Article on tonight's tough win. (As I noted in an earlier thread, want to highlight the total 21 wins this season was last obtained back in 2003.) -
Direct link - http://www.cubuffs.com/news/2017/11...-upset-defeat-arizona-state-in-five-sets.aspx
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BOULDER – The Buffaloes narrowly avoided an upset after the Arizona State Sun Devils took Colorado to five sets (28-26, 25-16, 26-24, 25-23, 15-11) at the Coors Events Center on Saturday night to improve the team to 21-8 overall and 11-7 in conference play. Arizona State fell to 10-20 overall (0-18 Pac-12).
WHAT HAPPENED: For the first time this season, five players recorded 10+ kills. Junior Alexa Smith led the team in kills with 22 and also recorded 11 digs, 3 blocks and 3 assists. Behind her was junior Frankie Shebby who recorded 16 kills and three blocks. She led the team in digs with 18.
Next was senior Joslyn Hayes who tallied 13 kills, four blocks and three digs. Fellow senior Anna Pfefferle put up 12 kills, five blocks and two digs. Junior Naghede Abu led the team in blocks with eight and also recorded 10 kills.
Freshman Brynna Deluzio handed out a season-high 64 assists, 11 digs and three blocks.
Arizona State's Oluoma Okaro led the Sun Devils with 25 kills. She also put up 15 digs, three blocks and two assists.
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NOTES: The Buffs are now 11-2 at Coors this season…ASU still leads the series 8-6 but the Buffs are now 4-2 against the Sun Devils in Boulder…This match marks the season-high in team kills (76) and season-high in team assists (72).
TEAM STATISTICS: Colorado hit .242 with 76 kills and 28 errors. Arizona State trailed in every category, hitting .203 with 65 kills and 29 errors. ASU led in digs (76-72) but CU led in aces (5-4). Each team recorded 16 blocks.
NEXT UP: Colorado will travel to Berkley to face the Cal Bears on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 4 p.m. MT. The match will be televised on Pac-12 Network.
QUOTES:
Head coach Jesse Mahoney
General
"It was a long, tough match. I congratulate Arizona State for playing hard. It is tough when you are winless, in the league at this point, to continue to motivate and continue to play hard. Their staff did a great job getting their players ready to go. They definitely made life tough for us and I felt that we were really slow coming out of the chute in set one. Still had one swing to win that set and we let that slip away. We kind of recovered in set two and then kind of fell into the same kind of doldrums in set three. In the middle of set four I thought that we woke up and started playing hard. We came back from a deficit to win that set and that propelled us into set five. We had five players with double digit kills, which is really good to see. It means that our setter is doing a nice job moving the ball around. They did have sixteen blocks, that was a little frustrating for us I think. We didn't have a lot of vision swinging at different times in that match. I am really proud of the team in set five, I thought that they put the previous sets behind them and came out playing really hard."
On what the team did well in the second set
"I think that in the second set we did a lot of things right; we passed really well, I thought that we served and got them out of system, our block came alive, we definitely got ahead of the play. Credit to Arizona State, they made some changes, they moved some players around and definitely did a lot of different things from that point on that became a little more unpredictable. It took us a little time to get back ahead of the play in set four and five."
On the challenge-replay late in the fourth set
"The best vantage point to ref a match is from right where the coach stands, because you can see everything. That sounds like a joke but it is actually true, you have a better view point of that than where the refs stand. You could see the ball glance off of the blocker's hand and change direction. So it was a pretty easy one to call, it was a high swing by Joslyn [Hayes] and a pivotal point. That was the difference between 24-22 and 23 all."
On the first 21-win season since 2003 and moving forward
"I was talking to somebody before the match and they were making a comment on how Arizona State hadn't won in the Pac-12 yet, and you know every team is good. They have taken teams to five sets in this league. We talk about it and we understand it, I'm not sure we came out and played with a sense of urgency. We need a sense of urgency to win our next three matches, because we want to host the first two rounds here and we have put ourselves in a place to do that. If we would have lost this match or a match against Cal or Utah, we are not doing that and we are on the road. While I think that we can play with any team in the country, I would rather play anyone in the country here. You asked about the 21 win season, and that is all great. We are happy to win matches of course, but we are focused more on what we have left in the year."
