Freshman outside hitter Kerra Schroeder hits the ball in a 3-0 loss to Texas Wednesday. (CU Independent/Ilana Finer)
They tried, but they just couldn’t pull through.
The Colorado Buffaloes volleyball team dropped their third consecutive match Wednesday, losing in three sets against the No. 2 Texas Longhorns, 25-14, 25-18, 25-8. The Buffs were coming off back-to-back losses to Big 12 Conference rivals No. 10 Iowa State and No. 8 Nebraska.
Colorado came out solid in the first set hanging with Texas early. Freshman Kerra Schroeder had a huge block to keep the set close, pulling CU to 8-7. Texas ran away with the set after CU committed back-to-back service errors, the last one by Schroeder to give Texas a 17-11 lead.
CU struggled defensively throughout the remainder of the set as sophomore Becah Fogle had two return errors, allowing the lead to open up 20-11. CU was able to manage three more points, two coming from kills by sophomore Rosie Steinhaus.
Colorado was able to gain some momentum to begin the second set as they traded the first eight points. Kills from Schroeder and Fogle helped keep CU close and another Fogle kill kept CU within one at 9-8.
Texas standouts Ashley Engle and Destinee Hooker did everything in their power to prevent the Buffs from closing in as they combined for 10 kills in the set. Later, a missed kill by Texas and a Fogle kill for the Buffs tied it at 17. However, CU dropped the next six points thanks to three kills by Texas junior Juliann Faucette. They eventually dropped the set 25-18.
Texas roared through the third set 25-8. Hooker recorded seven of her 10 kills in the set within the first 10 Texas points, opening up a 10-3 Longhorns lead. What little offense the Buffs generated in the set came from three kills by Fogle. Complicating matters, Texas had 13 blocks in the set, which didn’t allow the Buffs to get anything going.
Despite dropping three straight, the inexperienced Buffs’ team seemed optimistic of the road ahead. Steinhaus commented on the upcoming match against conference opponent Oklahoma at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Coors Events Center.
“We are going to come out fighting every game,” Steinhaus said. “We are looking forward to Saturday, so it should be a great match.”
Head coach Liz Kritza had positive comments on her team’s ability to hang with Texas for segments of the game.
“We were able to stay with them for parts of both sets,” Kritza said. “But we could not stave off the mid-set run that put them out of our reach.”
This young team’s ability to rebound from the losing streak will determine how they fare in Big 12 play throughout the rest of the season.
“There is nothing we can do about it now,” senior Kaitlyn Burkett said. “We just have to learn and build off of it. We are definitely looking to Oklahoma and showing them we are not just some team who will roll over for them.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Richard Londer at Richard.londer@colorado.edu.
