No. 25 Colorado had its chances early, but West Virginia kept tightening the screws and eventually pulled away for a four-set win Sunday afternoon at Hope Coliseum in Morgantown.
The Mountaineers took the match 25-23, 25-23, 25-17, 25-11, using wins in the first, third and fourth sets to hand Colorado its first loss to an unranked team since falling to Utah on Sept. 26. The Buffs, now 16-7 overall and 7-6 in Big 12 play, won the second set and spent much of the first two frames locked in a grinder, with the score tied 20 different times across those opening sets.
Ines Losada carried Colorado’s attack with a career-high 19 kills, adding six digs, a block and a service ace. Jenna Ylivainio turned in a strong all-around line with 31 assists, five blocks and a career-high three service aces. Cayla Payne chipped in 12 kills and three blocks while hitting .571.
“We gave up the lead in set one. That was a set we had control of and we just couldn’t get out of one of our rotations,” CU Head Coach Jesse Mahoney said.
“By the time we got to set three and set four we couldn’t generate enough offense. I felt like defensively we did enough to win.
We just didn’t have enough firepower to score enough points.”
Colorado opened the match with a Losada ace, but West Virginia answered with a 5-1 burst. The Buffs steadied themselves and tied it at seven on a Losada kill and a block from Ylivainio and Maria Splawska.
Later, Ylivainio and Payne combined on a block to make it 13-all, and Colorado built its biggest lead of the set at four points after two Losada kills and a couple of Mountaineer attack errors. But after Splawska put down a kill that seemed to put CU in position to close it out, West Virginia finished with a 6-0 run to steal the first set.
The second set followed a similar script, only this time Colorado finished the job. Payne helped the Buffs grab an 8-5 edge, and Sydney Jordan added an ace to keep the margin slim.
Ylivainio then served back-to-back aces to push CU ahead 16-13 and ignite a 6-0 run, with Losada capping it with a kill. West Virginia answered with a 5-0 run of its own, and the set stayed tight down the stretch.
Tied at 22, Colorado got the separation it needed on a Payne kill, then Losada finished it off with another kill to even the match.
From there, West Virginia took control. In the third set, Payne tied things at four with her third kill of the frame, and Ylivainio later served her third ace of the night to make it 8-all.
Colorado briefly nudged ahead 12-11 after a 3-0 stretch that included a Splawska kill, and Losada stopped a 4-0 West Virginia run with another kill. The Mountaineers, though, kept extending the lead and closed out the set 25-17.
The fourth set got away from Colorado quickly. Losada got the Buffs on the board after West Virginia jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but the Mountaineers kept pouring it on and stretched the margin to 15-4. Splawska added a kill, and Avery Bolles served up an ace, but Colorado never found a sustained response as West Virginia rolled to the finish.
“The effort is there from everybody,” Mahoney said. “I thought Ines was able to score enough to keep us in it and we have to find ways for our other pins to get good looks.”
Colorado finished with four blocks in the first set, part of a season average of 2.96 blocks per set. The Buffs are now 2-5 when losing the first set and 4-5 on the road. The match was tied 26 times overall.
Losada led the match in kills with 19, attacks with 56 and points with 20.5. Ylivainio paced both teams with 31 assists and also led Colorado in blocks and aces for the first time this season.
The Buffs head back to Boulder for a Thursday night matchup with No. 15 Kansas at 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center. The match will be streamed on ESPN+, with live stats available on cubuffs.com.
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