Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Missouri
Missouri Tops Buffs in Four
November 15, 2008 | Volleyball
BOULDER ? Lauren Schaefer led the Buffs with 14 kills, but it was not enough as the University of Colorado volleyball team fell 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 20-25 to Missouri on Saturday afternoon at the Coors Events Center.
“I think we need to play with a little more heart,” Schaefer said. “It's getting to the end of our season. You can't hold anything back. We've tried really hard to go into every game and play how we can play.”
With the loss, the Buffs fall to below .500 for the first time this season at 12-13. They are 6-10 in the Big 12. Missouri improved to 13-13 overall and 7-9 in the Big 12.
“The NCAA Tournament is still in our grasp, but it is getting harder and harder,” head coach Pi'i Aiu said. “These are the matches that we have to win.”
Schaefer hit a team high .333 with just three errors on 33 swings. She also added five blocks (one solo and four assists). Alex Buth was the only other Buff to record double-digit kills with 10. Colorado hit .165 in the match with 53 total kills.
Colorado picked up 83 digs in the effort compared to Mizzou's 68. Five Buffs had at least 10 digs. Callie Webster led the match with 23. Amber Sutherland recorded 15 and Buth notched 14. Burkett added 13 while VenHorst recorded 10.
The Buffs also out-blocked the Tigers with 12.5 team blocks compared to MU's 8.0. Burkett put up seven (one solo and six assists). Schylur Edelman also recorded five (one solo and four assists.).
CU took the third set after taking its first lead at 16-15 on a block by Edelman. The Buffs tacked on two more points to go up 18-15 and would never look back. They hit a match-best .300 with 17 kills while holding Mizzou to a match-low 12 kills and .122 attack percentage.
“Missouri just played the middle of the games better than we did,” Aiu said. “It seemed like it would get to 10-10 or 12-12 and they just make us hurt and then we would be playing from behind from then on. I felt like we played the end of the games pretty well, but when you are playing the end of the games from behind, you are going to lose most of those games.”
The Buffs will hit the road for a pair of matches next week. They will face Iowa State on Wednesday, Nov. 19 and Texas A&M on Saturday, Nov. 22.
Big 12 Standing (as of Nov. 15 at 6 p.m.)
Team Big 12 Overall
Nebraska 15-1 24-1 .
Texas 13-2 20-3
Kansas State 12-4 22-5
Iowa State 8-8 16-11
Baylor 7-9 16-11
Oklahoma 7-10 11-14
Missouri 7-9 13-13
Texas A&M 7-9 12-14
Colorado 6-10 12- 13
Kansas 6-10 12-13
Texas Tech 0-16 5-22
highlighted schools had not played at the time of this release
