Buffs Upset No. 17 ASU

BOULDER - The Colorado Women's Volleyball team (12-9, 4-6 Pac 12) swept the No. 17 Arizona State Sun Devils (19-3, 7-3 Pac 12) in three sets (27-25, 25-18, 26-24) here Sunday in the CU Events Center.

Outside hitter Lexi Hadrych led Colorado once again in kills, hitting .400 and earning 16 kills in 30 attempts, while also picking up three blocks for the Buffs. Maya Tabron picked up 7 kills in 20 attempts. Collectively, CU produced 42 kills and hit .288.

Skyy Howard led the defensive front, earning 7 blocks, while Taylor Simpson produced 39 assists for the Buffs offense.

ASU was led by opposite hitter Marta Levinska who earned herself 17 of the team's 39 kills in 40 attempts to hit .250. The Sun Devils struggled at the service line, accumulating 23 errors while the Buffs only had 12.

"I'm proud of my team for coming in every day and working hard," commented head coach Jesse Mahoney. "We haven't been rewarded as much as we would like, but we were rewarded today, so that's exciting."

Colorado will face off against USC on Friday Oct. 27th at 7:00 p.m. MT and UCLA on Sunday Oct. 29th at 2:00 p.m. MT here in the CU Events Center.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

SET ONE:

The Buffs jumped ahead to a 7-2 lead over ASU, with Lexi Hadrych earning all five kills for CU. With Hadrych at the service line, Howard picked up her first block, followed by a Hadrych ace for ASU to call their first timeout at 10-1. Arizona St. recovered after the timeout with a kill from Geli Cyr, and the Sun Devils followed it up with a four-point-run to close the gap to 12-7 when the Buffs sided-out. From there, ASU slowly chipped away at the Buffs' lead, getting within two at 16-14. Hadrych's eighth kill of the set gave CU a 17-14 lead. ASU's Claire Jeter's second solo block of the set forced the Buffs to utilize their first timeout with a 19-18 lead. ASU earned an ace after the timeout to tie things up at 19.

The two teams battled point for point from there until CU reached their second set point at 26-25. The Buffs claimed the first set on an ASU attack error at 27-25.

SET TWO:

The Buffs jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead when ASU called their first timeout. ASU bounced back after the timeout, and tied things up 4-4 with Roberta Rabelo's sixth kill of the match. The two teams went point-for-point until the Buffs went on a three-point run to lead 14-11. CU continued to build their momentum and extended their lead to 21-15. The Buffs maintained their lead and ended the set 25-18 with a block from Cayla Payne and Hadrych.

SET THREE:

The beginning of set three continued to be a back and forth battle for the two teams, but the Buffs pulled away to 9-5, and a setter dump from Simpson caused ASU to use their first timeout. Arizona St. only trailed by three at 12-9, but Hadrych's 16th kill of the match, ended the Sun Devils' run. However, ASU continued to surge and took their first lead of the set at 15-14 off a five-point serving run. The Buffs regained their lead, but ASU took it back late in the set at 21-20. Three attacking errors in a row for the Sun Devils gave the Buffs a lead again at 23-21. CU had to go to extra points, but a final block from Howard and Lily Dwinell closed out the match 26-24 for the Buffs' first victory over a ranked opponent this season.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jesse Mahoney Opening Statement:

"It's been a great weekend, obviously getting a couple wins, especially getting sweeps. That doesn't happen in this league very often. So that's really exciting. That team is tough to handle. They have one really special player that scored a ton of points for them and then they run the ball. Their offense is really fast, and we really only had one practice session to prepare for it. I was really pleased with our preparation yesterday and our execution today. I'm proud of my team for coming in every day and working hard."

Mahoney on the second half of conference play:

"If we stay healthy, we're gonna get better throughout the season. We're better than we were two weeks ago, and better than we were a month ago. The second half is really important. We were 4-6 in the first half. I'm not sure what the number is in the second half, but we're going to win more than four. That's going to put us in contention to be where we want to be in the postseason. At the midway point, we have a big session where we analyze a lot of stuff and what we need to focus on for what we need to do what our benchmark is. We're going to try to implement that in practice and we've done a good job of that in the past. I have no doubt that our team is going to do that this year as well."

Setter Taylor Simpson on locating her hitters:

"I think they kind of went in and out of certain schemes. So just identifying that and seeing which hitters had one up on them. I feel like we had a lot of one-on-one opportunities, which was super nice."

Outside hitter Lexi Hadrych on achieving 16 kills:

"Taylor just set every ball perfectly. It was butter. It was so nice. Everything was so smooth. I just went up and hit the ball. She was setting it up great."

Simpson on the past week of practice:

"Yeah, I think it's been a couple of weeks of working on a few major things in practice and just really being dialed in on those. While maybe last weekend, those weren't totally tuned up, I think this weekend was kind of a breakthrough."

Next Event

Team Stats

Lexi Hadrych

Maya Tabron

Lily Dwinell

Cayla Payne

Players Mentioned

Lily Dwinell

Lexi Hadrych

Skyy Howard

Cayla Payne

Taylor Simpson

Maya Tabron

Players Mentioned

Lily Dwinell

Lexi Hadrych

Skyy Howard

Cayla Payne

Taylor Simpson

Maya Tabron