Buffs Fall to Beavers In Four-Sets

CORVALLIS – Despite a career-night for Justine Spann, Colorado women's volleyball fell to Oregon State Friday evening here in a four set, 3-1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-19) match.

Colorado (8-4, 0-2 Pac-12) came out with a strong first-set win against the Beavers (8-5, 2-0 Pac-12) behind a strong start from Spann. The senior continued to lead the way, hitting 15 of her 23 kills in the first two sets. Despite her efforts, the Beavers strong starts in sets three and four paved the way to the CU defeat.

Spann's 23 kill performance is the second-most in her career and the most she has had in a four-set match. She picked up her first double-double of the season with 12 digs as she hit .263 in the match.

One other Buff had a solid night on the offensive end, freshman Sterling Parker who had 10 kills with a team-high .333 hitting percentage. She also led the team with a career-high seven block assists.

On the defensive end, Rachel Whipple had a solid night with 20 digs. She was keyed on in the serve game as well, putting up 24 successful receptions. Middles Meegan Hart and Danielle Price worked well with Parker up front, led by Price's six block assists while Hart had five total blocks.

The Beavers had a distributed effort on both sides of the ball with four players finishing the match with double-digit kills as well as four with double-digit digs. Outside Haylie Bennett led the team with 16 kills and a .367 hitting percentage, while Maddie Goings and Chloe Brown combined for 25 kills and 22 digs, each securing a double-double.

The service game played a strong factor in the outcome of the match, as CU had 10 service errors and allowed six Beaver aces. Colorado won the blocking matchup with a dozen compared to Oregon State's 10 but hit less than .070 as a team in sets two and four.

The Buffaloes return to the road next weekend when they take on both Arizona schools on Friday and Sunday. This is just the team's second 0-2 start in conference play under Mahoney, with the last time coming in 2017 when the team went 12-8 and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Colorado jumped out quick with the first four points of the match. The Buffs traded points back-and-forth after that, hitting .500 while OSU was hitting -.083. Colorado pushed to a 15-10 advantage before the first media timeout with Spann leading with six kills on 11 attempts without an error. The Beavers began to pressure, clawing into the lead at 18-15, but the Buffs never faltered and pushed to the 20-point mark with a five-point lead to force a timeout from Oregon State. CU rolled to a 23-19 lead with strong serving and defense from Schneggenburger in the back and Spann in the front with eight kills. CU reached set-point, but OSU turned back three attempts forcing Mahoney to call timeout at 24-22. Colorado closed out the first set on a pancake save by Whipple and a hammer from Spann giving her nine kills and a .389 hitting percentage in the first set.

Oregon State took the first three points of the set, but CU rallied back to tie it at four all. Colorado went on a 4-0 run to take a 6-4 lead. The Beavers went on a 3-0 run to take the lead at 11-10 and extending it to 15-12 before the media timeout came. CU called timeout when Oregon State led 18-13. The Beavs hit the 20-point mark with a six-point lead. Colorado continued to sideout but couldn't string together the points needed as OSU reached set-point with the same six-point lead. The Beavers took the second set 25-18 as CU hit .051 in the set. Spann continued to dominate with 15 total kills and a .303 hitting percentage at the break.

The teams went back-and-forth to begin the first set as Spann continued to eat up numbers with 17 kills by the time the set hit four all. Not liking what he was seeing, coach Mahoney called timeout trailing 7-5 looking to correct problems before the small lead enlarged. The stop didn't work as OSU extended to a 13-7 lead. The lead pushed to eight at 17-9 when coach made a change at defensive specialist with Taylor deProsse. Coach made another change at 19-10 and brought in Elissa Alcantara, then switched the second outside position another player later with Kelley Levaggi. Oregon State seemed to have all the answers for the lack of offense, putting up a 23-11 lead late into the third set. Colorado strung together a 4-0 run to force an Oregon State timeout at 23-16 as the team looked to push back into this set. Another block and attack error pushed the run to six as the Buffs were a rotation out of having Spann in the front row again. Parker put down another kill to cut the lead to four as the run extended to eight-straight. After a sideout for set-point, Oregon State ended the chances and took a 2-1 lead, praying on the Colorado's offense with Spann in the backrow as she had just three kills in the set and was much less of a factor in the back than the front row.

The fourth set started as the third did with a quick 3-0 run for the Beavers. The frustrated Buffs struggled to muster a point, finally ending the bleeding after a five-point run to start the set. Colorado responded with a 4-0 run of their own with a pair of blocks and a Whipple ace. Back-to-back Spann kills gave her 20 while training 7-6. Oregon State went on a 4-0 run to take an 11-6 lead, forcing CU into a timeout. As the Beavers extended to a 14-8 lead, coach subbed in Alcantara as the Buffs looked for a second option to Spann's night. With Oregon State on a 3-0 run, CU called its final timeout of the set at 17-9. The Buffs came out with a quick Parker kill, followed by a block for a 17-11 score. The following play was called an attack error that was challenged by the OSU coach unsuccessfully to give CU a 3-0 run. The run extended with another kill by Spann, forcing an Oregon State timeout at CU cut the lead to 17-14. Oregon State hit the 20-point mark at 20-15 and pushed their lead with to six on the following play. Match-point came at 24-18 following a Spann ace and kill. Colorado survived the first final test, sending Hart to the service line for the remainder of the match, but the Beavers ended it one play later at 25-19.

QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
On the match
I thought we lost our composure. We broke down in serve and pass, made a lot of errors and didn't make them work very hard to score points. It was a frustrating match in every way.

On Justine and Sterling leading the offense
We have to be able to pass. Justine had a great match, we also set her too much because we were forced to. Sterling did a nice job, we can't get the ball to her as much as we would like. We have to find a way to get our middles to score, they were just non-existent tonight. Part of that's passing, part of that is their ability to be available.

On adjustments for next week
We have to execute simple things, serving, passing, blocking, defense, that kind of stuff. When we are disciplined and executing, we can be really good and when we lose focus for whatever reason that's the result we get.

Next Event

Team Stats

Justine Spann

Sterling Parker

Jill Schneggenburger

Meegan Hart

Players Mentioned

Elissa Alcantara

Taylor deProsse

Meegan Hart

Kelley Levaggi

Sterling Parker

Danielle Price

Justine Spann

Rachel Whipple

Players Mentioned

Elissa Alcantara

Taylor deProsse

Meegan Hart

Kelley Levaggi

Sterling Parker

Danielle Price

Justine Spann

Rachel Whipple