No. 25 Colorado left Salt Lake City with a hard-earned four-set win over Utah on Sunday afternoon, outlasting the Utes in a match that swung back and forth before the Buffs finally closed it out at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.
Colorado, which had fallen to Utah earlier this season in Boulder, answered this time with a 25-22, 20-25, 25-19, 26-24 victory to improve to 14-5 overall and 5-4 in Big 12 play. The Buffs leaned on a balanced effort, with different players stepping up at different moments as the match tightened and loosened in waves.
The net work told a big part of the story. After recording just two blocks in each of the first two sets, Colorado turned the tide with six blocks in the third, a stretch that helped flip momentum in the Buffs’ direction late.
Head coach Jesse Mahoney pointed to that work after the match, saying, "I thought we did a really nice job prepping and preparing. I thought we rebounded really well mentally and were in a really good, competitive place to start this match," and also, "I felt like we blocked extremely well today in general.
Maria [Splawska] was really good at some really opportune times."
Ana Burilovic was once again central to Colorado’s attack. The pin attacker finished with 16 kills, 10 digs and two blocks for her 15th career double-double, and her two aces pushed her to 150 for her career. She now leads Colorado’s all-time ace leaderboard in the rally-scoring era and sits fourth overall.
In the opening set, Colorado had to trade punches early before pulling ahead. Lily Dwinell got the Buffs moving with a pair of kills as the teams sat tied at 4-4, then Jenna Ylivainio and Cayla Payne combined for a block to put Colorado in front.
Ines Losada later delivered two kills to help Colorado grab a 15-14 lead, and Dwinell kept rolling with her fourth kill at an .800 clip. Losada’s block capped a 4-0 run and gave the Buffs their biggest edge of the set at four points.
Utah came all the way back to 20-20, but Burilovic answered with two hard kills, and Colorado claimed the set after a Utah service error.
Utah pushed back in the second. The Utes used a 4-0 run to seize control early, and even when Burilovic interrupted it with a kill, Colorado found itself trailing 9-3.
The Buffs responded with a 3-0 burst sparked by a Losada kill, then trimmed the gap again on kills from Losada and Dwinell before a Splawska ace made it 15-13. Colorado actually finished with more kills in the set, but Utah held on to even the match with a 25-20 win.
The third set belonged to Colorado from the start. Burilovic and Splawska helped the Buffs jump out to a 6-1 lead, and Splawska was all over the net, contributing to five of Colorado’s six blocks in the frame.
That stretch helped Colorado open a 12-8 cushion, and Losada added to it with a block and a kill. Dwinell finished the set with a kill, and Utah helped the Buffs along with a pair of errors as Colorado took a 2-1 lead.
The fourth set turned into the kind of grinder that had defined the afternoon. Utah jumped to a 7-2 lead, but Burilovic sparked Colorado with two kills in a 3-0 run that cut the deficit to two.
She added her first ace of the match, Payne followed with a kill, and Colorado moved ahead 11-10. From there, the set tightened all the way down to the finish.
Dwinell’s 11th kill tied it at 15, and Colorado kept pressing with back-to-back kills from Losada and Splawska. Utah reached 23-20 first, but Losada answered with a kill and a block to pull Colorado within one.
Losada and Dwinell then delivered the final two kills to seal the win.
Losada matched her career high with 14 kills and added five blocks. Dwinell finished with 12 kills and four blocks.
Payne had seven kills and four blocks, while Splawska piled up nine blocks and four kills. Ylivainio added six more career double-double with 40 assists and 11 digs.
Colorado finished the match with 14 blocks, the second-most it has posted in a four-set match this season, and committed zero blocking errors for the 10th time this year. The Buffs improved to 12-2 when winning the first set, 5-3 when splitting the first two sets and 4-3 in four-set matches. They also led Utah in kills, 54-49, hit .195, had 48 assists and 48 digs, and finished even in blocks at 14 apiece.
Colorado returns to Boulder next, hosting Cincinnati on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at the CU Events Center. The match will be streamed on ESPN+, with live stats available at cubuffs.com.
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