Buffs Drop Season Opener In Four

BOULDER - The University of Colorado's women's volleyball team opened up the 2023 season with a tough loss to a solid UNLV squad here at the CU Events Center Friday night. The match brought in a total attendance of 4,833 fans, 3,240 of whom were students. The crowd was the largest the CU Events Center has ever had for a women's volleyball match.

Coming into tonight, CU had won nine straight matches in the Buffs Invitational, but the Rebels put an end to that streak with a 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-14, 25-18) victory. CU looked good in the first set, but was unable to match that success the rest of the night.

The Buffaloes' attack was led by graduate student Lexi Hadrych who totaled 14 kills. She was the only member of Colorado to record double-digits in that category. Hadrych added 11 digs and two blocks on the defensive end.

Skyy Howard and Lily Dwinell both played in their first-ever match for the black and gold, and they seemed to mesh well with the team. Howard tallied six kills and seven blocks while Dwinell had four kills and three blocks.

Colorado struggled to slow down UNLV's leading scorer, Isabel Martin who recorded a match-high 28 kills while hitting an impressive .658. The Rebels held the Buffs to a .163 hitting percentage which seemed to be the difference maker tonight.

The Buffs Invitational will continue tomorrow when UNLV faces off against North Texas at 3 p.m. The Buffaloes will look to bounce back with a win against Campbell at 6 p.m. Campbell lost to North Texas earlier today in a full five-set match.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

SET ONE:
Colorado and UNLV battled out to a 5-5 tie to start out the match. The tie continued to nine all before the Buffs scored four consecutive points to take a 13-9 lead. The Rebels responded with three points of their own to come within one. A block by Tabron followed by a UNLV attack error put CU up 17-13, forcing the Rebels to take their first timeout of the set. After the break, UNLV went on a run to cut its deficit to just one at 18-17 which led Colorado to take their own timeout. The Buffs took another four-point lead at 23-19 after a kill from Hadrych as the Rebels decided to take their final timeout of the set. Back-to-back UNLV attack errors gave CU set point and the set win 25-20.

SET TWO:
UNLV came out firing in the second set, scoring the first four points. Colorado stormed back with strong defense to come within one at 5-4. Later in the set, the Rebels extended their lead to 16-11, forcing a CU timeout. Following the timeout, UNLV held a comfortable four-point lead up to 20-16. A block from Howard and a kill from Hadrych made it 20-18 as the Buffs went on a three-point scoring run to force a UNLV timeout. Shortly after the break, Colorado went on a four-point scoring run to tie it at 22-22. The Rebels called their second and final timeout of the set. CU then called a timeout after UNLV reached set point on Isabel Martin's 13th kill of the match. The Rebels won the set 25-23, following an attack error by the Buffs.

SET THREE:
Colorado jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead which included two successful challenges. UNLV fought back to take a 9-5 lead with six unanswered points, forcing a CU timeout. The Rebels extended their scoring run to seven, but a kill from Hadrych put an end to it. Later on, UNLV went on another scoring run to take a 17-11 lead as the Buffs called their final timeout of the set. The Rebels continued to have their way in the third set, taking a commanding 23-13 lead. UNLV reached set point with a kill from Martin. Martin won the set for the Rebels 25-14 as she racked up her 22nd kill of the night.

SET FOUR:
Both teams fought back-and-forth to a 6-6 tie to start the set. The tie continued to 9-9 before UNLV took a two-point lead at 11-9. The Rebels started to pull away with a six-point scoring run. While trailing 22-14, Colorado called its second timeout of the set. A solo block from Chloe Thomas gave UNLV match point. The Buffs tried to come back with a three-point scoring run, but Martin put them away with a kill as the Rebels won the set 25-18.

QUOTES:

Head Coach Jesse Mahoney

Opening Statement
"UNLV is very good, and I knew that they would be a big test for us, which they were. They got better as the match went on, and unfortunately, I felt like we got a little bit worse as the match went on. They served exceptionally well, and we did not match that with our passing ability. And then,I felt like we served as a team, a little bit poorer than we could have, and they were in system a bunch. They run it fast, and we were out of system. That slowed us down and you're not going to win a lot of games when you pass like that. They've got a lot of great players with one great player hitting .700. That's bad execution on our part. So, we can learn from it with two other excellent teams here, and we need to play better than that this weekend."

On Skyy Howard
"Skyy and Megan are different types of players. Skyy's, certainly super physical and brings great energy. You know, they had some nice athletic blocking moves. We need to get her scoring at a higher efficiency than she is right now, which I think will come with time. We're excited to have her, and she's a bright spot that we had tonight. We've got a lot of bright spots on the team as well. We just got to put it all together."

On Playing Time
"We're going to try to win every game we can, and we're going to put players on the floor that we feel can help us do that. We tried to get a bunch of people in tonight, not to just get them in necessarily, but because we were searching for something that would help. It would be great to be up huge and empty the bench, but I'm not sure that's the plan. The plan is to get the players to give us the best opportunity to win on the floor and be cohesive as we play other teams."

Outside Hitter Lexi Hadrych

On Communication
"Even though I'm a grad student, I think I'm still learning. I think, if anything, we just need to stay together as a team and continue to talk out loud. That's what helped me get some passes even though I was struggling. I just had to keep on talking out loud and it ended up working during those situations when we could get some passes. I just think we're all learning and growing at the same time."

On The Match
"They definitely did have great serving, and I think we just got frantic a little bit. We have to realize that that's when you take a breath and you've got to slow things down and not let them speed anything up. You got to take control back."

Outside Hitter Lily Dwinell

On First Match As A Buff
"It was definitely a lot to take in. It's a new environment for me and there's a lot of people out there. I just need to make sure I'm focusing on what we practice. I need to make sure I implement that throughout the game and stay dedicated to what I know and what we've been taught."

On The Match
"They made it really tough with the serving pressure. Like Lexi said, we just need to take a deep breath and slow down, stay true to what we know and play how we know how to play."

Next Event

Team Stats

Lexi Hadrych

Alexia Kuehl

Skyy Howard

Lily Dwinell

Players Mentioned

Lily Dwinell

Lexi Hadrych

Skyy Howard

Players Mentioned

Lily Dwinell

Lexi Hadrych

Skyy Howard