Wildcats Hold Off Surging Buffaloes for Sweep

Sunday, October 6

Tucson, Ariz.

1:00 PM

Colorado

8-6

Arizona

11-5

Colorado

Arizona

Photo by: Ed Kosmicki

October 06, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Shaun Wicen, Assistant SID

TUCSON – After a poor first set performance the Colorado women's volleyball team cranked things into another gear, but ultimately came up short against Arizona in a 3-0 (25-13, 27-25, 26-24) match in Tucson Sunday afternoon.

Colorado (8-6, 0-4 Pac-12) finishes the long road stretch to open conference play as the only team without a win after Arizona (11-5, 1-3 Pac-12) picked up its first Pac-12 win. The Wildcats finished hitting .336 and the Buffs finished hitting .198 despite a first set hitting percentage of -.032.

Senior Justine Spann led the charge for Colorado with 13 kills and a .282 hitting percentage. She also added nine digs and a pair of blocks. She was joined by Sterling Parker who had seven kills and a .375 hitting percentage and Jill Schneggenburger with six kills and 10 digs. Setter Jenna Ewert dished out 25 assists in the effort.

Senior libero Rachel Whipple had a strong third set performance with 10 of her match-high 17 digs. Up front, Spann, Lillie Klemmer and Meegan Hart all led the way with a pair of block assists.

The Wildcats were firing on all cylinders today as the team had a .429 hitting percentage in the second set to win the close matchup. The team also closed out the match with a six-point run after facing four set-points. Setter Julia Patterson had five kills in the first set and dished out 42 assists. She also had 11 digs and three blocks to lead U of A. Paige Whipple came on strong late with a match-high 14 kills while Katie Smoot finished with 13 kills. Devyn Cross finished the match with nine kills without an error for a match-high .643 hitting percentage.

The Buffaloes return home next weekend for the first time in conference play with a matchup against USC and UCLA next Friday and Sunday, respectfully. Neither Los Angeles team was ranked in the AVCA polls this past weekend but UCLA started the conference season 3-0 and USC upset No.8 Washington on Friday in a four-set match.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Lillie Klemmer got her first start of the season as Danielle Price sat out with an injury. Colorado took the first two points of the set and then allowed the Wildcats to go on a 4-0 run. The run extended to six-straight when Mahoney called his first timeout. CU closed to within one before Arizona gather again and pushed to a 10-7 lead with CU hitting .000 in the set. As the match hit 12-8 coach pulled CU into a 6-2 with Emily DeMure and Elissa Alcantara subbing in. After the Wildcat run pushed to five-straight points CU called timeout. Mahoney, unhappy with the passing, pulled Spann for Kelley Levaggi as the Buffs only starts still on the court were Rachel Whipple and Jill Schneggenburger. A smart time from the UA setter in a deep rally extended the scoring run to eight-straight, then two plays later she put it down again to give the Wildcats a 20-8 lead. The streak finally ended at 22-9 with an Alcantara kill and started a CU run of three-straight, forcing an Arizona timeout. Arizona ended the short run and moved to set-point at 24-12. The Buffs survived a set-point, but the Wildcats took it a play later at 25-13 behind setter Julia Patterson's four kills on six swings and Devyn Cross' four kills on five swings as UA hit .371.

The team traded blows in the beginning of the second set as CU took an early 5-3 lead. The run of three-straight at 6-3 forced Arizona into a timeout. Out of the break the Wildcats went on a 6-0 run. After ending the bleeding at 10-7, Mahoney made a switch with Alcantara in the front row for Schneggenburger as CU was in a two-hitter rotation. The teams traded back-and-forth as Patterson tied her career-high in kills at seven early in the second. Arizona served a pair of errors to give CU some hope, trailing 15-13 as UA had seven service errors. A Hart kill and ace brought the Buffs back to within one at 17-16, followed up by a Schneggenburger kill and Arizona timeout at 17 all. The teams traded points back-and-forth to 20 all, setting up a second set battle to the end. The battle raged on to a 23 all tie, then Hart put a ball in the corner to give CU set-point at 24-23. Back-to-back U of A kills flipped things to an Arizona set-point 25-24. Schneggenburger gave CU another chance to tie it at 25 all, but Arizona sealed the win with an ace at 27-25. The Wildcats hit .429 in the set, committing just three attacking errors in the set while CU hit .333.

Colorado looked to be hitting like they were in the earlier season during the second set and it carried to the third. Each team were hitting blow and blow to a four all tie in the early moments. After an Ewert solo block the Buffs began a 4-0 run, forcing Arizona to call timeout at 8-5. The teams each traded points as CU extended to a 13-8 lead before an injury timeout was called for Arizona. Spann and UA's Paige Whipple began to take over with 11 and 13 kills, respectfully. After the Buffs reached the 20-point mark with a five-point lead, Arizona began a three-point run that ended with consecutive aces that forced CU into a timeout at 20-18. A big Parker and Klemmer block ended the run as the Buffs began to pull away at 23-19. Ewert put down a jam of a kill for set point at 24-20, then the Wildcats came storming back causing a Colorado timeout at 24-23. A blocking error tied up the match and a kill set up match-point. Arizona completed the wild finish with a six-point run to complete the sweep.

QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On the team's response after the first set
Certainly unprepared in the first set, which was unfortunate. I thought we rebounded well in the second and third and obviously had opportunities to win both sets. I'm proud of how hard we played in those sets and how hard we fought, but we can't let runs like that happen and win.

On Justine's performance
Justine woke up in the second and third sets and took care of the ball much better, passed and defended well. She is our only pin that is really scoring for us right now.

What it means to return home after a tough road stretch
We are excited to play at home but we are playing two top-25 level teams so we will have to have a good week of preparation and buy in, formulate a game plan and follow it. We will need to play really, really hard to put ourselves in a position to win those games.