MATCH STATS
- #25 Colorado def. #16 Oregon 3-2 (25-17, 25-19, 17-25, 9-25, 15-10)
- #25 Colorado improves to 16-6 (6-5, Pac-12); #16 Oregon falls to 14-6 (7-5, Pac-12)
- Eugene, Oregon (Pac-12 Match)
- Attendance: 1,846
- Box Score
Eugene, Oregon – #25 Colorado almost lost a 2-0 set lead, but came out on top in the final set on the road for a five-set ranked victory at Oregon. The win pushes Colorado right on the heels of Oregon in the Pac-12 standings as both are even in the loss column.
The Buffaloes led for all but a few early points in the opening set and continued to roll in the second. With 25-17 and 25-19 sets, Colorado stormed in front for the 2-0 set lead in Eugene.
Oregon turned things around after that and flipped the script with a 25-17 set victory in the third. That strong play continued and reached its high point in the fourth as they led coast-to-coast for a dominant 25-9 set win to force a fifth.
In that fifth and decisive set, Oregon took the first two points, but was countered by four in a row for Colorado. Things switched again as Oregon battled to an 8-7 lead at the switch and moved in front 10-9 late. A Frankie Shebby (14 kills, eight digs, two aces) kill for Colorado tied things at 10 and started the final spurt of the match that led to one final Shebby kill and a 15-10 set victory.
Beyond Shebby leading the Buffaloes in kills, Anna Pfefferle (13 kills, .478 and six blocks) and Alexa Smith (11 kills, 14 digs) posted big numbers. For Oregon in a losing effort, Ronika Stone (13 kills, .455 and five blocks) and Lindsey Vander Weide (12 kills, .308, 11 digs) had big statistical matches.
In total for the match, Oregon out-hit Colorado .297 to .234 and had more blocks (15.5 to 9.5) and aces (6-3) while Colorado had more digs (58-52). While Oregon did win a majority of the team stats, it’s important to note that a big part of that comes from the lopsided fourth set.
It’s a wrap for Oregon, who had Colorado as their only match of the week. The Buffaloes have one more road match in the Pacific Northwest for the week as they face a red hot Oregon State team tomorrow.
PRESS RELEASES:
EUGENE, Ore. — The Colorado Buffaloes completed the season sweep of No. 15 Oregon on Friday night with a 3-2 victory at Matthew Knight Arena.
The Buffs started the match strong, taking the first two set 25-17, 25-19. But the Ducks rallied back with two set wins of their own (25-17, 25-9) to force the fifth and deciding set. Colorado was able to regroup and finish the match with a 15-10 set win, which included the final six points.
The win puts the Buffs at 16-6 overall and 6-5 in Pac-12 play, while the Ducks are now 14-6 overall (7-5 Pac-12).
WHAT HAPPENED: A trio of Buffs tallied 10 or more kills in the win. Frankie Shebby led CU with 14 kills and Anna Pfefferle recorded a season-best 13 kills while hitting a match-best .478 with just two errors on 23 attacks. Alexa Smith added 11 kills as well as 14 digs for her 12thdouble-double of the season.
Pfefferle also had a strong performance at the net, posting six blocks. Joslyn Hayes added another four blocks and Naghede Abu recorded three. Gabby Carta-Samuels led both teams with 17 digs.
Jolie Rasmussen led the Ducks with 14 kills and added nine digs and four blocks. Ronika Stone had 13 kills and hit .455, while Lauren Page posted seven blocks.
SET 1: Colorado used a 5-0 run to take a 5-2 lead to start the set, forcing Oregon to take an early timeout. CU increased its lead to six (13-7), which made the Ducks spend their second timeout. The Buffs did not slow down and hit .441 with 17 kills in the set as they went on to take it 25-17.
In that set, the Buffs recorded two big blocking milestones. CU’s first block in the set made Pfefferle the CU rally-scoring era career blocks leader. Abu’s first block in the match was the 400thin her career; she is just the sixth Buff to ever reach that mark.
SET 2: The second set started off much closer. The Ducks took a 4-1 lead to start, but CU started its comeback on the following point. The Buffs were down 10-8 when they were able to string together a 4-0 run, making UO take a timeout (12-10). CU tacked on another two points out of the break before the Ducks could sideout (14-10). UO couldn’t figure out a way to slow the Buffs down and had to take their final timeout of the set at 17-12. CU took the following point off a block by Abu and Brynna DeLuzio to give the Buffs a six-point cushion. CU would go on to take the set 25-19.
SET 3: Oregon got out to a quick start in the third game. The Buffs took their first timeout of the match when UO extended its lead to four-points (11-7). CU was able to cut UO’s lead to just two at 16-14, but then the Ducks used a 3-0 run to go up by five (19-14), causing the Buffs to use another timeout. Unfortunately CU was not able to close the gap and fell 25-17.
SET 4: The Ducks recorded the first five points in the set and increased the lead to seven (12-5) before the Buffs called their first timeout of the game. Out of the break, Oregon used a 5-2 run to take a 10-point lead in the set, forcing the Buffs to take their final timeout. CU could not stop the Ducks’ offense and fell 25-9.
SET 5: CU regrouped and recorded a 4-2 lead to start the frame, but the set would soon be even at 5-5. The Ducks would have the 8-7 advantage at the side change, but a kill from Smith evened it back up at 8-8. It was even again at 9-9 and 10-10 before the Buffs were able to take a two-point lead at 12-10, causing UO to take a timeout. The Ducks took their last timeout on the following point, a kill from Smith, which put CU up by three. The Buffs finished the match with two straight points (15-10).
