Buffs Sweep James Madison, Advance To NCAA Second Round

Friday, December 1

Waco, TX

3:30 PM

Colorado

23-9

James Madison

23-6

James Madison

Colorado

Photo by: Samuel Sharpe Photography

Buffs Sweep James Madison, Advance To NCAA Second Round

December 01, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Curtis Snyder, Digital Strategy

WACO, Texas – The University of Colorado advanced to the second round of the 2017 NCAA Volleyball Tournament by sweeping James Madison, 3-0 (25-21, 25-14, 25-12), Friday here at the Farrell Center.

The Buffs improve to 23-9 on the season and have now won four straight first-round matches in NCAA Tournament action dating back to 2005. The Dukes end their season with a 23-6 record.

WHAT HAPPENED: Colorado and James Madison played the first set fairly evenly before the Buffs took control and never looked back. Setter Brynna DeLuzio got the middles involved early in the second set and that proved to be the difference in that set then Frankie Shebby took over the third set to get the sweep.

Naghede Abu hit .615 and Anna Pfefferle hit .462 with four blocks to lead the Buffs. On the outside, Frankie Shebby led all players with 12 kills and Alexa Smith added eight. DeLuzio paced the offense with 33 assists and led the charge defensively with 13 digs and Gabby Carta-Samuels added nine digs. Joslyn Hayes had four kills, four blocks and three digs on the right side.

SET 1: The Buffs and Dukes played the first set evenly early, as neither team had more than a three point lead until the Buffs had a mini 3-0 run that took the set from a 14-13 advantage to an 17-13 advantage. That run spanned both the media timeout and forced the first Dukes timeout of the set. The Buffs maintained that 3-5 point advantage until JMU made a run to bring the set within one at 22-21 when CU coach Jesse Mahoney called a Buffs timeout. CU then won the final three points out of that timeout to take the set, 25-21. CU hit just .150 (13 kills, 7 errors on 40 attacks) but held the Dukes to .000 (10-10-39). The Buffs had a balanced attack as Smith had four kills, Pfefferle had three and Abu, Hayes and Shebby each had two.

SET 2: The Buffs jumped out to a quick 7-1 lead in the second set and never looked back. Utilizing the Buffs middle attack, DeLuzio got the ball to Abu and Pfefferle, who each accounted for two points in that 7-1 lead. The two teams played evenly over the middle part of the match and with the score 17-10 in the Buffs favor; they then pushed their lead into double figures and won the second set, 25-14. Abu ended the set with five kills and a block while Pfefferle added four kills and an ace. The Buffs had just one hitting error in the set with an attack percentage of .486 (18-1-35), holding the Dukes to a .171 hitting mark (10-4-35).

SET 3: After the break, the Buffs broke open an early 3-3 tie with a 5-1 run to take a 8-4 lead, and the Dukes responded to bring it within two at 9-7. CU then rattled off six straight points to take a 15-7 lead and then had another 4-0 lead to take a 20-9 lead before coasting to a 25-12 victory in the set and sweep in the match. Shebby led the Buffs with six kills in the set. CU hit .300 (12-3-30) and held the Dukes to a negative percentage at -.097 (5-8-31).

NOTES: This was the first match-up between Colorado and James Madison. Colorado improved to 3-0 against teams from the Colonial Athletic Conference, also having sweeps over Hofstra (11/29/90) and UNC Wilmington (8/31/07). The Buffs improved to 12-18 all-time in NCAA Tournament action and are now 9-8 in the first round. The Buffs have won four consecutive first-round NCAA Tournament matches dating back to 2005. This is the sixth NCAA Tournament sweep in the CU's NCAA Tournament history. CU is now 6-3 in neutral court match-ups in the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs now have 23 wins on the season, the most since 1994 and tied for third-most in CU history. That 1994 team also had 23 while the 1991 squad had 25 wins and the 1993 team 26.

TEAM STATISTICS: Colorado hit .305 in the match with 43 kills and 11 errors on 105 attacks, holding James Madison barely in plus-territory with a .029 percentage with 25 kills and 22 errors on 105 attacks. CU had 55 digs to the Dukes' 43 and led with seven blocks to three and three aces to two.

NEXT UP: Colorado advances to face the winner of No. 12 seed Baylor and Miami (Ohio). The match will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday here in Waco, Texas.

QUOTES:
Head coach Jesse Mahoney
Opening Statement…
"First of all, congratulations to James Madison for a great season. I thought that they were very well coached. I thought they played with a lot of intensity and certainly pushed us to play as hard as we can, so congratulations to them. I felt like our team, certainly midway through the first set kind of calmed down and relaxed a little bit, played within ourselves. From that point on I was really pleased with the way our offense was spread."

On the team's performance…
"I felt like our setter, Brynna DeLuzio], did a really nice job of getting everybody involved. Then towards the ends of sets two and three, I thought defensively we continued to get better, certainly on the blocks. I'm happy for the showing we had, a lot of great individual performances, and like we've done all season, a really great team effort."

Senior Joslyn Hayes
On the difference between the first set and the next two…
"Well, I think that in the first set everybody was nervous, everybody was excited to be in the tournament itself. So just getting the jitters out was ultimately I think the difference. Once we got comfortable we were able to just go and play our own game."

Senior Anna Pfefferle
On what it means to advance to the second round…
"Having the opportunity to play another game is everything that we're looking forward to, so as long as we can keep playing we'll be happy."