During the last play of the game freshman middle blocker Nichole Lindow (15) spikes the ball at the Furman Paladines while senior outside hitters Rosie Steinhaus (11) defends during the Friday, Aug. 27 game at the Coors Events Center. While the Buffs won against the Paladines, they lost their away game to Colorado State Tuesday, Aug. 31. (CU Independent/Emily Haag)

Strong showings by sophomore outside hitter Kerra Schroeder and junior middle blocker Anicia Santos weren’t enough to give CU’s women’s volleyball team a win.

The Buffaloes lost to No. 15 CSU 25-19, 25-11, 25-16 at Moby Arena Tuesday night. CU falls to 1-2 on the season, while CSU improves to 3-0.

Schroeder led the Buffs with eight kills, three aces and four digs. Santos hit a team-best .455 average with six kills and one error on 11 swings.

“This is a learning lesson,” Head Coach Liz Kritza said in a news release. “You hate to lose to learn these lessons, but there are some positives to come out of this. Anicia Santos hit .455. And this early in the season, for a team that is relatively new in our configuration, it’s helpful to play a high level team and this will help us prepare for our conference season.”

CSU took an early lead to kick off the first set of the match. The Buffs got close at 13-12, but a 5-2 by the Rams run gave the Fort Collins foes an 18-14 lead. The Buffs’ eight service errors led to the Rams taking the first set 25-19.

CU had its first lead of the match with a 3-2 start to the second set. However, a 7-3 CSU run helped them take a 9-6 lead. The Buffs battled back to bring the score to 21-20. Despite fighting off two set points, the Buffs fell in the second set as well, 25-22.

Two solid runs by CSU made the third and final set theirs for the taking. The Buffs tied it up at six all, but a 6-0 run by the Rams gave CSU a 12-6 lead. The Buffaloes got close once again at 19-15, but the Rams finished out the match going on a 6-1 run to give them the win with a score of 25-16 in the last set.

“There is no rest for the weary,” Kritza said. “I think this young team is going to understand that if you play consistently at a high level, good things will happen for you. They believe they can and are willing to put in the reps to get there. This is just the beginning for this young group.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at Marlee.horn@colorado.edu.

A second half offensive explosion, headed up by senior defensemen Kym Lowry, gave the CU’s soccer team their second straight home victory with a 2-0 win over the Northern Colorado Bears.

Lowry had an assist and a goal of her own on a heat-throbbing Sunday afternoon in Boulder.

“[The goal] felt so good,” Lowry said. “We really needed to score.”

The first half crept along with few scoring attempts from either side. The Bears put three shots on goal while the Buffs milked five of their own.

Junior defender Amy Steiner had multiple breakaways, dribbling the ball all the way to the opposing goal, but could never find an opening to put one on net.

Head coach Bill Hempen said, “We weren’t very dangerous for as much as we had the ball in the first half.”

After 45 minutes of play the scoreboard was blank on from right to left. The second half began with more intensity from the Bears than had been seen from either side during the first half.

Bears’ midfielder Kimmie Fiedler aggressively tripped over the freshman CU goalkeeper Annie Brunner in pursuit of an intercepted cross, resulting in a free kick for the Buffs.

A Bears barrage of corner kicks shook up the Buff defensive line, yet the seemingly impermeable goalie Brunner did not fall short of expectations.

Sixty minutes after the opening whistle, the Buffs finally broke through.

Lowry took a cross from junior Caroline Danneberg, who flicked it in, resulting in a Buffs 1-0 advantage.

“A strong part of our [offense] is running down the field and getting crosses in, so I think we just try to take advantage of that every game and see how it goes,” Danneberg said.

Fifteen minutes later, Lowry found herself in the middle of it again. Senior Amanda Foulk took a Lowry pass and rolled it just out of Bears goalie Kirsten Salminen’s fingertips to give the Buffs a 2-0 advantage.

The final minutes of the game remained at a high pace, but the Buffs kept control, resulting in another shutout for the Buffs on their home turf.

Next up for the Buffs is the Denver Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m against in-state rivals Denver.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writter Sonia Amodeo at Sonia.amodeo@colorado.edu.

Junior Richi Bigelow (8) tries to block a spkike from Duke's Christiana Gray (11) during the CU versus Duke match at Coor's Events Center on Saturday. The Buffs lost, 2-3. (CU Independent/Stephanie Davis)

The CU women volleyball team’s loss to Duke was a tale of two teams.

First, there was the CU team that shined in the second and third sets. Then, there was the CU team that was simply out-played by a taller and faster Duke.

The Buffaloes fell in five sets 25-18, 26-28, 18-25, 25-16 and 15-10.