NOTES: CU is 9-4 this season away from Coors and is 4-5 against ranked opponents…CU is 2-6 all-time in Eugene, but is 2-1 in the last three meetings at Matthew Knight Arena…Both of CU’s wins in Eugene have come in five sets…This is the first time CU has swept the season series against the Ducks…CU has won four of its last five matches…CU is 5-2 in five-set matches.
TEAM STATISTICS: Oregon led the match with a .297 hitting percentage. The Ducks recorded 62 kills and 18 errors on 148 attacks. The Buffs hit .234 with 57 kills and 23 errors on 145 swings. Oregon also led the match in aces (6-3) and blocks (15.5-9.5). CU had the edge in digs at 58-52.
NEXT UP: The Buffs head to Corvallis, Ore. to square off against Oregon State on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. OSU has won five straight matches and are 16-7 (6-5 Pac-12).
QUOTES:
Head coach Jesse Mahoney
Thoughts on the match
“It was a really strange match. We controlled the first two sets fairly easily, almost too easily because we went into the third set and lost a little bit of our discipline before getting blown out in set four. To the players’ credit, they were able to refocus and play a very high level set in set five. We scored the last six point of the match and are coming out of here with a win.”
Thoughts on the team playing as a whole
“I thought everyone contributed tonight. In the first two sets our middles were on fire. In sets three and four we struggled a bit, but in set five, Frankie took some big swings. Pfeff put up some nice blocks and Lex made some amazing digs at the end. Brynna ran another great offense for us. It was a great match all the way around.”
On what happened in the third and fourth sets
“Oregon is really good. They made some adjustments and I don’t think we played as focused as we could have in set three. In set four, the wheels came off. I made some subs to give our starters an opportunity to refocus and be ready for set five.”
EUGENE, Ore. – The 15th-ranked Oregon volleyball team dropped the first two sets against Colorado on Friday night before responding with two dominant sets to force a fifth, but the comeback bid fell just short as the Buffaloes escaped Eugene with a 25-17, 25-19, 17-25, 9-25, 15-10 win in front of 1,846 fans in Matthew Knight Arena.
How it Happened: The Ducks (14-6, 7-5 Pac-12) were a bit sluggish out of the gate, as Colorado hit .441 in the opening set to win, 25-17, and take a 1-0 lead. An early 8-1 run gave the Buffaloes (16-6, 6-5 Pac-12) momentum, and Oregon was able to score consecutive points just twice in the set while hitting .189.
Oregon started better in the second, scoring four of the first five points and taking a 10-8 lead, but Colorado ripped off six straight points and 10 out of 12 to take control, 18-12. The Ducks were unable to get closer than four points the rest of the way, with Colorado hitting .467 in the set to take a 2-0 lead into intermission.
The Ducks responded out of the break to win the third set, 25-17, enjoying a huge game on the block with 9.5 total rejections. Leading 16-14, a Jolie Rasmussen kill sparked five straight Oregon points, and kills by Rasmussen and Willow Johnson ended the set and forced a fourth. Rasmussen led the Ducks to a .333 hitting percentage in the set with four kills, while Lauren Page factored in on five of Oregon’s 9.5 blocks to limit Colorado to minus-.067 hitting.
Oregon was even more dominant in the fourth set, rolling to a 25-9 victory to force a fifth. The Ducks hit a blistering .625 in the set with four players putting down three kills or more, while holding Colorado to a .000 hitting percentage. Oregon raced out to a 7-1 lead before using a 13-3 run to take a commanding 21-7 advantage, and the Ducks finished off the set with four kills on the final five points.
The Ducks scored the first two points of the decisive fifth set, but Colorado answered right back with four straight, including two on UO errors. Oregon was able to regain the lead a few times, including at 10-9 on a Ronika Stone kill, but the Buffaloes scored the final six points of the match to thwart the Ducks’ comeback attempt and sweep the season series with Oregon.
Who Stood Out: Four Ducks finished with double-digit kills, led by Rasmussen’s 14. Stone hit .455 with 13 kills and Johnson and Lindsey Vander Weide each had 12, with Vander Weide breaking out of an offensive slump a bit with a .308 hitting percentage. Lauren Page gave Oregon a spark off the bench with seven blocks and four kills, and Stone and Taylor Agost each had five blocks. Maggie Scott recorded her fifth double-double of the year and second in as many matches with a season-high 32 assists and 11 digs to go with four aces, and Vander Weide added 11 digs for her team-best seventh double-double. Former Duck Frankie Shebby led Colorado with 14 kills.
What it Means: After an impressive four-set win over No. 12 Utah on Wednesday, the Ducks came out flat to start the match against the Buffs. Oregon’s response after intermission was encouraging, but head coach Matt Ulmer expects more energy and more consistent efforts from the Ducks moving forward. With a four-match road trip looming, the Ducks will look to regroup and get back on an upward trajectory towards the postseason.
Quotable: Matt Ulmer, Head Coach
On the loss…
“When you get in a fifth set, anything can happen. We would have liked to have made a little more plays, but I thought Colorado played well in the fifth set. I think who we are was the third and fourth set team, but who we can be are the first and second set team. So we need to be more of who we are.”
On the sluggish first two sets…
“What I told the team was that I don’t know if we believe we’re good yet. So when good things happen to us, all of a sudden we kind of get cocky as opposed to thinking we’re good, now let’s go get better.”
Notable: The Ducks suffered their second home loss of the season, moving to 11-2 … Oregon lost for just the second time when leading in attack percentage (.297 to .234), falling to 14-2 … The Ducks are now 4-2 in five-set matches this season … Colorado sweeps the season series for the first time, but the Ducks still lead the all-time series, 12-5.
Up Next: After wrapping up a four-match homestand against Colorado, the Ducks will begin a four-match road trip next week with matches at California (Nov. 3, 7 p.m. PT) and No. 2 Stanford (Nov. 5, 1 p.m., Pac-12 Network).
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