Volleyball Wins Five Game Battle At Colorado
Nov. 10, 2007
BOULDER, Colo. –
After trailing two games to none Saturday night, the Kansas volleyball team showed great heart battling back to win the last three games and earn a 3-2 victory over Colorado. <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Kansas improved to 12-15 on the season and 5-12 in Big 12 matches. Colorado dropped to 6-19 overall and a 1-16 mark in league play.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Senior Emily Brown led Kansas with her eighth double-double of the year. Brown set a career-high 41 assists to go along with 15 digs. Three other Jayhawks contributed double-digit kills including a team-best 17 from freshman Jenna Kaiser. Kaiser also recorded a team leading .389 hitting percentage committing just three errors and hitting 17-of-36 attempts. Freshman Karina Garlington added 14 kills and junior Natalie Uhart pitched in 13 along with a team-high five blocks. Melissa Manda was the only Jayhawk with double-figure digs with 27.
Colorado tallied a whopping seven service aces along with a .409 hitting accuracy (12-for-22) and just three hitting errors to take a 30-16 win over the Jayhawks in game one.
It looked as though Colorado would take another easy win in game two but Kansas refused to give up battling back from a 21-10 deficit to come within six of the Buffaloes. Trailing 16-27, the Jayhawks strung together a 6-1 run to close in at 28-22. Unfortunately, the push was too late as Kansas eventually fell 30-24.
Despite going down 0-2 in the match, Kansas earned a 30-24 victory in the third game to force the contest into extra games. After tying five times in the first 10 points of game three, Kansas took its biggest lead of the match at 8-5 thanks to three CU errors. The Jayhawks later increased their lead to nine with an 8-2 run to go up 24-15. Brown finished the game for KU with back-to-back kills.
Game four was a back-and-forth battle through the whole contest. CU took the biggest lead of the game at 17-14 on a 3-0 run, but Kansas answered right back with five consecutive points to stay on top, 19-17. The lead changed hands six more times before game point. After Noyes tied the game at 28-all, the Buffaloes thought the victory would go to them going up 29-28. However, Brown tied it at 29 and Kaiser, who totaled seven kills in the game, gave KU a one point edge on a barely hit ball over the net. The game finally ended at 33-31 in the Jayhawk’s favor after a pair of kills from Uhart.
Kansas opened the final game with 6-1 lead. Colorado threatened KU’s lead trailing 8-10 but it was the closest the Buffaloes would get. Kaiser tallied three of KU’s final four points to seal the 15-11 victory.
Kansas volleyball will play next at KansasState Wednesday, Nov. 14 in the Sunflower Showdown scheduled for 7 p.m.
