BOULDER, Colo.— The LIU volleyball team suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Colorado on Saturday afternoon on the second day of the Buffs Invitational. The Sharks fell to the Buffaloes 25-21, 25-15, 25-23 at the CU Events Center.
Colorado took control from the opening serve, going up 3-0 on LIU quickly. The Sharks responded with three straight points on a pair of errors along with a kill from freshman
Karolina Nova. Back-and-forth play ensued as the first set got underway. LIU used a 4-1 swing on kills from junior
Kristina Mamic and senior
Kora Schaberl to take a 11-8 favor. The Buffaloes responded going on a run of their own to take a 14-12 lead. Both teams continued to trade shots at the lead as the set wore on, a kill from Schaberl knotted the set at 19-19. Colorado would make the last charge of the set taking a 6-2 closing stretch on their home floor for the 25-21 set win.
Momentum continued into the second set for Colorado, building up a 14-3 lead to start. LIU chipped the deficit down to seven on a kill and service ace from junior
Jovana Stekovic and a Colorado error to bring the score to 17-10. The Buffaloes continued to control the remainder of the set, coming out with a 25-15 set win.
Colorado made the first push in the third set with a 6-3 opening lead. The Sharks used an ace and kill from freshman
Karolina Nova along with a block assist by senior
Amanda Hubbard and freshman
Miranda Strongman to tie it up at 6-6. The tightly contested battle between both teams ensued in the set that saw seven lead changes and 12 tie scores. LIU broke out a 5-1 run to push a 17-13 lead but Colorado quickly responded with four straight points to tie the score back up. As the set wore on LIU broke the deadlock on a kill from Nova for the 23-22 advantage. The Buffaloes used one final three-point run to take the set 25-23 and match.
Schaberl posted the match-high in kills for the second straight day, finishing with 13 kills for LIU. Senior
Amanda Hubbard recorded 12 assists and freshman
Darragh Dixon added eight assists. Defensively, senior
Natalia Rivera led the Sharks with 11 digs and Stekovic added a career-high nine digs.
UP NEXT
The Sharks wrap up competition for the Buffs Invitational on Monday, September 2 with a 8:30 p.m. (ET) match at Wyoming.
