Match Stats
- #23 USC def. #20 Colorado 3-1 (25-16, 32-34, 26-24, 25-16)
- USC moves to (9-5, 1-2 Pac-12); Colorado falls to (9-4, 1-2 Pac-12)
- Boulder, Colorado (Colorado hosted)
The USC Trojans picked up their first win of the 2016 Pac-12 season in stylish fashion, beating #20 Colorado 3-1.
USC had three players with double-digit kills, but only one of them hit for better than a .200 average – Brittany Abercrombie, who had 15 kills in 26 swings with only 2 errors.
The big boost to USC, however, came from the return of senior libero Taylor Whittingham, who returned from a two-game absence on Friday. She scored 19 digs and added a career-high 8 assists to go with 2 aces on the day.
The win for USC overcame a triple-double from Colorado’s Gabby Simpson, who had 12 kills, 27 assists, and 11 digs. That’s Simpson’s third-straight triple-double.
The most exciting set of the day was the one won by the Buffs – set #2. The marathon frame went all the way to 32-34 before Colorado ultimately won on an Alexa Smith kill. Smith had 8 kills on the day but put 7 errors with it for just a .028 hitting average, but that one was a big one.
Joslyn Hayes had 16 kills on the day for Colorado, hitting .341 on her efforts.
Videos
Press Releases
Courtesy USC Athletics:
BOULDER, Colo. — The No. 23-ranked USC women’s volleyball team (9-5, 1-2 Pac-12) picked up a valuable 3-1 road victory (25-16, 32-34, 26-24, 25-16) over No. 20 Colorado at the Coors Events Center on Friday, Sept. 30. With six players in double-figure points, the Women of Troy stopped a short two-match skid and posted their first league win of the season.
Freshman outside hitter Khalia Lanier took match-high honors with 20.5 points as she logged 19 kills (8e, 56att, .196) to go with a career-high 18 digs and three blocks. It was Lanier’s sixth-career double-double match. Junior opposite hitter Niki Withers scored season-bests with 18.5 points on 16 kills. Withers also matched her career mark with five blocks. Fellow junior opposite hitter Brittany Abercrombie added 16.0 points with 15 kills (2e, 26att, .533) and two blocks.
Junior middle blocker Jordan Dunn scored career marks with 12.5 points and nine kills (2e, 16att, .438). Dunn also put up a season-high seven blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Alyse Ford had 11.0 points with nine kills and 11 digs. She also had one of USC’s three service aces. Senior middle blocker Elise Ruddins came through with 10.5 points on eight kills (0e, 15att, .533) and five blocks.
In her first action following a two-match absence, senior libero Taylor Whittingham put up a match-high 19 digs and had a career-high eight assists to go with a pair of timely service aces. Sophomore defender Victoria Garrick added eight digs. Junior setter Reni Meyer-Whalley dished out 32 assists and had eight digs. Junior setter Nikki Leonard put up 30 assists and had 14 digs to log her third-career double-double (two while at Gonzaga). USC’s setters had the Trojans hitting .279 in the match (77k, 27e, 179att).
The Buffaloes hit .202 in four sets and finished with 53 kills (17e, 178att). Both teams finished with 12.0 blocks, but USC had a huge 89-61 edge in digs. Joslyn Hayes led Colorado with 16 kills (2e, 41att, .341) while Gabby Simpson added 12 kills (4e, 39att, .205), 27 assists, and 11 digs for a triple-double. Naghede Abu tallied eight kills (0e, 21att, .381) to go with six blocks. On defense, Cierra Simpson led the Buffaloes with 18 digs.
USC seized control of the first set when Lanier’s kill put an 11-9 lead on the board for the Trojans. USC extended to four (16-12) and then later picked up an eight-point lead at 22-14 on a kill by Abercrombie. The Women of Troy put the first set to bed when Ruddins and Withers teamed up for the block and a 25-16 win.
