Smith and Spann Dominate in Win over Iowa

SEATTLE, Wash. — Senior Alexa Smith and junior Justine Spann put in work tonight in a dominating win for the University of Colorado volleyball team against the University of Iowa in the 2018 Pac-12 vs. Big Ten Challenge in Seattle, Washington. The Buffs took home the win in four sets (25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 25-13).

Smith came out swinging, posting a season-high 23 kills while hitting .298 for the Buffaloes in the win. She also posted the third double-double of the season with 11 digs. Spann led the charge towards the double-double, picking up the second of the season for the team with 13 kills and a career-high 25 digs, seven more than her previous best performance. The duo combined for more than half of the team's kills and digs.

Spann's incredible performance began later in the match. After posting just seven digs in the first two sets, the junior went off for nine digs in each of the following sets.

Also offensively for the Buffs, sophomore Brynna DeLuzio posted 25 assists and led the team with a pair of aces. She was joined by freshman Jenna Ewert who had 15 assists, just one shy of her career-high.

Defensively the Buffs posted a combined 10.5 blocks, led by redshirt freshman Danielle Price with six total blocks. Anyse Smith had four block assists in key moments for CU, and was joined by teammates Alexa Smith, Lillie Klemmer and Lauren Dorrell with three total blocks apiece.

The Colorado Buffaloes turned a page from the night before, swinging hard and efficiently throughout the match. The team posted the third-highest set hitting percentage of the short season in the second set with a .355 percentage on 14 kills. CU also put Iowa in sorts, as the Buffs had only three receive errors. The extraordinary serve receive helped lead Iowa to committing 15 service errors. On the flip-side, the Buffs put down a season-high six aces in the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Set 1: Iowa went up by two quickly, but Colorado retook the lead at 4-3 and ran with it for three straight points. Alexa Smith had a pair of kills and service aces to bring the Buffs to their largest lead at the time of 12-6. The teams traded points with Iowa crawling back slowly, making the score 15-11. Smith continued to dominate, putting down five kills to make it 20-12. Iowa made a charge with a 7-2 run to bring it to 22-19 before coach Mahoney called timeout. Colorado rolled after the timeout for three straight points and closing out the match. Smith led with six first set kills.

Set 2: The teams traded leads through 7-7, with CU breaking it at 8-7. Colorado continued to hit well at .311 hitting percentage for the match thus far, and a trio of points pushed the Buffs back into familiar winning territory. The team traded ties through 11 points when Iowa went on a small run. The Buffs came storming back as Justine Spann put down her fifth kill of the match to notch the game at 14 apiece. The Buffs continued to roll, going on a six point streak before Iowa called timeout at 18-14. Iowa began to charge back, but a 24-21 lead would be too much to overcome as the Buffs put it away with a block from Danielle Price and Smith.

Set 3: CU jumped out to an early 3-1 lead. The lead extended to a large 8-2 lead while the Buffs rallied off five straight points. Smith and Spann combined for 20 kills at this point and continued to press. The Buffs reached 10-4 before the Hawkeyes had a pair of back-to-back blocks to close the cap to 11-7. A large kill from Spann and huge block from Price and Anyse Smith put the set to a 13-8 lead. The team traded points to a 18-16 set, with Spann putting up her first double-double of the season. Iowa rallied back to steal the set. Spann put up nine digs and five kills in the set.

Set 4: The team traded points for the first 13 rallies of the set, 7-6. The Buffs began to find rhythm from a rally of blocks, big kills and an ace to find themselves up 9-6 quickly. Serving problems continued to haunt the Hawkeyes with 15 errors in the match and a 12-7 deficit. CU extended its lead to seven with an 18-11 lead as Alexa Smith joined the double-double club this season with her 20 kills and 10 digs. Colorado rallied to a 25-13 put away of Iowa in to close out the match in style. Smith led with eight kills in the set and six digs while nearly hitting .400.

QUOTABLES:

Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On how the women turned things around and how the match went

"You know we were unhappy with our performance last night. We all have individual things we needed to work on then systematically we felt some things broke down. I was pleased with our practice this morning, I thought we were very productive and that showed tonight. I think we executed our game plan as well as we have in any of our previous matches this season. On the flip side, offensively it was great to see Alexa Smith kind of back to her form from last year with 23 kills and a lot of very nice swings."

On the dominate turn around after dropping set three

"After set three we talked about how we were up 18-13 in that set and got a little loose and I think we felt like we were going to win and were ready to get out of here and you can't do that against a team like Iowa. You have to play the full set through and we built that lead in set four and sat down during a timeout and said 'Hey we are in the spot we were in in set three, the set is not over,' the kids put their foot on the gas and finished it out."

On Alexa Smith and Justine Spann

"They're both All-Tournament players in my opinion. I thought Lex was really good offensively. Justine was all over the place defensively in that back line and really kept us in some rallies, made some spectacular plays, and took care of the easy stuff really well. Those are the type of performances we need to be competitive this year."

Junior outside hitter Justine Spann
On the switch from set two to three and her career night

"You know I just thought we needed to get it together. We had set three and could've swept them and we got comfortable. After that pulled together as a team and had a little talk and figured it out. Went back to basics."

Senior outside hitter Alexa Smith
On the turnaround from the difficult loss to dominating tonight

"I think it was just a mindset change. Obviously last night did not go super well so we didn't want that to happen tonight. We really just want to continue to grow every game and continue to get better, like we did tonight."

STATS:
Colorado Hitting Percentage: .355 in set 2 was the third-highest set this season (.415 vs. North Florida, .370 vs. Wyoming)
Iowa service errors: 9 service errors through 2 sets. Finished the game with 15 service errors while allowing six aces.
Double-Doubles: Justine Spann recorded the second double-double of the season for the Buffs with a career-high 25 digs and 13 kills, while Alexa Smith added the third later in the match with a season-high 23 kills and 11 digs. The first came from freshman Jenna Ewert against Wyoming.

UP NEXT: Colorado returns home to host the Buffs Invitational with Oklahoma, North Carolina and Georgia. Colorado kicks things off against Georgia Friday evening at 6 p.m. in the CU Events Center, then takes on both North Carolina and Oklahoma Saturday at noon and 7 p.m., respectfully.

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Team Stats

Alexa Smith

Justine Spann

Lillie Klemmer

Anyse Smith

Players Mentioned

Brynna DeLuzio

Lauren Dorrell

Jenna Ewert

Lillie Klemmer

Danielle Price

Alexa Smith

Anyse Smith

Justine Spann

Players Mentioned

Brynna DeLuzio

Lauren Dorrell

Jenna Ewert

Lillie Klemmer

Danielle Price

Alexa Smith

Anyse Smith

Justine Spann