Boulder, CO – The University of Colorado women’s volleyball team lost twice to Colorado State University to cost them the Inaugural Golden Spike Showdown title.
Both teams met back at The CU Events Center on Friday after The Rams swept The Buffs 3-0 on Thursday at Moby Arena and again just 23 hours later, 3-2 (11-25, 25-23, 19-15, 20-25, 15-7).
The No.19 nationally-ranked Colorado only made 23 errors with 43 kills and a .155 hitting percentage- it all came down to the difference in each team’s experience.
Creating a cohesive unit is still presenting a challenge to Colorado with only seven rostered players from the 2018 season.
CSU has five returning seniors and the powerhouse R-Jr. Breana Runnels who led the match with 16 kills.
The Rams led statistically in every category except Aces where Buffs freshman Savannah Perry led by two.
Sr. Outside Hitter Justine Spann put up two massive blocks, a kill and an ace in the first set propelling Colorado to 9-4 helping ignite CU to their first set win against CSU. The Buffs tallied for a total of seven blocks in the first set.
CU’s nerves set back in after riding the crowd’s exhilaration during the first set. The second set ended with The Buffs coming back to tie up at 19-19 after suffering from a seven-point deficit. Similar to the rest of the sets, Colorado just couldn’t finish and fell off at 25-23.
The stands imitated a doctor’s waiting office as CSU swept through the third set hopeful to finish in four.
Colorado Fr. Sterling Parker picked up speed starting off swinging with a cross-court kill from the opposite pushing the match into a fifth set.
There was an obvious lack of momentum by Colorado and no room left for recovery. CU only scored seven points before retiring to the locker room.
Head coach Jesse Mahoney said, “We played hard, we played disciplined, we did a lot of things that will help us win matches in long-term, but did not happen tonight. That’s a really good team. I think this was a coin-flip match and it just came out the other way.”
Colorado native, Sr. Libero Rachel Whipples, added, “It’s very disappointing that we didn’t lose just once, but twice. I treat this as any other team even if it is a rivalry so we put it behind us and we come back into practice next week ready to go.”
This is the first year the two teams competed for the Golden Spike Trophy. The Colorado supporter club members presented the idea to create a rivalry trophy after playing each other 37 times.
In other news
Middle blocker Meegan Hart was named Pac-12 Player of the Week and outside hitter, Jill Schneggenburger was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the week.
Written by Christina Robben
