Ending the season close to home
CU Volleyball reaches the end of the season with three games at home and one away.
California: Stanford
The Buffs lost 3-1 against Stanford at home on Nov. 18 as Stanford led defensively with 11 blocks. Colorado was also outhit .305 to .204 percent with California having 63 kills and CU having 56 kills. CU however had four aces while Stanford had only two.
Maya Tabron had eight digs and led the team with 18 kills. Alexia Kuehl had 10 kills and a hitting percentage of .412. Jahara Campbell and Meegan Hart had nine kills each with Hart having a hitting percentage of .600. Hart and Jill Schneggenburger had a strong defensive performance with a total of 11 block assists. Jenna Ewert ended with 15 digs and Brynna DeLuzio ended with 14. Ewert also had a match high of 48 assists and three kills. She ended the night with a double-double surpassing Alexia Smith for possession of 10th in CU history in career double-doubles with 44.
“It was a well-played match. Stanford’s obviously very good, very physical. I was really proud of the way we played and the way we fought. I think if we hold on to win that first set, it looks like a little bit of a different match. Stanford steadied out and was able to catch us there at 23. We had a lot of really nice performances, both of our middles hit for really big numbers” said Head Coach Jesse Mahoney on the match. “We flipped them in the rotation and Alexia is getting a few more balls and doing a really nice job in transition and Hart’s doing a really nice job in front of the setter as well. For the rest of the season and as we go into the spring and next season, I think we’re pretty good team in system. We’ve got to find a way to be a little bit better out of system. I thought Maya was fantastic tonight in system and you look at her numbers and she hits .083 because she’s taken a lot of swings out of system and trying to score.”
CU fought hard throughout the game, but were dominated defensively and offensively.
California: Golden Bears
The Buffs swept California 3-0 on Nov. 21 at home with 11.5 blocks and a hitting percentage of .284 compared to the Golden Bears .160. CU dominated offensively while recording five and a half more blocks than California.
Schneggenburger led the Buffs with 11 kills, a hitting percentage of .550 and no errors. Campbell had 10 kills with a hitting percentage of .179. Ewert recorded her 45th career double-double with 31 assists, 11 digs and four kills. The Buffs were led defensively by DeLuzio with 15 digs, three assists, a pair of aces and a kill from the libero position. Hart and Kuehl had five blocks assists each and a combined total of 13 kills. Tabron had four block assists and a solo block.
“You know I’m happy to be going out on a high note. I love playing the top teams in our conference. It brings a real competitive edge to it and I am just really excited to play Washington on Wednesday and then Utah.” Jenna Ewert said on the last two games. “I love playing Utah, they’re our first and last match and they’re always good. I’m excited to play them as our last game and play our hearts out.”
Overall, a great game for the Buffs offensively and defensively against the Golden Bears dominating in hitting and blocking.
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Washington: Huskies
CU lost against the Huskies at home on Nov. 24 3-1 after giving out eight service aces and having one more block than California.
Colorado came back in the second set of the game after losing the first and then in the third, CU had a 7-1 point run with a four point lead winning the set. Both teams had an amazing hitting game with Washington hitting .301 with 22 attack errors and CU having .279 percent with 19 attack errors. This game was the last time the seniors Jenna Ewert, Zoe Neverdowski, and Taylor deProsse played at the CU Event Center.
“It’s one of the great parts of this profession. My job is that I get to watch the growth process from the time when they start as young as 16 or 17 when we’re recruiting them and then through being a collegiate athlete which is really hard. It’s physically hard, it’s mentally hard, it’s emotionally hard.” Jessie Mahoney said. “If you use that to your advantage, you come out the other end a really special person, and I’ve watched these three young women become really special people throughout that process. Sometimes you get caught up in defining yourself in wins and losses and that’s not how the rest of the world works and they’re going to leave here and go off into their adult lives and be prepared for really anything after being here and I’m really happy for them and proud of them.”
Tabron led the Buffs with 13 kills, 2 service aces and 9 digs. Campbell, Hart and Schneggenburger each had double-digit kills. Hart and Schneggenburger had 3 blocks, while Campbell had 2. Hart led everyone with a hitting percentage of .667. Ewert ended with 45 assists, 7 digs, 1 service ace and 1 kill from the setter position. DeLuzio, the Pac-12 leader in digs per set, had a match high of 14 digs, 3 assists and 1 service ace. DeLuzio is also 11 digs away from becoming the second Buff ever to record 500 digs in one season.
deProsse said, “Game days are really fast-paced. I had to take a second to breathe there. And I met up with my family and it was a really special moment just because they’ve supported me from day one through everything since I started playing volleyball. It’s just really special. Definitely did have to pause though and take it in for a second. Otherwise, it just kept on going. It’s a special day and it’s great to just celebrate our accomplishments because it’s been a long time in the making.”
CU played hard and even though they lost they fought hard offensively and defensively. The seniors had a great game and will be deeply missed by everyone.
Utah
The Buffs played at Utah in their last match of the season on Nov. 27. No. 17-ranked Utah won the match three sets to one maintaining a .271 hitting percentage, while CU hit at .197.
Jahara Campbell had an amazing day, however, hitting .256 with 18 kills and Brynna DeLuzio made history finishing the season with exactly 500 digs. She is the second player in school history to reach 500 digs under 30 matches.
Colorado finished with a 6-14 conference record. Many of the Pac-12 matchups CU played were lost by just a small margin. Throughout conference play, each set was difficult to clinch, but they showed that they were strong competitors.
