Senior outside hitter, Neira Ortiz Ruiz, prepares to receive a serve with her teammates during a regular season match in the Coors Event Center. (Matt Sisneros/CU Independent)
In what has already been a record-setting postseason for Pac-12 volleyball, the University of Colorado is just hoping to make it out of the state.
Colorado State University, currently ranked No. 15 in the country, will host CU, the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Denver this weekend at the Rams’ home court, Moby Arena in Fort Collins.
Colorado will play Northern Colorado at Moby in the first round of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament on Friday at 4:30 p.m., with the winner presumably moving on to face CSU, who will play DU’s Pioneers. The Rams defeated DU in straight sets during the regular season.
The Pac-12 is sending a conference and NCAA-record 10 teams to the tournament this year, and Stanford, the No. 1 overall seed, is among them. Also ranked are the Universities of Washington, Oregon, Arizona and UCLA, while Colorado, Oregon State, USC, Arizona State and Utah enter the tournament unseeded.
The Buffaloes, who finished tied for fourth in the Pac-12, could find themselves facing off against a familiar conference foe as early as the third round. In the Minneapolis Region of the NCAA Tournament, they could face Arizona State, should the Buffaloes and Sun Devils both advance that far. But before that, Colorado must fight through two tough rounds of in-state competition.
Northern Colorado (22-10) won the Big Sky Conference postseason tournament last month with wins over Portland State, North Dakota and Idaho State. In their most recent match last week, UNC lost to Denver in straight sets.
Colorado State comes into the tournament as the 15 seed, and is the favorite to advance out of this weekend. UNC and DU both played CSU this season and lost in straight sets. Colorado has not played the Rams this season.
The Buffs recently had four players receive Pac-12 postseason accolades. Junior outside hitter Alexis Austin and senior outside hitter Taylor Simpson were both named to the All-Pac-12 team, while freshmen middle blocker Anna Pfefferle and setter Gabby Simpson received honorable mention for the All-Freshman team.
In her senior season here at Colorado, Taylor Simpson has already established her place in the record books, breaking Colorado’s single season kills record with 538. She outpaced her teammates by a safe margin, with nearly double the amount of kills than the next closest player, Alexis Austin, who had 275.
Five Colorado players will be playing postseason volleyball in their home state this weekend, including Boulder’s own Nicole Edelman and Colorado Springs’ Kelsey English, Cierra Simpson, Gabby Simpson and Taylor Simpson.
In their 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, Colorado has made it to three Sweet 16s, the most recent appearance in 1997. CU has met Colorado State in the NCAA tournament three times, losing to the Rams in the second round in back-to-back years in 2000 and 2001, and falling to the Rams again in the first round in 2005.
Colorado hopes they can flip the script and steal a win from CSU this weekend, but first they’ll have to vanquish Big Sky Conference champion Northern Colorado at 4:30 p.m. on Friday in Fort Collins.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Sports Editor Sam Routhier at samuel.routhier@colorado.edu and follow him on twitter @samrouthier.
