Volleyball Sweeps Wake Forest To Open Season At Home

BOULDER — In the first ever meeting between the Wake Forest and Colorado volleyball programs, it was the Buffaloes who came out victorious, sweeping the Deacons (25-23, 25-18, 25-15) to win their home opener at Coors Events Center, as well as their fourth straight match of the season.

WHAT HAPPENED: For the fourth consecutive contest, junior outside hitter Alexa Smith led the Buffs, this time tallying 14 kills. She committed just two errors on 27 swings to hit .444. Behind her was junior Frankie Shebby who tallied eight kills.

Junior Naghede Abu had a solid performance again, recording a hitting percentage of .500 with seven kills on 14 errorless attempts and a pair of blocks. Freshman setter Brynna Deluzio also handed out 35 assists and added three digs and one block.

SET 1: The first set was characterized by a tight back and forth battle between CU and Wake Forest. The Buffs got on the board first, scoring two points right away but the Deacs quickly answered back with two points of their own. The Deacs stayed in front for the majority of the set, with their biggest lead being 14-11. The Buffs stayed close and gained momentum towards the end of the set. CU evened the score at 22-22 and went ahead on the following point. The Buffs kept the lead and took the set 25-23.

SET 2: It was in the second set that the Buffs began to gain more drive. After going back and forth for the first few points, CU took an 11-10 lead, and would not go down again for the rest of the match. CU used a 6-0 run to bring its lead to 16-10, forcing Wake Forest to take a timeout. After regrouping, the Deacs scored three straight to cut the Buffs' lead to 22-17, but were not able to regain a rhythm. CU maintained its lead and took the set 25-18.

SET 3: Although the Buffs carried momentum over into the third set, Wake Forest kept things close, cutting an early Buffs' lead to 8-7 after back and forth kills between the teams. CU went on a 3-0 run forcing the Deacs to take a timeout after falling behind 11-7. WFU scored after the timeout but was unable to capitalize. Momentum remained with the Buffs who secured a 15-10 lead after another three point run. Although the Deacs sporadically tallied five more points, they couldn't maintain possession and fell to the Buffs 25-15.

TEAM STATISTICS: CU hit .374 with 45 kills and just 8 errors on 99 attacks, while the Deacs hit .143 with 36 kills and 22 errors on 98 attacks. The Deacs out-blocked the Buffs 6.5-6.0 and out-dug CU 39-24.

OTHER INDIVIDUAL STATS: Anna Pfefferle had four kills and no errors to hit .444 and added four block assists. Joslyn Hayes recorded five kills, two block assists and one dig.

NEXT UP: The Buffs will be back in action tonight at 7 p.m. MT against the Rice Owls. The match will be streamed live at pac12.com/live/cubuffs. Live stats are available at CUBuffs.com.

QUOTES:
Head coach Jesse Mahoney
On home opener
"I think that we were excited to play in front of the home crowd. We started off fairly slow but fortunately we got better. We ended playing at the level we expect from ourselves."

On being able to play reserves early in the season
"Steph Shadley is a great player and has done a lot of great things for us. So we know what we are going to get out of her. Justine came in and every ball that she touched was positive, so that was really good to see. We did a little double sub, getting Emily into setting and Taylor in and I think we scored on that. It was good for us to have some success doing that (double sub) because I think that we are going to make some of those moves not just when we are just winning but maybe when we need to come back."

On upcoming game against Rice
"Rice is very good. They have some good wins this season and have handled the other teams that are here (at the Omni Invitational) fairly well. So as always, we have to play very well to be successful."

Next Event

Team Stats

Alexa Smith

Frankie Shebby

Naghede Abu

Joslyn Hayes

Players Mentioned

Naghede Abu

Joslyn Hayes

Anna Pfefferle

Frankie Shebby

Alexa Smith

Players Mentioned

Naghede Abu

Joslyn Hayes

Anna Pfefferle

Frankie Shebby

Alexa Smith