The Colorado Buffaloes (7-5) and Colorado State Rams (4-7) split the volleyball edition of the Rocky Mountain showdown for the third year in a row, with both teams winning on the road.
Thursday night, the Buffs traveled up to Fort Collins coming off of the win they had on the road to close out the 2023 RMS. With the Golden Spike in their possession and a shaky start to the season on their minds, the Buffs went up and took care of business.
The game was incredibly tight with both sides going back and forth. This culminated in a 32-30 third set victory which gave the Buffs the momentum they needed to close it out in four.
“When someone is hitting over .250, you’re not doing a great job,” head coach Jesse Mahoney said after the victory. “When someone’s hitting .300, you’re gonna be hard-pressed to win.”
Despite defensive troubles still on their mind even with the victory, the Buffs were still optimistic for their home contest.
“We needed to come out here and play them first (this year), which is an advantage because we get to shake the nerves of being at home and needing to win, almost,” sophomore Cayla Payne said.
“I just tell myself ‘next point,’” Payne said about the 32-30 third set. “Don’t do anything crazy, don’t get out of your way to try and make a play, just play the game and things will happen.”
The Friday night game in Boulder started off similarly to the game in Fort Collins, both teams were highly competitive and neither team was able to gain a particularly large lead. In fact, the story nearly perfectly mirrored that of Thursday night’s.
After splitting the first two sets, the third set went long once again. Contrary to Thursday, the Rams ended up coming out on top. With that momentum, the Rams dominated the fourth set.
Opening with a 5-0 lead, the Buffs went on some smaller runs trying to get back in it. But the hole they found themselves in was too deep to dig out of. By the end of the set, it looked like the team had fallen apart and they dropped the final set 25-17.
“We couldn’t get production out of the players that we rely on to get production out of from an offensive standpoint,” Mahoney said after the loss. “We struggled defensively even though I think we were in the right places, we just weren’t making plays.”
Overall, the Buffs still split the series. They took a win on the road and had a relatively decent finish to non-conference play. Another Rocky Mountain Showdown is in the books and the Buffs had positives to take from it.
“I know I came from the SEC, but this tops all rival matches I’ve ever played,” libero Sarah Morton said after Thursday night’s game.
After transferring from Auburn before the spring season, she believes the trajectory is upwards.
“I think we’re only going to get better and better,” she said.
With a tough Big-12 schedule incoming, there’s a focus on the need for improvement to win in a competitive conference.
“We’ve gotta get ready for a really tough conference coming up in our first conference road trip to two really good teams,” Mahoney said.
“Arizona State, top 10. Kansas, top 10. BYU, they’re not in the top 10 but they certainly can be,” he continued. “We play eight teams that are most likely as good, if not better than the one we just lost to tonight. So we’re gonna have to grow up here soon.”
The Colorado Buffaloes open Big 12 play with a Utah road trip where they face off against the BYU Cougars and the Utah Utes on Sept. 26 and Sept. 29 respectively.
Cover photo by Sofia Heimbold/Sko Buffs Sports
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