BOULDER?The 25th-ranked University of Colorado dropped a heart-breaker to the No. 11 University of Texas 27-30, 32-30, 23-30, 30-25, 15-17 here tonight in front of 1,302 at the Coors Events Center. It was the third largest home-crowd of the season.
The Buffs fell to 13-8 overall and are 9-7 in the Big 12. The loss snapped a seven-match win streak for Colorado; the longest since 1998 when the Buffs won 10 straight.
The Longhorns got off to a quick start in the first game, taking a 8-3 lead. CU fired back with four consecutive points to get back within one. The Buffs keep with it and tied the score at 12 with a block by Amber Sutherland and Lara Bossow and went ahead on a kill from Sutherland. Texas pulled ahead with four straight points before CU called a timeout. The Longhorns continued to dominate and built a six-point lead at 24-18. Colorado continued to fight back and closed the gap to three points at 28-25, forcing UT to use a timeout. Texas took the first point, but the Buffs fought off the first game points with kills from Nicole Carr, but couldn't finish off the comeback. Texas won the game 30-27. The Longhorns hit .289 in the frame while CU hit .263. Each team tallied 18 kills on 38 attempts. The Buffs recorded eight errors to UT's seven.
Colorado pulled out to a 5-3 advantage in the second game, but the Longhorns came right back with four straight points to take back the lead. The Buffs pulled back within three at 14-11. CU kept going and came within one point at 15-14. A kill from Sutherland tied it up and the Longhorns took a timeout. UT took the point off of the break to regain the lead, but Lauren Schaefer hammered one down for the Buffs. Once again Texas went up and Sutherland answered back with another kill. The two sides went back and fourth until UT took a 20-18 advantage. Griffin came back with a pair of kills to tie it back up. The Longhorns went up to a 25-23 lead and CU took its first timeout. The Buffs got back in the game and fought off three game points. CU tied the game at 29, 30 and went up 31-30. UT fired back with a kill to even the score at 31, but Carr hammered another kill to put the Buffs up again and Sutherland finished the game 33-31. Colorado hit .419 in the game and held the Longhorns to a .269 hitting percentage.
The third game began with two points in favor of the Longhorns, but Carr put the Buffs on the board with her eighth kill of the night. CU went up 4-3 on an error by Texas. The Buffs went up 7-5 with an ace by Therese Vinal, but the Longhorns came back and eventually took a 15-12 lead. Colorado tied it back up at 18 with a kill from Sutherland. The Longhorns took the next four points, causing CU to take a timeout. Texas closed the set at 30-23. The Longhorns hit .274 and held the Buffs to .070.
Texas took a 6-4 lead to start the fourth game. CU put the pressure on and came within one at 10-9, forcing UT to use a timeout. Sutherland tallied a kill off of the timeout to even it up. The Buffs took the lead at 13-12 off a Bossow kill and Griffin tacked another on for CU. Colorado went up 17-13, which made Texas use its final timeout of the match. Griffin tacked another on after the timeout. The Longhorns took the next three points, forcing CU to use a timeout of its own. Schaefer tipped one over to get the Buffs back on track after the break. Colorado pulled out to six-point lead at 27-21. Schaefer finished the match with a kill as the Buffs won the set 30-25. CU hit .367 in the set with 12 kills on 30 attacks and just one error. The Buffs kept Texas to a .089 attack percentage.
The deciding game started off 3-1 in favor of Texas. CU came back to tie it up at 4, but UT took the next point. Schaefer tallied another kill tie even it back at five, but the Longhorns came back with a kill of their own to get the lead back. CU took the next three points to go up 8-7. Texas took the next three points, but a kill from Schaefer brought the Buffs back within one. Another kill from Sutherland tied the frame at 10. Texas took the next two points and Colorado took its final timeout at 10-12. CU tied it back up at 14 and then again at 15 before Texas took the next two points and the match at 17-15.
“I don't think we served real well tonight,” Colorado Head Coach Pi'i Aiu said. “We missed too many serves and left them off the hook when we had them in trouble. That's one thing. It's disappointing to lose that way, but we battled out hearts out and we let our hearts show and we can't be too disappointed.”
“I think we are playing well,” Aiu said. “And if we continue to do the things that we are doing, we are going to be fine. Now our push needs to be to see if we can beat a team like that. We have a couple more opportunities to play top-10, top-five teams in Nebraska and Florida, but we have Baylor first and Baylor is a real good team. And Texas A&M is a real good team. We can't look ahead at all. We need to be firmly focused on Baylor.”
Colorado had five players hit in double-digits. Sutherland led the pack with 20 kills and Griffin notched 19. Carr recorded 14 and Schaefer was one off of her career-high with 12. Lara Bossow collected 12 kills and hit a team-best .611. Sutherland and Carr each picked up 13 digs.
The Buffs hit .272 and held Texas to a .242 percentage. The Longhorns recorded 19 blocks, while CU tallied 12.
The Buffs are back on the court on Sat., Nov. 12 against Baylor in Waco, Texas. The match is set for an 7 p.m. (CT) start.