Back-to-back kills by Withers gave the Trojans set point at 24-22 in the second frame, but the Buffaloes wouldn’t go quietly. The Trojans had six set points and the Buffaloes had five before Colorado closed out a marathon 34-32 win to even the match at one set apiece. USC had 24 kills and hit .245 in the second frame, but couldn’t overcome the charging Buffalo down the stretch.
Colorado led the third set, 20-15, before the Trojans forged a comeback to take a 26-24 win. This time around, the Buffaloes had set point at 24-22, but USC used a 4-0 run to seal the deal. It was Lanier’s kill that sparked the run, but two big blocks by Ruddins–once with Ford and once with Withers–made the difference.
The Buffaloes led, 6-5, in the fourth set, but a 7-2 run by the Trojans ripped open a 12-8 lead for USC. With Whittingham back to serve, the Women of Troy went up by seven, 17-10. Three straight USC points put the Trojans on top, 22-13, before a kill by Withers put match-point on the board for the Women of Troy. Ford and Dunn got up to turn away the final Colorado attack and put a 25-16 win to bed. USC had 17 kills and hit .256 in the fourth set, but held the Buffs to just seven kills and a .056 hitting rate when it counted.
USC will turn around to face No. 25 Utah (11-3, 2-1 Pac-12) at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. MT (6 p.m. PT). The match will be streamed live on Pac-12.com/live. The Utes were swept by UCLA earlier tonight.
For more information on the USC women’s volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com. To purchase season and single-match tickets, please visit USCTrojans.com/tickets today. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Periscope, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Courtesy Colorado Athletics:
BOULDER — In a huge Pac-12 match-up between two top-25 ranked teams, it was an all-out battle with 40 ties and 21 lead changes throughout the contest, but unfortunately the No. 20 Colorado Buffaloes found themselves on the wrong side, falling 3-1 (25-16, 32-34, 26-24, 25-16) to No. 23 Southern California on Friday night.
The loss dropped the Buffs to 9-4 overall, 1-2 in the Pac-12, while USC moved to 9-5 (1-2 Pac-12).
WHAT HAPPENED: Gabby Simpson recorded her third straight triple-double this season with 12 kills, 27 assists and 11 digs as the Buffs lost the tough battle. Joslyn Hayes led the team with 16 kills and hit .341. Naghede Abu had the best hitting percentage for CU at .381 with eight kills on 21 errorless attacks. She also led the team with six blocks, while Alexa Smith and Anna Pfefferle each added five blocks.
Cierra Simpson also had a good defensive showing, recording 18 kills, while Stephanie Shadley also had a double-digit digs performance with 10.
SET 1: The match started off very close with each team holding the lead in the early stages before USC took a 16-12 lead midway through the frame. The Trojans extended their lead to 22-14 and went on to take the set 25-16.
SET 2: The Buffs got out to a better start in the second set, taking an 8-5 advantage, but the Trojans came back to even the game up (9-9). The set would be tied 20 more ties before CU was able to take the set 34-32. USC had two set points early at 24-22, but the Buffs responded and evened the game up (24-24). CU had four set points before it was finally able to convert on a kill by Smith.
SET 3: CU started set three with a 9-7 lead and increased it to 12-8 before USC took a timeout. The Buffs kept attacking, forcing the Trojans to use their second timeout at 19-15. CU took the first point out of the break with a Gabby Simpson kill, but after that USC pulled together five straight points to even the game (20-20). The Buffs used a 4-2 run to get to set point (24-22), but the Trojans answered with a pair of points (24-24), forcing extra points for the second straight set. USC finished the set with two more consecutive kills, finishing 26-24.
SET 4: The fourth set started off close again with CU holding a 6-5 lead. The set was tied 9-9 when USC used an 8-1 run to go up 17-10. The Buffs did their best to rally, but unfortunately fell short in the set, 25-16.
