Colorado
10-8, 2-4
UCLA
13-3, 4-2
Buffs Come Up Short Vs. No. 12 UCLA
October 11, 2015 | Volleyball
BOULDER — The University of Colorado volleyball team lost a tough battle to No. 12 UCLA on Sunday afternoon at the Coors Events Center, falling 26-24, 25-15, 25-19.  Â
"I think after this epic, high-level match Friday night (against No. 1 USC), there was a physical component of fatigue," head coach Liz Kritza said. "That is something that, as high level players, you have to deal with. Recovering quickly and coming back after a taxing match is important. The biggest thing is that we know we are capable of playing at the highest level with any team. When we don't, I think there is some frustration that sets in and it gets us off our normal pace. I think that is really what it was."
Senior Alexis Austin led the Buffs with 12 kills, while sophomore Gabby Simpson was second on the team with eight kills. CU hit .200 in the match with 39 total kills. Senior Nicole Edelman dished out 34 assists and added eight digs on defense. Freshman Naghede Abu hit .667 for the Buffs with six kills on nine errorless attacks.
Both teams recorded 41 digs. Junior Cierra Simpson tallied a match-best 16 for the Buffs, while Austin and Gabby Simpson each added five digs.
At the net, CU posted 6.0 blocks with Abu leading the way with four block assists. Sophomore Anna Pfefferle, Gabby Simpson and Austin each posted another two block assists.
"Quite honestly, I have more confidence in my players than ever before," Kritza said. "We will be absolutely fine. We have to tweak a few things, we are going to recover and come back. We have two more tough teams coming in here and our focus has to be making sure we take care of business and respect our home court better than we have been."
Jordan Anderson led the Bruins with 20 kills and hit .444 in the match. Defensively Taylor Formico led UCLA with 12 digs and Jennie Frager put up four blocks, one solo and three assists.
"Coming in, we knew she was going to have her kills," Kritza said. "She leads her team and she is averaging five kills a set, and does a ton for them. For us, we needed to minimize her slightly more. She went for 20 kills tonight and we could have done a better job on her but one player doesn't make a team."
The first set was very close with 13 ties and five lead changes. The set was even at 22-22 when UCLA went ahead after a CU attack error (23-22), forcing the Buffs to call a timeout. After the break, UCLA committed an error, which brought the score to 23-23. The two teams traded off points again to be tied at 24-24, but then the Bruins recorded a kill to get to set point (25-24). They finished the set with a kill from Anderson.
"I think the spark we had on Friday night wasn't really there," Cierra Simpson said. "There were traces of it in the first set, but from what it felt like, we fell flat after the first set. Maybe we got discouraged a little bit after losing a deuce set. We have to learn from that and correct it for next weekend."
UCLA went up 5-0 before the Buffs took their first timeout of the set. After the break, CU got on the board with an UCLA service error, but the Bruins kept attacking and increased their lead to 19-10. The Buffs tried to chip away at the lead, but were unable to close the gap, falling 25-15.
The third set started off better for the Buffs. It was tied 4-4 when the Bruins used a 6-2 run to take a 10-6 advantage. CU called a timeout when the score was 12-8. The Buffs got the first point with a kill from Abu and a short time later, CU was within two points (16-14) before UCLA strung together a 4-0 run to bring the score to 20-14. CU kept attacking, but UCLA would go on to finish the set 25-19.
The Buffs will be back in action on Oct. 16 against California at the Coors Events Center. That match is set to start at 8 p.m. MT.
