BOULDER - Colorado’s perfect start hit a little turbulence Saturday night, but the 23rd-ranked Buffaloes still found a way to grind out a five-set win over New Mexico at the CU Events Center.
The Buffs survived a wild match, 25-19, 27-25, 25-23, 25-16, 15-6, in a contest packed with 39 ties and 18 lead changes. Colorado moved to 5-0 behind big nights from senior pin attacker Ana Burilovic, senior setter Jenna Ylivainio and senior pin attacker Lily Dwinell.
Burilovic powered the offense with a team-high 25 kills, three blocks and an ace. Ylivainio set the tone with a career-high 55 assists, while Dwinell added 14 kills and hit .440. Senior middle blocker Cayla Payne also turned in a huge all-around effort with 17 kills, six blocks and a .714 hitting percentage.
“Credit to New Mexico, they did a really nice job. Made us work really hard to get the win tonight,” Head Coach Jesse Mahoney said.
“Every season you're going to have matches like this. I'm happy that in that fifth set we played like the team we could be instead of being scared.”
Colorado had to weather its first dropped set of the season in the second frame, and New Mexico kept pushing for much of the night. The Lobos were led by Mina Stanojevic, who finished with 16 kills.
The opening set was a tug-of-war from the start. Colorado kept answering New Mexico point for point before a late surge helped the Buffs break through. Burilovic, Payne, freshman middle blocker Barbora Rakauskaite and junior libero Tinons Munar Galmes all played key roles as CU closed it out 25-19.
Set two turned into the night’s first major swing. Colorado built a 16-11 lead and reached set point first, but New Mexico clawed back, forced extra points and eventually handed the Buffs their first set loss of the year with a 27-25 win.
The third set stayed just as messy. Colorado briefly jumped ahead, then watched New Mexico rally, and the two teams kept trading punches deep into the frame. Dwinell strung together three straight kills, Payne added two more, and the Buffs pulled level at 22-22 before New Mexico finished the set with back-to-back blocks, 25-23.
From there, Colorado took over.
The Buffs opened the fourth set with a burst and never gave the lead back. Burilovic sparked the run, Payne and Sydney Jordan added kills, and Maria Splawska chipped in two kills as Colorado stretched the margin and rolled to a 25-16 win.
In the fifth, the Buffaloes looked like the more settled team from the first whistle. Burilovic and Splawska got them rolling, Payne added a kill, and Colorado built a 7-2 cushion. Dwinell and Burilovic kept extending the gap before Dwinell finished the night with back-to-back kills to seal the match, 15-6.
“We always go into every set knowing that we're not just gonna win this because we should win this. We're gonna win this because we play hard and we execute systems and we play as a team,” Payne said.
Colorado hit .394 for the match and outkilled New Mexico 73-55. The Buffs also outlasted the Lobos in a matchup that hadn’t been played since Sept.
10, 1999. Colorado now trails 3-2 all-time against New Mexico.
A few more numbers jumped off the stat sheet: three Buffs finished with double-digit kills, Colorado’s last home five-set win came against No. 16 TCU on 11/13/25, and Payne’s blocks total moved Cayla to 10th place on Colorado’s all-time blocks list with 349.
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