percentage of the season. The Buffs held the Red Raiders to a .107 attack percentage. CU amassed 55 kills on 106 attempts and committed just 15 errors while TTU collected just 36 kills on 103 attacks with 25 errors.
Colorado will host No. 14 Texas on Wed., Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. The match will be televised live on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain. It is Youth Night and anyone 13 and under gets in for $1. CU will also hold its annual autograph night. The Buffs are currently receiving votes in the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Poll.
