The Colorado Buffaloes (7-7, Big 12 0-2) traveled to Utah last week to open Big 12 play.
They took on then-No. 17 Brigham Young University (BYU) (9-3, Big 12 2-0) in Provo and the University of Utah (12-1, Big 12 2-0) in Salt Lake City. The start of conference play was no easy opponent for CU, as BYU came into the match ranked No. 17 in the nation.
On the road, the Buffs got off to a rough start in set one, falling behind 21-13 and being forced to call a timeout in an attempt to make a late run. This would be the most one-sided set of the night, as BYU finished it off 25-17. CU bounced back in the second set and led for most of it, jumping out to a 19-14 advantage. Despite the impressive efforts of BYU to turn the set around, they fell short, and the Buffs evened the score 1-1.
Throughout the match, sophomore Cayla Payne battled back and forth with BYU’s 6-foot-5 middle blocker Brielle Kemavor. This inhibited her offensive production and reduced CU’s options on the attack. However, there was no shortage of aggressive offense from the visiting team, with three Buffs racking up double-digit kills. Ana Burilović led all players in kills and aces, hammering home 16 kills and making serve receive difficult on BYU, finishing with four aces. Sophomore Lily Dwinell also contributed majorly, matching her career high with 15 kills. Sydney Jordan chipped in 12 and rallied her team when momentum seemed to be slipping.
While these numbers by CU are impressive, it was the defensive end that proved to be their downfall in Provo. BYU’s hitting percentage was .306, a nearly impossible percentage to recover from in any match. A statistic that head coach Jesse Mahoney has emphasized in the past, this issue has continued into the regular season. CU knows that they must find a way to disrupt hitters and get this number down in order to compete down the line. BYU took the final two sets but won by a combined margin of five points. The Buffs fought hard, falling 25-23, and 25-22.
In the second half of its road trip, CU traveled just under an hour north to Salt Lake City for a matchup against a skilled Utah team. Mahoney had alluded to the talent of the Utes earlier in the season, stating that they could easily be a top-20 team. Showing its strength right out of the gates, Utah took the first two sets with little difficulty, putting the pressure on the Buffs to avoid a sweep. Down 2-0 towards the end of the challenging trip, it would’ve been understandable if CU had lacked the energy to fight back from this deficit. However, the Buffs did just the opposite.
Similar personnel led the way for CU to get its footing, with Burilović the game leader once again with 18 total kills. She also stepped up her defensive presence, recording 14 digs. Jordan had a double-double of her own with 12 kills and 15 digs. One surprise contributor who breathed some life back into CU’s comeback was redshirt sophomore Kendall Meller. The outside hitter came off the bench and hit a team-high .346 hitting percentage. With only two errors on 26 attempts, Meller was the consistency the Buffs were looking for.
Refusing to give up on the hopes of stealing a road win in Utah, CU struck back with back-to-back set wins of its own, capturing the third set 25-23 and the fourth set 25-18. Resilient with the odds against them, Mahoney says he was proud of his team’s efforts.
“We will compete well, regardless of the score,” Mahoney said.
Tied at two sets each, the match was decided in a critical fifth set.
With the fifth set only going to 15, the margin of error was drastically smaller on both sides of the net. In this case, one team excelled and the other stumbled. In the fifth set, CU allowed Utah to jump out to an early lead and then added to their own misfortune with four errors. Comparatively, the Utes regained their footing and finished on a high note, with 11 kills in the final set. Ultimately, it all came down to lapses in defensive adjustments.
“Passing broke down a little bit, and we had some defensive system struggles,” Mahoney said but expressed his confidence in his team’s ability to be successful against teams of Utah’s caliber, advocating for the fact that CU was on the cusp of a 2-0 record as opposed to 0-2.
The Buffs will have the opportunity to get revenge on both of these teams later on in the season by which time they will hope to have made the necessary changes to close out these competitive matches with a win.
CU’s schedule may not get easier from here, with Big 12 teams like Texas Tech (8-6, Big 12 0-2) and Arizona (11-2, Big 12 0-2) coming up quickly despite their lack of conference win. Colorado returns to the CU Events Center on Thursday, Oct. 3 to take on the Kansas Jayhawks. Watch on ESPN+ beginning at 7 p.m. MT.
Cover photo from CU Athletics/CUBuffs.com
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