Outsides Lead Colorado Past Kansas

Saturday, September 23

Boulder, Colo.

7 p.m.

Colorado

Kansas

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

September 23, 2006 | Volleyball

By: Linda Sprouse, Assistant SID

BOULDER ? The University of Colorado (7-4, 3-1 Big 12) outside hitters Mallori Gibson and Amber Sutherland led the Buffs past Kansas (8-5, 1-3 Big 12) 30-28, 22-30, 20-30, 30-19, 15-17 on Saturday night in front of 1,218 at the Coors Events Center. Gibson led CU with a career-high 18 kills, while Sutherland added 18 of her own in the win.

“I think Mal played a great match and Sutherland played a great match,” head coach Pi'I Aiu said. “I think we all played great when we needed to play great and when the game was on the line. I think we have to play great play after play after play and not give up so many.

”It's a great win and we are happy to take it, but we're looking at how we are playing overall and what we are doing overall to make some noise in this conference. We have to pick up some things over a longer period of time and be more consistent and not give up those bad games.”

Colorado came out strong in the first game, but dropped the next two in unusual fashion before they were able to make a run to take the fourth game and eventually win the fifth game.

“That's a pretty rare thing, I think, to get smoked like that in two games and be able to turn things around,” Aiu said.

“Between games three and four, all we talked about to the team was just kind of settling in and playing some simple volleyball. I think we were running all over the court and expecting them to do crazy things and if we just played simple volleyball like they were, simple good volleyball, we would at least be in the game. And it turned that we got away from them in game four.”

“I think we picked up a lot of intensity in the last couple of games,” Sutherland said. “Our energy level just sky-rocketed in the fifth game.”

The Buffs are 6-0 on their home court and are 2-0 in the conference when playing at home. The Buffs are taken advantage of the student section that has recently been showing up for matches.

“It was awesome,” Aiu said. “They pick us up. They stuck with us through the two bad games and as soon as we started playing well in game four, they were right in it and on top of Kansas and on top of us to keep us in it. It was a nice crowd. And the student section has been terrific.”

Colorado hit .256 for the match, while Kansas recorded a slightly lower attack percentage of .247. The Buffs recorded 71 kills in the victory. Ashley Nu'u handed out 51 assists and five kills of her own. Lauren Schaefer tallied 11 kills and hit .409 while Austin Zimmerman added 11 kills and hit .421 for a team-high.

The Buffs also served up 13 aces in the match. Gibson and Sutherland led the way with three each, while Nu'u, Alex Buth and Kristen Karlik added two apiece.

On defense, Karlik and Sutherland each notched 12 digs. Nu'u added 10. Colorado put up 11.0 blocks. Schaefer and Buth each had one block solo and three assists. Nu'u, Bossow, Sutherland and Zimmerman all recorded three block assists.

The first game started off close until CU broke it open with a 4-0 run to make the score 10-7. The Jayhawks came back to tie the score up at 12, but Sutherland hammered a kill to give the Buffs the lead. Colorado went on a 4-1 run, giving the Buffs a 17-13 lead in the game. Kansas got back in the game and tied it up at 25, but Lauren Schaefer picked the perfect time for a kill to give CU the lead back. Kansas tied it back up at 26. Gibson recorded two straight points (a kill and an ace) to give CU a 28-26 advantage. Colorado finished the game with a kill from Nu'u at 30-28.

Kansas started the second game with a 5-2 run and extended it to a 19-8 lead, in part to a 7-0 run. The Buffs went on their own 7-3 run; bring the score to 22-15 and forcing KU to use its first timeout. Kansas took the next two off the timeout, but Gibson struck back with a kill. Colorado continued to fight back, but was unable to get back in the game, losing 22-30.

The Jayhawks got out to a quick 5-2 lead to start the third game, but Colorado took the next three points to tie the score. KU got back out to a 9-7 lead and CU came back to take the lead at 12-11. Kansas retook the lead at 14-13 and extended its lead to eight points at 25-17. KU closed out the game at 30-20. The Buffs hit a match-low .075, recording just 10 kills in the frame.

Colorado rattled off the first three points in the forth game before KU got on the board. The Buffs continued to control the set as they went on a 4-2 run, causing Kansas to use a timeout. CU went on a 7-3 run after the timeout, taking a 14-7 lead and forcing KU to use its final timeout of the frame. The Buffs never lost the lead and won the game 30-19 to force the fifth game. This time, CU hit a match-best .515 with 20 kills on 33 swings with just three errors. CU held KU to a .194 hitting percentage.

The final frame started out with a pair of kills from Alex Buth and Zimmerman. But Kansas struck fast and got into the game with a kill of its own. The Jayhawks tied it up at 3-3 and took a lead at 4-3. CU took the next two points with a kill from Gibson and a block by Buth and Schaefer. The teams traded points until the Buffs took an 8-6 advantage and traded sides on the court. CU took the next two points with a block from Nu'u and Schaefer and a KU attack error. The Buffs used a 5-1 run to win the match 15-7. CU hit .353, while Kansas hit -.100.

The Buffaloes will be back in action next week for a pair of home matches. On Wednesday, Sept. 27, CU will host Texas A&M and on Saturday, Sept. 30, the Buffs will face off with Oklahoma. Both matches will start at 7 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

--COLORADO VOLLEYBALL--