LOS ANGELES\u00a0 \u2014 In their first ranked contest of the season, No. 23 Colorado put on a dominant display and took down No. 16 USC (26-24, 23-25, 25-13, 26-24) on Saturday night at the Galen Center, moving the Buffs to 8-0 on the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Really proud of our team. That was a ranked opponent on the road and I was really happy with the way we started the match, the way we responded when put under pressure,” Head Coach Jesse Mahoney<\/a> said. “I thought we played with a lot of poise. Our players did a really nice job of following the game plan and made some clutch plays at the end.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The contest marks the first-ever win at the Galen Center in Colorado volleyball history.\u00a0<\/p>\n HOW IT HAPPENED:\u00a0<\/p>\n Set One: The set was competitive early as the Trojans found the first run, securing three-straight points before CU capitalized on two USC errors and went on a 6-0 run of its own. Throughout the scoring streak, senior pin attacker Sydney Jordan<\/a> secured two kills and junior defensive specialist Katie Salonga<\/a> tallied an ace (9-7 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n Colorado refused to let USC pull ahead, responding to Trojan points with blocks from senior PIN Ana Burilovic<\/a>, senior setter Jenna Ylivanio and additional points from senior middle blocker Cayla Payne<\/a> (14-14).\u00a0<\/p>\n The teams battled through extensive rallies, as a dominant kill from senior PIN Lily Dwinell<\/a> pushed the Buffs ahead (20-18 CU). Just as the Trojans came within reach of the first set, a kill from junior MB Maria Splawska<\/a> and two consecutive USC errors tied the contest (23-23).\u00a0<\/p>\n A Burilovic kill and a block from Payne and Ylivainio gave the Buffs the first set (26-24 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n Set Two: Despite offensive efforts from Colorado, Southern California led the majority of the second set. The Buffs faced their biggest deficit of the match, trailing by four points, before a fourth Jordan kill closed in on the Trojan lead (10-7 USC). CU capped off a 3-0 run with back-to-back block assists from Payne and Dwinell (11-10 USC).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trojans held onto their advantage, finding a four point lead, but Colorado extinguished their run with a 3-0 response as Jordan tabbed two kills, both assisted by Ylivainio (18-17 USC). The Buffs kept their composure despite a Trojan lead and answered with two consecutive points before USC claimed the second set (25-23 USC).\u00a0<\/p>\n Set Three: With junior libero Tinons Munar Galmes<\/a> behind the service line, Colorado took the first seven points of the set, with kills coming from a trio of seniors in Burilovic, Dwinell and Payne (7-0 CU). Colorado amped up the intensity, securing four more points with blocks from Payne, Burilovic and Ylivainio, and an eighth Burilovic kill (11-4 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n A Ylivanio service ace gave the Buffaloes the largest lead of the contest, entering the media timeout up nine (15-6 CU). Colorado generated an additional 3-0 run, sparked by Dwinell’s eighth kill of the evening (18-8 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Buffs laid down an offensive hammer, recording three additional kills, two coming from Burilovic, to extend the Colorado lead (23-11 CU). Ylivainio’s first solo block of the match gave the Black and Gold their final point of the third (25-13 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n Set Four: The senior Buffs connected on the court with kills from Dwinell, Burilovic, Payne and Jordan, all assisted by Ylivainio, powering Colorado to an early lead (5-3 CU). Consecutive kills assisted by Ylivanio kept Colorado in the lead, giving the setter her 30th assist for the seventh-straight contest (7-6 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n The teams exchanged points, tying the set on four separate occasions until a kill from Jordan and a Dwinell block gave the Buffs a slight edge (17-15 CU). After a solo block from Ylivainio put Colorado in set point, an additional solo block from Jordan closed out the match, giving Colorado the upset (26-24 CU).\u00a0<\/p>\n MAHONEY ON HIS SENIOR-LED SQUAD: “We’re a veteran team that did a lot of good things last year, but it’s good for us to see that hard work pay off, and understand that there’s not a match this season that we’re not going to be in a position to win.”\u00a0<\/p>\n KEY PLAYERS:<\/p>\n
Jordan: Reached a season-high 11 kills, hitting .429, while adding two blocks.<\/p>\n
Burilovic: Recorded 15 kills, two blocks and an ace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dwinell: Added 12 kills and four blocks, totaling 14.5 points.<\/p>\n
Payne: Contributed seven kills and seven blocks.<\/p>\n
Ylivainio: Tallied 35 assists, while putting up five blocks and tying her season-most kills (3).\u00a0<\/p>\n
MATCH NOTES:<\/p>\n
This marks the first-ever win at the Galen Center in Colorado volleyball history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three players reached double-digit kills for just the second time this season.<\/p>\n
Of the matches that have gone beyond three sets this season, Colorado has won the fourth set by the most points in each contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colorado has gone into extra points five times this season, two coming from tonight’s match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burilovic, Dwinell and Jordan all recorded double-digit kills during the fourth set of the contest.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT: The Buffs return home for the battle for the Golden Spike, where they will face-off against in-state rival Colorado State on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center. Fans can purchase tickets here<\/a>. The match will be streamed on ESPN+. Fans can follow along via live stats links on CUBuffs.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES\u00a0 \u2014 In their first ranked contest of the season, No. 23 Colorado put on a dominant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-462281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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