The Colorado Buffaloes (4-3) were defeated by the Northern Colorado Bears (6-2) in a tightly contested five-set match on Wednesday night.
The Buffs had a slow start to the evening after a sloppy first set that was potentially winnable had certain mistakes not been made and certain big plays completed. However, they made a mid-set rally to come back and keep it close, just barely giving it away by a score of 25-23.
The second set was much better for the black and gold. They stayed in it from the beginning, and following a timeout from Northern Colorado when the Buffs took a 14-11 lead, Colorado held on to the advantage to win that set 25-18.
After that, the Buffs struggled in set three. Despite a rally lasting about 90 seconds which saw the Buffs gain a crowd-popping point, the black and gold could not generate any consistent momentum and dropped that set 18-25.
The Buffs needed the fourth set to keep the match going, and they played like they knew it. They could never get particularly far ahead on the scoreboard. Still, their consistency issues seemed resolved and they remained in control to take that set 25-22 off of a huge Ana Burilović spike.
Despite the strong end to set four, the fifth and final set was the complete opposite of what the team would have wanted to see.
Early in the set, the Buffs were already down 6-2 when head coach Jesse Mahoney took a timeout. With the fifth set only going to 15, the Buffs needed a rally fast. After dropping to a deficit as high as six, the black and gold came back to close the gap at 11-8.
With momentum turning the other way, Northern Colorado took a timeout and wanted to come out of it with a huge answer. The answer they found was a four-point run to quickly defeat the Buffaloes in tough fashion.
The Buffaloes were mostly dominated in Wednesday night’s match. With only 44 kills to UNCo’s 78, the black and gold defense was not as stout as it needed to be. Furthermore, the Bears had nearly 20 more digs than the Buffs, 63 compared to Colorado’s 45.
“I was really frustrated,” said Mahoney after the game. “All these things were my fault, but we weren’t prepared early. We did not come out with any sort of focus or intentionality.”
Burilović led the team with 15 kills, and Lily Dwinell was also pointed out by Mahoney post-game as a key contributor. Both sophomores are expected to take major roles in the young Buffs squad.
The Colorado Buffaloes now look ahead to their last tournament of the season which will take place this weekend. They will face off against UC Irvine, California and Wyoming throughout the Buffs Invitational on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Coverage of those games can be found at skobuffssports.com.
Cover photo by Roberto Patrick Gerra/Sko Buffs Sports
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