October 16, 2005
Laura Jones tallied 30 kills and Christi Hahn and Kelly Stanton each posted career highs in blocks with 11 apiece, but it wasn't enough for Texas A&M as Colorado came back from a two-game deficit to defeat the 24th-ranked Aggies, 20-30, 25-30, 30-26, 30-28, 15-10, in front of 1,243 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
"We were playing some of the best volleyball we have played all year in the first two games," A&M coach Laurie Corbelli said. "We had very few errors. We were in rhythm. The team was just very united, but for whatever reason, we lost our focus."
A&M held a 12-10 lead in the opening game when the Aggies began to pull away after Jones and Stanton combined for three kills and two blocks to spark the Aggies on a 5-0 run. The pair later gave A&M its first 10-point lead with three consecutive kills to put the Aggies up, 29-19. Colorado setter Ashley Nu'u held off game point with a dump kill before Jones clinched the game with her 10 kill of the frame.
"Game 1 started off very even for awhile and then we kind of slipped away," Corbelli said. "They were basically just making some unforced errors that we were not making. We were confident. We were on a roll. We had rhythm. We were executing the things that we had been working on."
The Aggies, who outhit Colorado, .472 to .194 in the first game, carried the momentum into Game 2 and outhit the Buffs, .302 to .191. Jones, who hit .615 in the opening frame, was again the Aggies' offensive weapon, hitting .692 with nine kills. Hahn was the leader in net defense, chalking up five blocks as A&M tallied seven blocks in the game.
Colorado held a 22-21 advantage when Jones tied the score with a kill. Hahn, who didn't have a block in the first stanza, followed with a kill and then tied her career high for solo blocks in a match with her third solo block of the game. Jones capped the Aggies' four-point run with a kill. A&M later scored three unanswered points to build its biggest lead at 29-24. Lynsey Mann held off game point before A&M's Meghan Kainz drilled a Colorado over pass to give the Aggies a two-game lead.
"I thought we were pretty balanced in those (first two) games," Corbelli said. "Even though Laura stood out with her numbers, I thought they still had to honor our other attackers quite a bit, and our blocking really started to come together."
A&M struggled to get back into its rhythm following the intermission and was held to a .068 hitting efficiency in the third game. Colorado took advantage of the unforced errors and used a four-point fun to take its second lead of the game at 14-12. The Aggies overcame a four-point deficit to tie the game at 21 and again at 22 but were unable to take the lead. A&M staved off two game points at 29-24 before Lara Bossow closed out the game with a kill.
A&M also came back from a four-point deficit in Game 4, and at 27-26 took its first lead since a 2-1 advantage. The lead was short lived as Allie Griffin had a straight-down kill to spark a three-point run for the Buffs. Jones kept A&M alive with a kill before Lauren Schaefer ended the game and tied the match with a kill.
A&M scored the first point of the decisive fifth game, but Colorado answered with four consecutive points. The Buffs later used another four-point rally to build their biggest lead at 13-7. Amber Sutherland scored the final two points for Colorado with two of her 15 kills of the match.
"We basically lost our rhythm and what was going well," Corbelli said. "We know it was totally in our control, and we just messed up basically. All teams will have times when they just mess up. We made too many errors unforced, period."
A&M outhit the Buffaloes, .199 to .181, and also led in blocks with a season-high 22 to Colorado's 14.5, but Colorado led in kills, 74-64, and in digs, 77-59.
Griffin, who ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 behind Jones in kills per game, led a group of four Colorado players who posted double digits in kills with 21. Sutherland added 15, and Bossow and Nicole Carr had 13 and 11, respectively.
Colorado also had four players reach double figures in digs, led by Therese Vinal's 17.
Jones, who took 67 swings in the match to become A&M's all-time leader in career attack attempts with 4,206, posted her third 30-kill performance of the season while hitting .299 and set a career high with eight blocks. Hahn and Stanton added 14 and 11 kills, respectively. Holly Clay was the only A&M player to reach double figures in digs with 16.
With the loss, A&M falls to 9-8 overall and 2-6 in the Big 12. Colorado improves to 8-7, 4-6.
A&M concludes a two-match home stand Wednesday against Baylor. First serve is at 6:30 p.m. at G. Rollie White Coliseum.