The first set was not the Buffs’ finest. Colorado kept Duke’s lead between four and seven points and made the score 21-16 late in the set.

But that is as close as they came. Despite solid blocking by the Buffaloes, Duke’s physicality and play towards the outside lines was too much for CU to handle, and the Buffs fell 25-18.

In the second set, an ace by sophomore outside hitter Kerra Schroeder tied the game at 21. Then, at set point, Duke gave the set to the Buffs, 28-26, after hitting the ball out of play.

The third set belonged to the Buffs from the beginning. Duke would only trail 15-13 in the middle of the set, but thanks to the strong CU offense, that is as close as they would get.

A block by junior outside hitter Anicia Santos raised the Buffs’ lead to 20-13, and the Buffs closed out the set 25-18.

“We’re not a huge team,” Santos said. “We don’t have girls who are 6 feet 6 inches just crushing the ball in front of the ten foot line. Our strength is in our system and the fact that we work well together as a team.”

Unfortunately for the Buffs, the fourth set was the tale of another team.

Despite back-to-back kills by Schroeder, the Buffs could not make up for their lack of communication on the floor. Duke won the set 25-16.

The fifth set never was completely out-of-reach for the Buffs, but, just like that, the match was over with Duke winning the final set 15-10.

“I don’t think we gave up at all the whole time,” Schroeder said. “I mean, we fought throughout the match.”

Coach Kritza believes that her team’s fighting spirit will help them learn from their mistakes and become a better team for the remainder of the season.

“These were important lessons that we needed to learn,” Kritza said. “If you lose, you better have some purpose and some positive result for your program. And that’s what we’re intending to do.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at marlee.horn@colorado.edu.

Sending the ball sailing back to the Furman Paladines, sophmore outside hitter Kerra Schroeder and freshman middle blocker Nichole Lindow block their opponent's spike during the first match of the season on Friday, August 27 at the Coors Events Center. The Buffs swept all three sets with Schroeder finishing the evening with a team-high of 14 kills. (CU Independent/Emily Haag)

A new season means a fresh start for the University of Colorado women’s volleyball team.

The crew of two returning starters and 14 newcomers swept the Furman Paladins in straight sets 25-22, 25-22, 25-19 in the team’s season opener.

Head coach Liz Kritza said she is very excited about the team’s new look but is aware that she has to have patience with her freshmen on the floor.

“As the younger players are learning our system and really learning to become comfortable playing at this level, I think we’ll really see some more improvement from them,” Kritza said.

If it was true that freshmen and transfers were feeling any discomfort, it didn’t show on the court.

Despite a shaky start to the first set, a strong defense helped the Buffs tie it up. From that point on, the team’s energy was high to close out the set 25-22.

Returning starter, sophomore outside hitter Kerra Schroeder’s six kills during the set didn’t hurt either. At the end of the night, Schroeder finished with a team-high 14 total kills.

“I came in as a freshman last year with a bunch of newcomers, so I think that my overall knowledge of doing that last year has helped this year with the freshmen,” Schroeder said. “You know just telling them, ‘You’re okay. I know you have nerves.’”

The Buffaloes took their first set energy into the second with a strong start. A long rally brought Furman closer at 6-5, and the Buffs seemed to slow their pace a bit in the closing minutes, but they finished out the set once again 25-22.

“I think it will just be a matter of time before they really get into the system and start to learn the nuances of how we play and how we train and are really able to make adjustments during the game,” Kritza said. “But I’m very pleased with the overall effort of the team tonight with all of our young players.”

Kritza also pointed out that sometimes confidence from the first two sets can be detrimental to the team in the final set, but in tonight’s game, the Buffs’ liveliness was really a driving factor.

A hot start with a kill by freshman middle blocker Nichole Lindow gave Colorado a 5-2 lead. Later, an ace by junior setter Alyssa Valentine widened the lead to 15-10. Even when the team was letting the ball drop, they were still hustling.

“I think everyone was just really fired up to play and just went after it and was just really agressive,” said junior setter Alyssa Valentine. “We have a whole new team. We all really just want to be here- be on the court – and we want to win.”

The team said it hopes to bring some of its confidence from tonight’s win to its game against Duke on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

“It’s a special group – not just because of its size – but their coming in to really establish a new era of Colorado volleyball,” Kritza said. “Tonight was a good step in that direction.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Marlee Horn at Marlee.horn@colorado.edu.

A new season for the Colorado Buffaloes cross country team is off and running.

The Buffs will kick off their season Oct. 2 at the Rocky Mountain Shootout in Boulder.

Both the men’s and women’s teams are looking to start off with a bang.

