BOULDER ? Allie Griffin's 23 kills and Amber Sutherland's 20 kills helped carry the University of Colorado Buffaloes (4-1) in a come-from-behind victory over the Marquette University Golden Eagles (5-3) 3-2 on Saturday afternoon at the Coors Events Center 24-30, 23-30, 30-18, 30-28, 15-11. The win marks the second consecutive time the Buffs have come back to win a match in five games in the Colorado Invitational after dropping the first two. CU defeated San Diego last year at the invite 25-30, 30-32, 30-28, 30-21, 15-10.
“We play a non-conference schedule to try and get experience,” Colorado Head Coach Pi'i Aiu said. “A game five experience is a good experience for us. It would have been better if we had just taken care of business, but they are a good team.”
The Buffs started off slow, dropping the first two games 24-30, 23-30. CU registered 19 errors and hit just .103 while the Golden Eagles hit .213. Griffin and Sutherland had eight kills apiece and Lara Bossow recorded five.
Colorado's offense got into action in the third frame and took a lead at 7-6 before extending it to 19-14. The Buffs earned a 13 point advantage at 29-16 and finished off the game with a kill from Griffin at 30-18. CU recorded 17 kills on 36 attacks and hit only four errors for a .361 hitting percentage. Its defense held Marquette to a .091 attack percentage and forced nine hitting errors.
The Golden Eagles got out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth game, but CU fought back within two points at 10-12 with a kill from Carr. The Buffs and Marquette went back and forth until Colorado took a 24-23 lead. A Griffin kill set the Buffs up for its first game point, but Marquette's Kimberly Todd hammered one back to hold off CU. The Buffs won the game on a Marquette block error 30-28.
CU took the first two points of the final game and never looked back. The Golden Eagles tied it up at 3 and 4, but never took the lead. Lara Bossow hammered three kills in the last five points for the Buffs. Her last kill of the match made the score 14-10. Marquette's Todd tried to keep things going for the Golden Eagles with a kill, but CU's Carr answered back with a kill to finish of the game and the match at 15-11.
“We made a heart change, I think,” Griffin said. “We knew we had to change something and we weren't going to not win that (third) game, so going into the locker room, we did everything as if we hadn't started the match yet. We came out and played a whole different game.”
Colorado hit .391 (47 kills-11 errors-92 attacks) in the final three games. Griffin led the charge with 23 kills, seven digs, three block assists and hit .308. Sutherland's 20 kills marked a career-high. Carr and Bossow each recorded 12 kills and Carr picked up 17 digs as she played the second game at libero.
Todd led Marquette with 21 kills and hit .359. Theresa Coughlin added 13 kills and Jamie Mueller tallied 12 kills and 11 digs.
The Buffs are back in action on Wednesday, Sept. 14 when they will face 17th-ranked Texas at Austin. The match is slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. MT.