THE PLATIUDE STAT: Since moving to the rally-scoring era, the Buffs have only had five sets go beyond 30 points, including the second set (34-32) in Friday night’s match. Other sets in which scores over 30 points were achieved include:
W 36-34 vs. Cal, 2015
L 31-33 at Oregon, 2014
W 37-35 at Air Force, 2012
L 30-32 at Iowa State, 2008
STANDOUT PERFORMER: Gabby Simpson became the first Buff to record three straight triple-doubles in CU history. She had one on Sept. 21 against Utah, another on Sept. 25 against Arizona and one on Sept. 30 against USC.
TEAM STATISTICS: The Buffs hit .202 with 53 kills and 17 errors on 178 attacks in the win, while USC hit .279 with 77 kills and 27 errors on 179 attacks. CU recorded 51 assists to USC’s 71. The Trojans out-dug CU 89-61 and the two teams each put up 12.0 team blocks.
NOTEABLE: The Buffs are now 9-4 on the season, 5-2 at home … The Buffs are 169-90 all-time when ranked in the AVCA Poll… USC has won all 13 meetings between the two schools dating back to 1988.
NEXT UP: Colorado hosts UCLA (11-2, 2-1 Pac-12) on Sunday, Oct. 2, at 12 p.m. at Coors Events Center.
QUOTABLE:
Jesse Mahoney, head coach
On What Went Wrong In Tonight’s Match – “In the first set we didn’t serve very well. When that team passes they’re really athletic at every position. It was kind of a shooting gallery in the first set. The fourth set, we didn’t pass once, we couldn’t pass. Once we gave up that five point run that was the end of that set. Overarching, that team had 30 more digs than we did over four sets. We just did not defend the easy stuff well and we certainly didn’t defend the hard stuff well. We need to do those things in order to be successful.”
On Gabby Simpson‘s Performance – “Any time anyone asks me about Gabby [Simpson] I say she’s a special player. She can do a lot of things at a really high level. Attacking wise it’s good to see her have another great attacking match. Setting wise obviously she defended as well. These two players had great matches for us. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough but we need them to continue playing at that level.”
On USC’s Talent – “They’re really good. When you look across the net, they’re athletic in every position. They’re well coached. We felt like on our home floor, this year, the way we’ve been playing we had a good opportunity to win this match. We’ll get back to the drawing board. We have UCLA coming in here on Sunday. Every team in this league is good. There are no nights off. We have to play at a high level sustained for 3, 4, 5 sets in order to win against anybody.”
On Recovering From This Loss – “I think we understand what we do well and what we could do better at. We work on those things every day. There’s no quick fix or easy thing. We’ll get back in film tomorrow morning and do our normal prep for UCLA and then we need to follow the plan and execute. There’s no magic pill that’s going to change everything. We have to keep working.”
On What Went Wrong In Tonight’s Match – “In set three we lacked focus in those last few points because we were up the majority of the game. We should have closed off. From the court’s opinion, we lacked focus.”
On Recovering From This Loss – “We need to have a short term memory because UCLA is a good team and we need to play them at the best level we can.”
On What Went Wrong In Tonight’s Match – “When you’re up that far you definitely have to close out. USC’s a phenomenal team and they fought back hard. When that happens it matters how you mentally stay focused in crunch time and we lacked that.”
On Recovering From This Loss – “We need to acknowledge that we have all the right tools athletically and systematically. We’re a phenomenal team but we just need to execute.”
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COLORADO TICKET INFORMATION
Single match tickets for most contests start at just $5 for general admission and $8 for reserved seating. Kids 12 and under are still free.
Season tickets are also available and start at just $25 for general admission, while reserved seats are $40. Fans can purchase single match and season tickets online at CUBuffs.com or by calling 303-49-BUFFS.
And don’t forget about the Women’s Sports Pass. For just $125, the Women’s sports pass gives you general admission seating for all volleyball, soccer and women’s basketball home games.
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