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Boxscore - http://www.cubuffs.com/documents/2017/11/18//11_18_17_Arizona_State.pdf
Direct link - http://www.cubuffs.com/news/2017/11...-upset-defeat-arizona-state-in-five-sets.aspx
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BOULDER – The Buffaloes narrowly avoided an upset after the Arizona State Sun Devils took Colorado to five sets (28-26, 25-16, 26-24, 25-23, 15-11) at the Coors Events Center on Saturday night to improve the team to 21-8 overall and 11-7 in conference play. Arizona State fell to 10-20 overall (0-18 Pac-12).
WHAT HAPPENED: For the first time this season, five players recorded 10+ kills. Junior Alexa Smith led the team in kills with 22 and also recorded 11 digs, 3 blocks and 3 assists. Behind her was junior Frankie Shebby who recorded 16 kills and three blocks. She led the team in digs with 18.
Next was senior Joslyn Hayes who tallied 13 kills, four blocks and three digs. Fellow senior Anna Pfefferle put up 12 kills, five blocks and two digs. Junior Naghede Abu led the team in blocks with eight and also recorded 10 kills.
Freshman Brynna Deluzio handed out a season-high 64 assists, 11 digs and three blocks.
Arizona State's Oluoma Okaro led the Sun Devils with 25 kills. She also put up 15 digs, three blocks and two assists.
...
NOTES: The Buffs are now 11-2 at Coors this season…ASU still leads the series 8-6 but the Buffs are now 4-2 against the Sun Devils in Boulder…This match marks the season-high in team kills (76) and season-high in team assists (72).
TEAM STATISTICS: Colorado hit .242 with 76 kills and 28 errors. Arizona State trailed in every category, hitting .203 with 65 kills and 29 errors. ASU led in digs (76-72) but CU led in aces (5-4). Each team recorded 16 blocks.
NEXT UP: Colorado will travel to Berkley to face the Cal Bears on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 4 p.m. MT. The match will be televised on Pac-12 Network.
QUOTES:
Head coach Jesse Mahoney
General
"It was a long, tough match. I congratulate Arizona State for playing hard. It is tough when you are winless, in the league at this point, to continue to motivate and continue to play hard. Their staff did a great job getting their players ready to go. They definitely made life tough for us and I felt that we were really slow coming out of the chute in set one. Still had one swing to win that set and we let that slip away. We kind of recovered in set two and then kind of fell into the same kind of doldrums in set three. In the middle of set four I thought that we woke up and started playing hard. We came back from a deficit to win that set and that propelled us into set five. We had five players with double digit kills, which is really good to see. It means that our setter is doing a nice job moving the ball around. They did have sixteen blocks, that was a little frustrating for us I think. We didn't have a lot of vision swinging at different times in that match. I am really proud of the team in set five, I thought that they put the previous sets behind them and came out playing really hard."
On what the team did well in the second set
"I think that in the second set we did a lot of things right; we passed really well, I thought that we served and got them out of system, our block came alive, we definitely got ahead of the play. Credit to Arizona State, they made some changes, they moved some players around and definitely did a lot of different things from that point on that became a little more unpredictable. It took us a little time to get back ahead of the play in set four and five."
On the challenge-replay late in the fourth set
"The best vantage point to ref a match is from right where the coach stands, because you can see everything. That sounds like a joke but it is actually true, you have a better view point of that than where the refs stand. You could see the ball glance off of the blocker's hand and change direction. So it was a pretty easy one to call, it was a high swing by Joslyn [Hayes] and a pivotal point. That was the difference between 24-22 and 23 all."
On the first 21-win season since 2003 and moving forward
"I was talking to somebody before the match and they were making a comment on how Arizona State hadn't won in the Pac-12 yet, and you know every team is good. They have taken teams to five sets in this league. We talk about it and we understand it, I'm not sure we came out and played with a sense of urgency. We need a sense of urgency to win our next three matches, because we want to host the first two rounds here and we have put ourselves in a place to do that. If we would have lost this match or a match against Cal or Utah, we are not doing that and we are on the road. While I think that we can play with any team in the country, I would rather play anyone in the country here. You asked about the 21 win season, and that is all great. We are happy to win matches of course, but we are focused more on what we have left in the year."
...
"
____________________________________________________________________________
Boxscore - http://www.cubuffs.com/documents/2017/11/18//11_18_17_Arizona_State.pdf