“We’d loved to get started with a win at our home meet,” said senior women’s runner Laura Thweatt.

Both the men’s and women’s teams cruised to victories last year and had success throughout the rest of the 2009 season. Both teams had second place finishes at the Big 12 Championships which earned them both trips to the NCAA National Championship meet.

On the women’s side, despite the loss of top runner Jenny Barringer, the 2010 women’s team has added depth to its squad. The team hopes to use it to improve on its 20th place finish at the 2009 National Championship.

Head Coach Mark Wetmore is looking forward to having a much deeper squad in the 2010 season.

“If [Assistant] Coach [Heather] Burroughs and I stay patient and sound on the training with this present women’s group, then we could get to the starting line with nine good runners on it at the conference meet,” Wetmore said on Media Day Aug. 7.

On the men’s side of the team, they have their expectations set high. The 2010 team returns six scoring runners from last year’s National Championship meet and has no intention of looking back.

To Wetmore, however, it will take leadership from veteran runners to make the 2010 Buffs squad successful.

“Well Richard [Medina] and Matt [Tebo] and Christian Thompson are all battle-scarred veterans,” said Coach Wetmore. “I hope that they can teach that to whatever young guys have to step up this year because the men’s team is not as deep as the women’s [team].”

Although the Buffs are focused on the season ahead they are well aware of the move to the Pac-10 and what it means for the future of the program.

“The Oregon women are always good. The Stanford women are always good,” Wetmore said. “Same on the men’s side. It will be a challenge, but we’re looking forward to it.”

Wetmore said he does not think the change to the Pac-10 will sway the Buffs’ squad off course.

“It really only changes the site of the conference championship in cross country and outdoor track,” Wetmore said. “It’s really only one meet a season.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Mark McNeillie at Mark.mcneillie@colorado.edu.

The CU Buffs are receiving a reported $1.4 million for a game against Ohio State in Columbus during the 2011-12 football season, the schools announced this Tuesday.

The schools last contest came in 1986, where the Buckeyes defeated the Buffaloes 13-10 in Columbus.

“This will be a great contest between two outstanding BCS teams that share an excellent football tradition,” said OSU director of athletics Gene Smith in article for CBS 21 News in Ohio. “I know our fans will enjoy this opportunity.”

With only four previous encounters, the Buffs will look to improve on their current record against the Buckeyes, which command a 3-1 lead in the series.

CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn said in a news release that CU has always recognized the importance of playing such “marquee opponents,” during off-season games.

“This is a tremendous opportunity on the national platform to schedule a game with Ohio State, which has been one of the nation’s premier programs and whom we have a lot of respect for,” Bohn said.

The difference on the gridiron between the two schools can be measured in their previous seasons’ performance: the Buckeyes went 11-2 en route to a Big Ten title, while the Buffs slumped to a disappointing 3-9 for a fifth-place finish in the Big 12 North during the schools respective 2009-10 campaigns.

The schools will meet on September 24, 2011 in Ohio Stadium.

Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Esteban L. Hernandez at Esteban.hernandez@colorado.edu.

Starting quarterback Tyler Hansen dashes through an opening in Texas A&M's defense during their game on Nov. 7, 2009. The Buffs are looking forward to their last season in the Big-12 and are hoping some fresh faces on the team will help them achieve victory. (CU Independent file/Lee Pruitt)

Last November, the Colorado football team walked off their own field defeated by the rivals in red. The third straight loss gave end to a long despondent season, which defined itself with midseason transfers, a quarterback switch and an unpredictable line.

In September the great cycle of college football will repeat.

The out-of-conference schedule features SEC powerhouse Georgia, future Pac-10 foe California and pass-happy Hawaii in their first three games after the annual civil war game with CSU.

Starting quarterback Tyler Hansen looks at the tough competition with delight.

“If we can beat some of the top teams in the nation it will burst us onto the national stage,” said the junior from Murrieta, Calif. “I think whenever you can beat the teams like Georgia or California, it gives you a little more confidence.”

Here are four reasons the Buffs can contend for the Big 12 North:

1. The offensive line returns all five starters. The same offensive line that allowed only one sack to Nebraska (and that was awarded for intentional grounding). Nebraska finished second in the FBS in sacks last season with 44 and the second overall NFL draft pick Ndamukong Suh had 12 of those himself.

Now that Colorado brings back one of the deepest offensive lines in the country, Coach Dan Hawkins said he feels a little more relaxed in practice.

“We’ve been running with about four full offensive lines, which is nice,” Hawkins said. “There’s a ton of guys who have played and know the system. It’s nice when they can play center and guard, or guard and tackle.”

