Mahoney Gets 300th Collegiate Win As Buffs Beat Washington State

BOULDER- Colorado women's volleyball Head Coach Jesse Mahoney celebrated his 300^th collegiate win Friday night as Colorado defeated Washington State in four sets (25-21, 25-17, 25-15, 25-9).

The Buffs (13-4, 5-2 Pac-12) took the first two sets against the Cougars (12-6, 4-3 Pac-12) but dropped the third to extend the night. Colorado came storming back in the fourth set to secure a victory.

Maya Tabron caught fire early in the match and stayed hot throughout the night. She finished hitting .324 with 18 kills. Lexi Hadrych also hit double digits in kills with 11 and a .348 hitting percentage.

Taylor Simpson tied her season high of kills with three and notched 27 assists in the match.

Colorado out hit Washington State .289 to .136 and had 13 more assists. The victory is the Buffaloes' first against the Cougars since 2017.

The Buffs finish up their three-game home stretch against Washington on Sunday, Oct. 16 before hitting the road against Oregon State Oct. 21.

HOW IT HAPPENED
SET ONE: After tying the score three times, Colorado took a 7-4 lead off a DeLuzio service ace. Colorado won a challenge to cap off a five-point scoring run. Washington State took their first timeout after Tabron's fourth kill of the set extended Colorado's lead 12-6. The Buffs third service ace of the set came from Schneggenburger, and extended their lead, 18-11. A three-point run from the Cougars led to a Colorado timeout while leading, 20-16. Hadrych's second kill set up the set point, and her third kill ended it 25-21. Tabron hit .545 with seven kills in the first set.

SET TWO: An unsuccessful Washington State challenge contributed to Colorado's 5-1 lead to start the second set. The Cougars took a timeout after Tabron hit her tenth kill of the night, extending the Buffs lead, 10-5. Colorado continued to build their lead to 18-13, causing Washington State to take their second timeout of the set. The Buffs piled on after the timeout with a three-point run to make it 21-14. A block by Hart led to Colorado's set point. The Cougars ended the match on a service error, 25-17. As a team, CU hit .314 with 15 kills during the set.

SET THREE: Colorado struggled to gain control early in the set and fell behind 8-5. The Buffs called their first timeout after a service ace by Laura extended Washington State's lead, 9-5. The Cougars scored in bunches, and a three-point run led to Colorado spending their second timeout of the set while down, 15-8. Washington State held onto a firm 21-12 lead late into the third. A Tabron attack error set up the Cougar's set point, and Ryan's third kill of the match ended the set 25-15.

SET FOUR: The Buffaloes started much faster in the fourth set, and a four-point run that included Hadrych's tenth kill of the night, led to a 5-2 lead, and a Cougar timeout. Colorado exploded with a nine-point run that built its lead 16-4. They followed that run with six more points to make it 22-6. Hart's fifth kill of the night set up the set point, and a Levaggi kill put the match away 25-9. Colorado finished the set hitting .478.

QUOTES
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney

On Offense Efficiency in First Two Sets
"Yeah, I think, again, we've been getting a little bit predictable. If you watch teams play us, they kind of know where the ball is going a little bit or where we want to be and like I said, Taylor, and Brynna did a really nice job of throwing some curveballs there tonight. We were kind of overloaded on the right side early, and then, you know, went back to the left, and then came back to the right. They didn't really know where the ball was going. On top of that, I thought we passed extremely well and our setters had a lot of options, so yeah, it was a fun night."

On History Facing WSU
"We don't really talk about the past a whole lot around here, maybe every now and then but in general I don't want to remind them before we're going into a match, hey this team has beaten us seven times in a row or something like that, right. But you know, no one beats us eight times in a row. How about that?"

On 300 Wins
"Yeah, well, 300 wins, that just mostly means I'm old. But there's a lot of people, these two players, obviously, this whole team has been a part of it. Meegan and Brynna have been here for probably 100 of those which is pretty awesome, and then going back to some early days with a lot of players. I've been lucky to be a part of great programs, and had great players and great assistant coaches and nothing we do in a team game is dependent on one person. I've been around for 300 wins. I'm not sure they're 300 of my wins."

On Rotation Matchup vs WSU
"No, we knew it was coming. She's athletic and she can essentially choose two shots. We were defending one shot and she was choosing the other shot. We made a little bit of a change in set four and not sure she dumped in set four, I can't remember essentially, so we didn't have to worry about it as much. Every team that we play has kind of a base. This is what they like to do and we try to slow that down and then they start to adjust and we start to adjust and it's kind of who can adjust best and who can execute there at the end. They got caught in a really bad rotation in their rotation one, which we spent a lot of time on on Thursday, because it's not a good rotation for them. That was the match right there. We cracked them open."

Outside Hitter Lexi Hadyrch

On Energy in the 4th Set
"I thought it was great. Absolutely amazing fourth set. I was off the court for the whole service run that Katie was doing. The energy you could feel it coming off the court. The sideline was getting pumped. Adam, our strength coach, he was doing the cheers. Everybody was so excited. I just think we did a really great job making sure we had our systems in check and we got a win, so it was great."

On Competing with Maya
"I'm just cheering people on. It's incredible. I think she had 18 kills. Are you kidding me? I'm excited for anybody getting kills. I'm cheering up there. I don't care. I want everybody to get the kills on our side. Taylor got kills. It was great."

Setter Taylor Simpson

On Offense's Performance
"Yeah, I think tonight was a great opportunity for our right side specifically. As Jesse said, as we watch film, we can kind of see what basically every single team is doing against us, and trying to go off of that and change things to get better as a team is what we're trying to do tonight. I think it worked awesome. Jill and Sterling did a great job."

On Team Performance
"Yeah, I think a big thing that we've been working on is covering. I think last weekend, when we played the schools from the Bay Area, we did a phenomenal job of that. Tonight that was definitely a big focus since Washington State does have a very solid block. So, I think covering adds to those rallies and at the end of the day, we just came out on top of those."

On Leading this Team and Setting
"Yeah, I'm comfortable setting any person on our team. It doesn't matter who it is. But, you can feel kind of like a rhythm or sometimes you can see in your peripheral like, Oh, no one's gonna get that dump if I do it right now and that's going to be a boost for our team. That's kind of just what I think about. There's always going to be someone or multiple people with a hot hand getting a lot of kills. I'm just trying to get that person the ball as best as I can."

Mahoney Gets 300th Collegiate Win As Buffs Beat Washington State

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Team Stats

Maya Tabron

Lexi Hadrych

Meegan Hart

Sterling Parker

Players Mentioned

Lexi Hadrych

Taylor Simpson

Maya Tabron

Players Mentioned

Lexi Hadrych

Taylor Simpson

Maya Tabron