Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
Texas A&M
Buth Leads Buffs Past Aggies
September 27, 2008 | Volleyball
BOULDER ? Senior Alex Buth recorded a career-high 26 kills as the University of Colorado volleyball team defeated Texas A&M in five sets (16-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-9) on Saturday night at the Coors Events Center.
This was the second straight five-set match the Buffs have won at home as they improved to 8-4 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12. TAMU fell to 6-8 overall and 1-3 in league play. These two teams have gone to five games in nine of the last 15 meetings; the Buffs have been victorious in six of those.
“This is a big win,” Buth said. “It's the fifth-game when we need to come out. We were down two games to zero. We all just decided we were going to work as a team. Throughout this whole season we have been working as a team and I think it really shows. It was definitely a hard fought win tonight.”
Buth hit .429 in the match with just five errors on career-high 49 swings. She added 17 digs, five assists and three block assists in the win; recording her 20th career double-double.
“I didn't even think about it (career-high 26 kills) because everyone played so well,” she said. “It was incredible for me; but I would rather have no stats and get a win, so I'm just happy that we won.”
Buth has become the top offensive threat over the last two season for the Buffs and led CU in six of its 12 matches this season.
“Realistically we need her to carry this team,” Aiu said. “She's has to do this night in and night out. It's a hard thing to ask a young woman, but she has to do it for us if this team is going to be successful. She can do it; she just has to get it in her head night after night.”
The Buffs were on fire in the fifth and deciding game and there was no stopping them. CU took the first point of the match and just started to roll, going up 8-5 on the side switch. The Buffs let the Aggies make mistakes and played a solid game with 10 kills and just two errors. Texas A&M recorded five errors and seven kills in the set. Amber Sutherland put the match away with her 997th career kill at 15-9.
“We are 2-1 now and we have beaten two teams (
It was a tale of two halves for CU. The first two games saw the Buffs recording just 27 kills and 13 errors on 74 attacks to hit .189 while the Aggies amassed a .369 attack percentage with 30 kills, six errors and 65 swings.
CU hammered 19 kills in the third game and hit .311 to get a set win on the board. In the third and fourth sets combined, the Buffs recorded 33 kills, 12 errors and hit .263 while holding Texas A&M to .169 (28k-16e-77att).
“I thought we were just more consistent in the last three sets,” Aiu said. “When you look at game two, we lost by two points and they had one more kill than us and we have one more error than them. It is easy to see where these things are happening. We passed more consistently and our hitters took better swings. I just thought we changed a little bit of our mentality and it paid off for us.”
Buth wasn't the only Buff on fire tonight. Sophomore Emilee Sisco recorded a season-best 20 kills and hit .277. Sutherland notched 15 kills and needs just three to become the 13th Buff in CU history to record the historic milestone.
“I felt like we were playing pretty well in the first two games,” Sisco said. “We were disappointed that we lost, but in the locker room we weren't down. Everyone came out with a lot of passion in the third set.”
As a team, CU hit .249 thanks to a season-high effort of 61 assists from junior Kaitlyn Burkett. Senior Callie Webster tied Buth with a match-high of 17 digs.
“It was a really nice win,” Aiu said. “Our outsides did a really nice job in this match. They took some really aggressive swings. And we had great defense. I thought our passing was very consistent. We did some really nice things that I think we can learn from and hopefully apply to the season.”
The Buffs will be back in action on Wednesday, Oct. 1 when they travel to
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