Not only did the O-line, which averages a height of nearly 6-foot-6, allow Hansen to throw for 269 yards and three touchdowns, but it gave Rodney Stewart enough room to run for over 100 yards against the Huskers. The Buffs, in coach Hawkins’ view, will need to run the ball consistently in the Big 12 conference.

“Those are always two things that I think are critical in football: Being able to run it and being able to stop it,” Hawkins said. “That obviously starts up front.”

2. Defensive Coordinator Ron Collins returns seven starters to his side of the ball and 20 defenders who had significant playing time last season.

The secondary brings back three starters: Jimmy Smith, Jalil Brown and Anthony Perkins and could be the strength of the defense.

At the end of the 2009 season, CU defense’s results were more bad than good.

“We look at it that everyone is pushing us aside, that we are going to shock the world,” B.J. Beatty said. “We have a lot of guys, a lot of depth so if somebody goes down, another guy can come right in and do the exact same job.”

The defense will be battle-tested by the time it reaches conference play in October. Players like California’s Shane Vereen, Georgia’s A.J. Green and Hawaii’s Greg Salas are some of the best offensive weapons in the nation.

3. Coaches named quarterback Hansen as the starting guy two weeks before opening kickoff.

“Tyler gives us a little more of an edge when it comes to the things we can do on offense and being a little more creative,” said Offensive Coordinator Eric Kiesau after announcing Hansen as the starter. “His athleticism [helps], whether it’s dropping back to pass or making something happen on his feet.”

4. This team is filled with talent in all the right gaps offensively. Since the 2009 season kicked off at Folsom, the Buffs have lost a number of important playmakers. Hawkins’ big time recruit Darrell Scott is long gone, running back Demetrius Sumler went out to California with him, and troubled receiver Markques Simas finally got the boot.

Before his departure, Simas was Hansen’s favorite deep target, and had 106 yards against Nebraska’s secondary. This offseason, three receivers have arrived in hopes of picking up where Simas left off, after being released from their respective scholarships.

Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Toney Clemons was with the team during spring practices and has locked up a starting spot at X receiver. With a 6-foot-2 frame and a 4.4. in the 40 to match, he’ll be Hansen’s best threat for big yardage.

The late arrivals of ultra-quick USC transfer Travon Patterson and UCLA recruit Paul Richardson give the Buffs much needed open field speed. Scotty McKnight, who is two catches from being the school leader in receptions, looks forward to being surrounded by the talent.

“We thought it was going to hurt to lose Markques, at it turned out that we’ve added so many people we can look past that,” McKnight said.

When the grudge match against CSU kicks off in Denver, the Buffs will have a clean 0-0 slate to work with. Alongside their fans, critics and coaches, CU’s starting quarterback said he wants to see what the 2010 season brings for the boys in Boulder.

“The last few years have been disappointments to us,” Hansen said. “We have to go out there and prove to people who we are; we are a strong team.”

Four seniors were chosen as captains for the football team on Sunday, all seniors: cornerback Jalil Brown, quarterback Cody Hawkins, wide receiver Scotty McKnight and offensive tackle Nate Solder.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Michael Krumholtz at Michael.krumholtz@colorado.edu.

Sophomore Michala Hedelund Jensen leaps into the air to return a volley during a doubles match against the Kansas Jayhawks April 11 at CU-Boulder's South Campus tennis courts. (CU Independent file/Lauren Walter)

You can call it good timing. You can call it a sense of urgency. You can call it a thesaurus of things.  But the fact of the matter is the CU women’s tennis team won when they needed to.

After dropping four straight, the Buffs clamped down Thursday in the first round of the Big 12 tournament and beat No. 8 Kansas State in Austin, Texas 4-1.

The Buffs won their doubles point by taking both doubles matches.

Freshman Erin Sanders and sophomore Ania Anuszkiewicz took the first match, and junior Abbie Probert and sophomore Michala Hedelund Jensen mirrored that effort by rallying to take the second match.

In singles play, senior Monica Milewski won her match in straight sets 6-0, 6-4. Then Sanders and Probert delivered the final one-two punch as they won their singles’ matches to seal the Wildcats’ fate.

After defeating this same Wildcat team exactly 20 days earlier, CU Head Coach Nicole Kenneally said she was all smiles with the Buffs’ performance.

“We knew it was going to be a really tight match against Kansas State, as we had a really close match with them during the regular season,” Kenneally said in a news release. “Both teams went in with a little different lineup, but I was really happy with the way we competed. We had some tough starts on a couple of matches, but we fought back hard. All in all, it was a great team match and a great team victory.”

