Colorado Downs The Ducks in Five

EUGENE, Ore. – Despite having 17 less kills and 11 less digs, the University of Colorado women's volleyball team leaves Eugene, Oregon, with a victory against the No.16-ranked Oregon Ducks in five sets (19-25, 25-22, 25-21, 20-25, 16-14) Friday evening.

Redshirt freshman Anyse Smith took the fifth set and said enough at a 4-4 mark. She put down three straight kills to give CU a 7-4 lead and force Oregon into a timeout. Smith accounted for the next two CU points as well with a block assists and a kill. In total the freshman accounted for five kills and a block in the final set while hitting .625. She was joined by Alexa Smith and Naghede Abu as both had three kills and hit .280 or better in the last act.

"It was a really hard-fought match," said Head Coach Jesse Mahoney. "I thought both teams had very high-level play at times. The first set I think we weren't as prepared as we could've been to match their energy, but I thought we did a nice job settling in towards the end of the set and played really good volleyball in sets two and three. Set four we got in a hole, but I was proud of how we recovered from how we played in fourth set and played a really good five-set match in a tough atmosphere and gutted it out in the end. It was a match we needed and maybe the type of match that we haven't won a couple times this season. This team can play at a high level, we know that, we just have to do it every time out."

With the victory Colorado improves to 16-12 overall with an 8-9 record in conference play. The Ducks fall to 18-10 with a 11-7 conference record as the Buffs spoil senior night.

The trio that came together for all the kills in the fifth tallied 15 total kills apiece throughout the match. Anyse led the first set with three kills, then Abu took over with five in the second. Abu and Alexa each had four in the third with Abu going four-for-four in kills per attempt. Alexa continued to power in to the fourth with four kills, earning her 11 errorless kills in sets two through four.

Abu, who continues to streak towards the school record in blocks, is on her way to the school record in hitting percentage for a hitter. She displayed that tonight, hitting .333 in the first, .667 in the second and 1.000 in the third. The senior finished with a match-high .467 hitting percentage.

"Naghede is our number-one option, we just have to ball control well to get her the ball," said Mahoney. "In the 5-1 she is going against a double-block all the time. When we got her the ball so she could reach high, she took some really nice, big cuts. I thought they made some nice plays to slow her down defensively, but she came up huge for us, no doubt."

A combination of good setter play along with good passing led the onslaught of attacks from the middle for the Buffs. Abu was a swing away from tying her career-high in attempts with 30, mostly due to the passing from Rachel Whipple and her 25 digs. Her passing helped Ewert dish out 42 balls in the middle and put up 55 assists, a career-high. Ewert also had a double-double, putting up 16 digs along with four blocks. Alexa Smith added to the double-double party with 18 digs, while Justine Spann put up a dozen digs.

"Since we've gone to the 5-1 we have a little more ability to move Gabby into the lanes a little bit and pick and choose which three passers we use," said Mahoney on the passing game after the first set. "At times we kind of mixed and matched there. They did a really good job serving, especially serving Lex and Justine when they were in the front row. I thought we steadied out at the right times and in the fifth set we did a great job."

On the defensive side of play, Colorado struggled to limit Oregon's offense in all sets except the final one. Despite only having a single block in the first two sets, CU put together sets of three blocks and two to bring back their average and limit the Ducks. Ewert, Danielle Price and Abu all tallied four total blocks, while Anyse Smith chipped in three.

Oregon proved why they are one of the most offensive teams in the nation. Three ducks had more kills that the trio of Buffaloes, led by Willow Johnson's 18. She also hit .441 from the middle, while Ronika Stone and Lindsey VanderWeide combined for 33 kills. Freshman libero Brooke Nuneviller put up an astonishing 30 digs, while the fourth-ranked setter in the nation, August Raskie, had 58 assists.

Things didn't start out well for the Buffs, dropping the first set with the score getting away from them early at 20-11. A five-point run on set-point sparked momentum for Colorado, who came back from a two-point deficit to tie the second set at 18 all and take a lead with a three-point run to get to 23-20. After tying the match, CU tied the third set up at 18 once again, pushing a three-point run to 21 to hold the lead and take a 2-1 lead overall. After a dismal fourth set that Colorado never led or tied in, the Buffs recovered to finish off the ranked opponents on the road for the second time in as many tries.
"I didn't think we did a good job (in the first set)," said Mahoney. "We didn't have the right type of focus and energy early in that set. They do a lot of really good things and we were behind the play quite a bit early on. As the set moved forward we got our bearings about us. I really think after the beginning of that set we played great volleyball."

With the first top-20 win of the season, the Buffaloes turn to Oregon State Sunday at noon. CU has put down the toughest opponent they were going to face in this final must-win section and can now breathe a small sigh of relief and look towards the final three matches as a welcoming challenge to assert themselves as a team to contend in the NCAA Tournament.

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Team Stats

Alexa Smith

Naghede Abu

Anyse Smith

Justine Spann

Players Mentioned

Naghede Abu

Danielle Price

Alexa Smith

Anyse Smith

Justine Spann

Rachel Whipple

Players Mentioned

Naghede Abu

Danielle Price

Alexa Smith

Anyse Smith

Justine Spann

Rachel Whipple