October 03, 2001
The Colorado Buffaloes battled from a 2-0 match deficit to post a 23-30, 24-30, 30-28, 30-24, 15-10 victory over the 16th-ranked Texas A&M volleyball team before 1,234 fans Wednesday at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
The loss snaps the Aggies' four-match winning streak and drops Texas A&M to 10-2 on the year and 3-1 in Big 12 play. Colorado, which posted its first win in five tries in College Station, improves to 7-4 and 3-2.
The teams battled back and forth out of the gate in the first game. An Aggie service error and back-to-back kills by Sara Villwock broke a 6-6 tie and gave Colorado an early three-point lead. With the score tied at 14-14, an Erin Lechler kill regained serve for Texas A&M and sparked the Aggies to a 4-0 run, forcing a Buff timeout. CU would get no closer than two points before the Aggies pulled away for a 30-23 victory. Brandi Mount and A.D. Achilefu paced A&M in the game with five kills each.
Game two was another close affair early on before A&M pulled away late for a 30-24 win. The Buffaloes took their first lead of the game since 3-2 when Villwock again posted back-to-back kills, giving CU a 15-14 lead. A&M regained the lead and increased it to two at 18-16 as Melissa Munsch and Jenna Moscovic teamed for a block on Colorado's Sonja Russell. The Aggies followed that by going on a 6-2 run, including three Achilefu kills, to claim a 24-18 advantage and force a Buff timeout. Colorado would close within four at 28-24 before a Lechler kill and an attack error by Russell gave A&M the victory.
Colorado grabbed an early 4-3 lead in the third game and did not relinquish it for most of the frame. The Buffaloes extended their advantage to as many as four at 15-11 on a Meghan Barkman solo block. A&M fought back to tie the match five times, finally taking the lead at 26-25 on a Monique Gerlach attack error. Gerlach redeemed herself, however, posting back-to-back kills to give Colorado the lead again at 27-26 and force an Aggie timeout. Munsch tied the score out of the break with one of her four kills in the game before Gerlach notched yet another kill. An Achilefu kill tied the score at 28-28, but Russell put a ball down on the floor to put CU at game point. Following another A&M timeout, Barkman and Gerlach teamed to block Achilefu's attack and give the Buffaloes a hard-fought 30-28 win.
Coming out of their first timeout in the fourth game, the Aggies trailed Colorado 22-19. The two teams traded kills before Lechler and Michelle Cole put down kills to cut the CU lead to one. Then, an attack error by Villwock tied the score at 23-23 and forced CU to take a timeout. The Buffaloes fed off the break, scoring three straight points to go up by three, 26-23. Colorado kept the momentum through an A&M timeout, as Villwock posted a solo block, Sara Fredrickson put down an Aggie overpass and a Beth Weynand attack went long to pull CU to game point at 29-23. After a Buff service error, Fredrickson notched another kill to give Colorado the 30-24 win and force a fifth game.
Game five was tight most of the way, but CU hit .467 with no errors in the final stanza to post a 15-10 win and complete the comeback. The game saw five ties before the teams switched sides. Colorado took the lead for good at 8-7 when Moscovic was called for a lift. CU's lead would get no larger than two before A&M pulled to within one at 11-10 on a Moscovic kill, but a 4-0 run by the Buffs gave them the win. Barkman and Elizabeth Gower put an exclamation point on the match with a big block of Lechler's final attack of the night, giving CU the victory.
Colorado won the battle at the net, out-blocking A&M 14 to eight on the night. The Buffaloes also out-hit the Aggies .260 to .247 and out-dug Texas A&M 79 to 77.
Five Aggies were in double figures in kills. Lechler led the way with 18 and a team-high 23 digs, while Cole tallied 12 kills and 21 digs. Moscovic posted her third triple-double of the season, hitting an error-free .500 on the night with 10 kills, 10 digs and 55 assists. Achilefu finished the match with 15 kills, while Mount posted 11. Munsch led all Aggies in blocks with five.
Villwock was the spark for Colorado on the night, posting 12 digs and a match-high 19 kills while hitting .343. Russell also had a double-double for the Buffs, racking up 17 kills and a match-high 24 digs. Gerlach (15) and Barkman (11) also reached double-figure kills for Colorado. Barkman led the match and her team in blocks with six.
Texas A&M returns to action on Saturday when the Aggies travel to Austin to face the Texas Longhorns. First serve at Gregory Gymnasium is set for 7 p.m.