CU Begins Road Stretch in Oregon

BOULDER – The University of Colorado women's volleyball team begins the four-match road stretch that will serve as the finale of the regular season, starting with a Friday night senior day match against No.16-ranked Oregon at 8 p.m. MT, followed by a Sunday noon match at Oregon State.

The Buffs (15-12, 7-9 Pac-12) have been receiving votes in the AVCA poll all year long, but similar to their ranking the team is on the bubble of entering the NCAA Tournament. With 32 spots going to automatic-bid receiving teams, the battle for one of the 32 remaining at-large spots has come down to a must-win situation for the Buffs. Colorado is currently the 50^th-ranked team in NCAA RPI, the bread-and-butter ranking for the NCAA voting committee. With the teams in top-100 that are leading their conference taken out of the equation, CU is the 32^nd team in RPI ranking, leaving little margin of error for the rest of the season.

Colorado is led by a duo of seniors in Alexa Smith and Naghede Abu. Smith has moved to ninth in all-time career kills and is just 34 away from taking over seventh. She has 18-straight matches with double-digit kills and has hit greater than .350 in three of the last five.

Abu is on pace to become the greatest blocker in school history. She trails Meghan Barkman by just 22 blocks, needing 11 per set of teams played in the closing matches. She tallied exactly 11 against the Oregon schools at home and 11 against Utah and USC (team plays UCLA next week instead). She will be a crucial part to taking down the Ducks' offense.

The other key difference in the final stretch is the offense of CU in a single-setter system. True freshman Jenna Ewert has led the offense alone for seven-straight matches, winning four of them. She has averaged nearly 11 assists per set in the past four matches.

Both matches will be live streamed from to the Pac-12 Network by the respective schools. Click here for more info.

SCOUTING THE DUCKS: Oregon (17-9, 10-6 Pac-12) is one of the premiere hitting teams in the nation with the fourth-most assists per set and the sixth most kills per set in the country. They are also top-50 in attacks per set and hitting percentage, but falter in opponent hitting percentage with allowing better than .200 to their adversaries.

The Ducks offense stems from their setter August Raskie, who is fourth in the nation in assists per set. Last time the Buffs played her she recorded the only triple-double in conference play this season. On the defensive end, freshman Brooke Nuneviller leads the Pac-12 in digs per set at nearly five, and middle Ronika Stone is fourth in total blocks with 116.

Since defeating CU earlier in the season the Ducks have gone 5-4 in the stretch with a pair of four-set losses to Stanford, a four-set loss to Utah and being swept at home against USC. They also have a pair of sweeps of Cal and four-set wins against Arizona and UCLA.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS: Oregon State (11-17, 1-15 Pac-12) is the last ranked team in the Pac-12 with just a single win against Arizona State. The Beavers have not won a set in three matches against USC, Cal and Stanford. Before that they took UCLA to five at home and beat ASU in four sets on the road for their lone conference win. OSU has been swept in 10-of-17 matches, including four at home.

Oregon State leads the conference in attacks per set, digs and total attacks. Outside Maddie Goings leads the conference in total attacks, while Grace Massey is second in the conference in total digs with nearly 500.

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Players Mentioned

Naghede Abu

Jenna Ewert

Alexa Smith