Colorado
1-1
Florida State
1-1
No. 24 Buffs Battle Back To Defeat No. 9 Florida State
August 29, 2015 | Volleyball
BOULDER — In an early season meeting between two top-25 teams, it was battle to the finish as No. 24 Colorado outlasted No. 9 Florida State 3-2 on Saturday afternoon at the Coors Events Center.
The Buffs rebounded from a 2-1 deficit to take the match 3-2 (20-25, 25-17, 25-27, 25-21, 15-12) in their second contest of the Omni Hotels Colorado Volleyball Classic. Both CU and FSU are now 1-1 on the season.
"That's my team, they were back," head coach Liz Kritza said. "I couldn't be prouder of this group to come back from a disappointing opener like that. I have to put this out there: when things happen that are out of our control, when a player goes down, a starting outside hitter, to have the response that these players had, a coach can't ask for anything more. You can't train that, that's just who they are as people.
"This is significant this early in the season, against a team that will have another fantastic season. They're a very good team; great players; well coached. Credit to them, but I could not be more proud of my group today."
The win comes a day after CU dropped its home opener to San Diego, 3-1.
"I would say that we were much more un-phased (today)," senior Nicole Edelman said. "You unfortunately can't win every point, even though you try. I think we made quicker adjustments and our communication was much better than last night. Something that really helped us, was switching our mentality, nothing too big or small just enough to get it done today."
Senior Alexis Austin hammered 24 kills and hit .400 with just six errors on 45 attacks to lead CU. Two other Buffs, Edelman and sophomore Anna Pfefferle, were also in double-digits. Edelman tallied 13 kills and Pfefferle added 12 kills.
CU lost redshirt sophomore Joslyn Hayes early in the first set (due to injury), which forced freshman Aidan Lea to step into her role on the outside. Lea answered the call by hitting .429 for CU with six kills on 14 errorless attacks.
As a team, the Buffs hit .311 under the direction of Edelman and sophomore Gabby Simpson. Simpson handed out 28 assists and Edelman had 27. Both were also strong hitters for the Buffs. Edelman hit .290 with her 13 kills on 31 attacks with four errors, while Simpson had eight kills. In total, the Buffs recorded 73 kills.
FSU was strong offensively as well, hitting .307 with 64 kills. Nicole Walch led the Semioles with 21 kills and Milicia Kubura added 15 kills.
Junior Cierra Simpson recorded a match-high 14 digs and Gabby Simpson also entered double-digits with 10 digs. The Buffs posted 9.0 team blocks and were led by Gabby Simpson and freshman Naghede Abu, who both put up five block assists.
The Buffs came out strong in the first set, going up 13-7 before FSU took a timeout. CU continued to dominate the game and increased the lead to nine points at 22-13. The Seminoles took four of the next five points to cut the Buffs lead to 23-17, which forced Kritza to call the team's first timeout. Austin hammered a kill out of the break to give CU set point, but FSU fought off the next two points with a pair of blocks (24-19). After another point by FSU, CU took its second timeout, which worked well as Austin hammered the final kill of the set on the next point (25-20).
Florida State took a 10-4 lead to start the second game and increased it to 18-9. The Buffs cut the lead back to six at 20-14, but FSU answered back with three straight points for a 23-14 advantage. CU fought until the last point of the set, falling 25-17 in the frame.
CU fell behind to start the third set and called a timeout at 11-6 to regroup. The Buffs got to within five points at 16-11, which made FSU use its first timeout of the game. The Buffs didn't let up, slowly chipping away FSU's lead, and eventually rallied all the way back to even the set at 24-24. The two sides battled, but FSU came out on the winning side with a 27-25 victory despite a valiant comeback attempt by the Buffs. Â
Colorado was ready for the fourth set and took an 8-3 lead before FSU needed to take a timeout. The Seminoles got back within two points at 12-10, causing the Buffs to take a timeout. CU bounced back, taking five of the next six points for a 17-11 advantage. FSU wasn't done, narrowing CU's lead to four at 19-14, but the Buffs answered with a pair of kills by Edelman to take back the lead, 21-15. The Seminoles continued to attack, but the Buffs were able to hang on and close the set 25-21 with Austin's 20th kill of the match.
The Seminoles recorded a 6-3 lead to start the final frame, but the Buffs got the score back to within a point at 7-6. FSU had the lead at the side-change (8-6), and the two sides continued to battle it out. CU took its first lead of the set at 11-10, forcing FSU to use a timeout. The Seminoles evened the score on the following point, but that was it as the Buffs hung on to win the set 15-12.
In earlier action on Saturday, San Diego outlasted Oklahoma 3-2. Â The Buffs will be back in action on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. against OU. FSU will face USD at 5:30 p.m. in the first match of the evening session.
"This is the toughest tournament; it is the toughest opening weekend," Kritza said. "There is a lot of good volleyball being played, not just in our matches but in the others that we are scouting. We are looking forward to a really well played, high level match tonight against Oklahoma. Coming in, we want to make sure that our players are as ready as possible."
