November 01, 2000
Colorado took advantage of No. 21 Texas A&M's season-high 33 hitting errors and defeated the Aggies 15-13, 15-11, 15-12 in front of 573 in attendance at the Coors Events Center.
The loss snapped A&M's four-match winning streak as the Aggies fell to 15-6 overall and 10-4 in Big 12 Conference play while Colorado improved to 11-9, 7-6.
A&M opened the match by quickly building a 6-2 advantage behind the strong net play of Tara Pulaski and Michelle Cole. The Aggies went on to build a 13-3 advantage for their biggest lead of the game. But then the Buffaloes turned the game around as their offense got on track. With A&M leading 13-8, Colorado scored six points without a sideout and was serving for game point. Heather Marshall prolonged the game with one of her 19 kills of the match, but Colorado regained serve and ended the game by blocking an A&M attack attempt.
Colorado led the entire second game with the exception of a 2-0 A&M advantage to begin the game. The Buffaloes pulled ahead, 13-5, but A&M outscored them 6-1 to get within three points at 14-11. With Colorado serving for game point, Brandi Mount's attack sailed long to give the Buffaloes a 2-0 lead in the match.
The teams battle back and forth in the third and final game. Colorado was down, 10-8 but tied the score on a kill and a block. The Buffaloes then took the lead on a Sara Villwock kill and never trailed the remainder of the game. Colorado held a 12-11 lead and then scored two points on back-to-back A&M kill errors. A&M regained serve and scored on a block by Mount and A.D. Achilefu, but the Buffaloes regained serve on another Villwock kill and won the match when Cole's attack went long.
Marshall and Erin Gibson led the Aggies with 19 kills apiece, and Cole had a match-high 20 digs. Sonja Nielsen led the Buffaloes with 24 kills and Villwock finished with 21.
The Aggies are idle this weekend and return to action when they host No. 1-ranked and undefeated Nebraska Wednesday, Nov. 8. First serve is at 7 p.m at G. Rollie White Coliseum, where the Cornhuskers have not won since 1997. The match will be televised on a tape delay basis by Fox Sports Net.