With the win, the Buffs’ prize is a 9 a.m. (MDT) meeting Friday with the nation’s top ranked team and the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament: the Baylor Bears of Waco, Texas.

Call it what you want, but the fact of the matter is the Buffs need to win to move on.

Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Brent Wilson New at Brent.new@colorado.edu.

Players fight for a loose ball during the 2008 Rocky Mountain Showdown against CSU. (CU Independent file/Danielle Alberti)

One month ago, their season seemed lost. After three straight losses and a 2-4 overall record, CU men’s lacrosse head coach Pete Stevenson was fired. But the Buffs have been getting second chances all season, so who knows what the future holds.

Defensive Coordinator Mike Ryder replaced the old coach, and the team has not looked back since. The Buffs flipped their record by going 4-2 since the midseason firing, including a historic upset over No. 1 Michigan. Before that, the Wolverines had won 49 straight games, including beating CU in last year’s MCLA National’s semi-finals by 10 points. However, on Kittredge Fields in early April of this year, they were prevented from reaching number 50 in what was Coach Ryder’s second game as the head man.

“I’ve been approached by a bunch of people so far that have said that’s the biggest win in the history of not only the MCLA, but obviously our program,” Ryder said. “That was definitely a turning point to prove to the guys that they can play with anybody. If you can beat number one, you can play with anybody.”

Ryder’s team has the chance to follow their coach’s words as they are set to begin play in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference tournament.

CU will travel to Provo, Utah to play league rival BYU. The Cougars won the matchup last year when they played CU in the finals of the RMLC playoffs in Boulder. But BYU has seen firsthand that this is a whole new CU lacrosse team as the Buffs beat the Cougars Monday, at Kittredge Field 14-11. They concluded the regular season with wins in four of their last five games, and now Ryder and his team know the secret for beating last year’s conference champs, BYU.

“We played faster than them,” Ryder said. “I think we’re one of the fastest teams in the country, so we knew that BYU was a little slower than us. We’ve got to be able to do the same thing we did on Friday to play with them.”

In just six games as head coach, Ryder seems to have righted the once off course ship. The surging Buffs have won three in a row headed into the postseason, and as their young coach said, there is an entirely new atmosphere surrounding the team.

“We’ve had a lot of success in the second half of the year,” Ryder said. “Everything’s a new program with CU this year, so we wanted to make sure that nothing was really based on last year.”

The team has already avenged two different playoff losses from last season, but Ryder said his team has not proven anything in the postseason yet.

“Just beating a team like that in the regular season is not enough,” Ryder said. “We want to be able to top this year off with a bunch of big wins at the end of the year.”

Colorado plays BYU on Wed. April 30 in Provo, Utah for the first round of RMLC playoff action. If they win, they will play the winner of the Utah/Colorado State game, two teams they lost to earlier in the season.

With a win against BYU, they’ll have another chance for revenge. Something they’ve been getting all season long.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Michael Krumholtz at Michael.krumholtz@colorado.edu.

Senior Monica Milewski reaches back to slam the ball during a doubles match against the Kansas Jayhawks April 11 at CU's South Campus tennis courts. Milewski was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Week by the league on Tuesday for matches played April 19 to April 25. (CU Independent file/Lauren Walter)

Call it icing on the cake.

After a dominating performance against Texas on Sunday, senior tennis player Monica Milewski was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Week by the league on Tuesday for matches played April 19 to April 25.

Milewski saw her 25th singles win of the season to increase her four-year total to 90 wins during the Buffs final regular season meet. Her 25 victories also match a personal season best.

Her sweeping performance against Texas continued to improve her Big 12 record to 8-1.

The senior now etches her name in the record books five victories shy of Emily Smith’s 95 record- victories.

The honor is Milewski’s third of her career. Prior to Tuesday’s award she received the accolade twice, the only athlete to achieve this distinction during the 2007 season.

She will attempt to increase her personal best on Thursday with the start of the Big 12 Women’s Tennis Championship.

Four tennis players earn Big 12 academic honors

Alongside Milewski’s honor was the announcement of the members of this season’s All-Big 12 Academic Team, as three other Buffs saw their academic efforts rewarded by league officials.

Sophomores Ania Anuszkiewicz and Michala Hedelund Jensen were selected for the first team. The senior pair of Camila Belassi and Milewski received second team honors.

Economics major Belassi and business accounting major Milewski are no strangers to the award as the honors mark their third prize. It was the first academic Big 12 prize for integrative physiology major Anuszkiewicz and humanities and English major Hedelund Jensen.

Forty Buffs have received Big 12 Academic team selection in tennis since 2000.

Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Esteban L. Hernandez at Esteban.hernandez@colorado.edu.