Colorado
9-6,1-3
Oregon
13-2,3-1
Buffs Drop Three Straight Sets to No.5 Oregon
October 06, 2023 | Volleyball
The Buffs were led offensively by outside hitters Lexi Hadrych and Maya Tabron as well as middle blocker Skyy Howard, all three of them earning eight kills.Â
Howard reached 500 career kills while posting eight tonight on 21 attempts to hit a .333 attacking percentage and earned five total blocks against Oregon.
Colorado struggled to take down Oregon's Gabby Gonzales. She led the Duck's to their 3-0 sweep against the Buffs, showing thirteen kills on 23 attempts to hit an impressive .435 hitting percentage.
The Buffs will look to come back strong and end their weekend on a high note when they host Oregon State at 12 p.m. Sunday.Â
HOW IT HAPPENED:
SET ONE: The opening set saw an early lead from the Buffs at 9-6 but ended in a 25-18 fall to the Ducks. Lexi Hadrych highlighted with three kills while Howard and Tabron posted two kills each.Â
SET TWO: After being down 4-0, it quickly turned into a back-and-forth battle between the two teams. CU put things into gear and fought back after a kill from Howard to put the Buffs up 7-6. However, the Buffs trailed to the Ducks for the remainder of the match, falling 25-19.Â
SET THREE: The Ducks took an early 8-3 lead; however, the Buffs were able to close the gap, taking the score from 9-4 to a tied 9-9 on a five point run. This was highlighted by Hadrych's seventh kill of the match. Back-to-back blocks were posted by the duo of Cayla Payne and Kendall Meller as well as Howard to get CU closer to Oregon; however, the Buffs fell short, ending the third set 25-21.
Quotes:
Head Coach Jesse Mahoney
Oregon is obviously very good, and they're ranked very high. Oregon is another team in our conference that I think is a legitimate Elite Eight, Final Four team. We enjoy playing matches like this and they're great, great tests for where we are. I told the team a lot of that result [the loss] is within our control, which is a good thing. I think we have it within us to be a little bit better at some things. Not just serving, passing, attacking, but systematic things as well. So, the difference in the match, and certainly high-level matches, is usually serving and passing. They are one of the most elite passing teams in the country, and we broke down in each set a couple times and that was the difference. I felt like we left a lot of blocks on the table, unfortunately, they were really good when they got us out a system, and our left sides struggled. So, that said, we must take what we can from this match and focus forward because the next matches are as important as this one.
Middle blocker Skyy Howard:
On Oregon's fast tempo offense and how CU prepared for Oregon:
I think that this week, we tried to replicate a little faster tempo than we are used to so that we won't kind of be surprised or be behind when we got to the game. So, this week, I think we prepared well, but I'm in the game making sure we've focused on our hitters. I think we just lost our hitters a lot and weren't really on our steps and we payed for it. We left a lot of blocks on the table that we should have got.
On the quick turnaround against Oregon State University:
We try to stress looking forward and not back. So, knowing that we have another match ahead of us we are going to come in tomorrow focused and ready to work.
On the mindset going into Sunday's game:
But on for our side of the net, I think focusing on consistency is going to be a big key for this game. We were up and down a lot for this game, individually and as a team. So, being more consistent across the board, for all skills what really helped us.
Middle blocker Cayla Payne:Â
On Oregon's fast tempo offense:
I think in practice, we did a good job of breaking it down and really working on our systems. Obviously, they give us block calls that we need to follow, and I think, me including, other people were not on their hitter, left blocks on the table and just weren't doing our job.
On the quick turnaround against Oregon State University:
I think just taking what we can out of this match, watching film, not only in ourselves but also Oregon State, moving forward, taking what we can, obviously knowing that leaving those blocks on the table isn't acceptable, and just getting better from that.
On the mindset going into Sunday's game:
I think watching the scout and film will tell us more systematically what we need to change. But mentally, it's always the same. It's always go and do your job, get on your hitters. If there's a more important hitter, obviously that we see a film, and that's obviously what's on my mind. But, it's like a clean slate, you go into the game and just play hard.
