BOULDER ? Junior Amber Sutherland recorded 15 kills, four assists, 17 digs and five blocks as the University of Colorado (2-3) defeated the University of Cincinnati (5-2) 30-24, 32-30, 30-20 in the first match of the Colorado Invitational. The Buffs bounced back with a much needed win after dropping three straight matches in Honolulu last weekend to top-10 ranked teams.
“I think we did a good job,” head coach Pi'i Aiu said. “You learn a lot from playing really good teams and we learned a lot about ourselves this weekend in Hawai'i, in what was good and what was not good. And I think they fixed a lot of things we needed to fix. I thought we battled and Cincinnati battled and we did some nice things overall.”
Colorado dominated in the kills column as the Buffs racked up 60 kills and hit .273 for the match, including a .325 best in the third game. Lauren Schaefer and Lara Bossow each tallied 11 kills on the night. Schaefer hit .688 as she took 16 swings and committed no errors. Bossow only recorded two attack errors late in the match on 23 attempts for a .391 hitting percentage after hitting negative in back-to-back matches in Hawai'i. Ashley Nu'u passed out 43 assists and added six kills.
”Lara is not the kind of kid who is going to hit negative very often,” Aiu said. “She led the conference in hitting for a lot of last year in hitting percentage. She may have hit negative against Hawai'i, but she hit pretty high against UCLA. She's a pretty efficient hitter and I have a lot of faith in her. (Lauren) Schaefer did the same thing and hit no errors tonight.”
The Buffs held UC to a .105 attack percentage as the Bearcats recorded 22 errors with 34 kills. Cincinnati put up 14.0 blocks to CU's 6.5 and added six aces compared to Colorado's four.
Kristen Karlik became the first Buff since 2003 to record more than 20 digs in a match. She recorded a career-high 21. The last Buff to reach the 20-dig plateau was Nicole Carr against Missouri on Nov. 24, 2003 when she picked up 24. In total, Colorado recorded 54 digs compared to UC's 35.
The Bearcats got off to a quick start in the first game with a 12-5 lead. After a timeout, the Buffs went on a 6-1 run to come within two points, forcing a Cincinnati timeout. Colorado tied the game at 14 with a kill from Sutherland and the Buffs took their first lead of the game with an attack error by the Bearcats at 15-14. CU never trailed the rest of the match and cruised to a 30-24. Schaefer was perfect with five kills on five swings as CU hit .250. Cincinnati hit .024.
Cincinnati started the second game with another early lead at 6-3, but the Buffs weren't frustrated and came back to even the score at 13. For the next 16 points, no team led by more that a point until Cincinnati took at 22-20 lead. The Buffs came right back, tying it at 23. The two teams continued to battle back and forth until Nu'u and Bossow connected on back-to-back kills to take the set 32-30. For the second straight game, CU hit .250 and Cincinnati hit .238.
“I think it is so important to bring momentum into a game or any game at the end will always help a team tremendously,” Nu'u said. “The end really dictates how well you do in the next game, so I think it was huge that we finished strong in the second game.”
The third game saw the Buffs taking an early lead at 7-3. Colorado continued to hold the lead as the Buffs extended it to 14-11. CU went on a 6-2 run to extend its lead to 20-13 before the Bearcats called a timeout. Colorado didn't let up and finished the match 30-20 on a Cincinnati error.
Colorado will host Central Connecticut State tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the second day of the Colorado Invitational at the Coors Events Center. The first match will be between Southern Miss and CCSU at 11 a.m. and the contest between Cincinnati and USM is set for a 5 p.m. start.
--COLORADO VOLLEYBALL--
