Spikers Win Mississippi State Classic

Saturday, August 30

Mississippi State, Miss.

11:30 a.m.

Colorado

Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

August 30, 2008 | Volleyball

By: Linda Sprouse, Assistant SID

STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The University of Colorado volleyball team swept the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff (25-13, 25-11, 25-9) and Mississippi State (25-19, 25-21, 25-21) to win the MSU Volleyball Classic.

With the pair of wins, CU is now 3-0 to start the season, compared to last season when the Buffs started off 0-2 after their first tournament.

“I feel really good about this turn around,” head coach Pi'i Aiu said. “We played some good teams and the team really stepped up.”

Senior Alex Buth led the Buffs with 3.22 kills per game in the tournament. She also averaged 2.11 digs per game and hit .421 (29k-4e-58att).

“I think the main thing is that we have confidence (this year),” Buth said. “It feels really good to come out of a tournament and win all three matches and to sweep those matches. I think we are all just feeling very confident and are very excited to play the rest of our season.

“Having the five seniors on the court has really helped the situation. We have a ton of girls who have come in and have really stepped up. Confidence has been the key. We all have the attitude of coming in and knowing that we are going to win the game.”

CU started off the day against UAPB and cruised to an easy victory 25-13, 25-11, 25-9. The match took just 58 minutes.

Colorado held the Lady Lions to just 13 kills in the entire match while CU tallied 13 kills in just the first set.

The Buffs recorded 40 kills in the match and hit a season-high .395.

Senior Lauren Schaefer recorded a perfect hitting percentage with eight kills on eight attacks. This is the first time in almost two years that a Buff has hit above .800. The last Buff to do so was Ashley Nu'u (.875) on Sept. 9, 2006.

Colorado recorded 16 kills in the second set and hit a match-high .467. The Buffs recorded just two errors on 30 swings. In the third set, CU notched 11 kills.

The Lady Lions were held to a -.014 hitting percentage with 13 kills and 14 errors on 74 attacks.

Buth had a good match with nine kills and seven digs. She hit .500 and added a pair of aces. Kaitlyn Burkett hit .867 with six kills on seven errorless attacks. She dished out 26 assists in the victory.

The Buffs also picked up 42 digs in the match. Ashley VenHorst recorded a season-high 10 digs while Amber Sutherland notched a match-best 11. UAPB recorded just 24.

Freshman Alex Penewell made her CU debut in the match. She recorded four kills and hit .300 in two games. Christan Schaefer recorded a career-high five kills.

The second match of the day was against the host, Mississippi State and CU won 25-19, 25-21, 25-21.

“We kept the pressure on a really good team tonight (MSU),” Aiu said. “They are a big team, pretty skilled, but also young and so I think the pressure we kept on this all match caused them to break down in the end. I think we had a lot of kids who played really well this weekend.”

The contest against the Bulldogs proved to be a bit of a test of the Buffs. Both teams tallied 39 kills, but the difference came with attack errors. CU hit just 11 while MSU recorded 20.

Sophomore Schylur Edelman had her best match of the season. She recorded eight kills and hit .583 while putting up four block assists.

Emilee Sisco, Schaefer and Buth all recorded seven kills. Buth had the best attack percentage amongst the three as she hit .438 with zero errors on 16 swings.

Burkett picked up 12 of CU's 41 digs to lead the team.

The Buffs will stay on the road next weekend when they travel to the Islander Holiday Inn-Emerald Beach Invitational, hosted by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. CU will play Arkansas-Little Rock, Texas Southern and TAMUCC.

-COLORADO-