CU Buffs record much-needed sweep against No. 17 Arizona State – Bou…

It maybe hasn’t been the most inspiring set of results for the Colorado volleyball team through the first half of Pac-12 Conference play.

But the Buffaloes just put together their best full weekend performance of the conference ledger, and a few of the better CU teams under head coach Jesse Mahoney have done some of their most productive work down the stretch.

The Buffaloes completed a weekend sweep of the Arizona schools with arguably their finest all-around performance of the season on Sunday, sweeping No. 17 Arizona State 27-25, 25-18, 26-24 at the CU Events Center.

CU (12-9, 4-6 Pac-12) entered the weekend with losses in six of its previous seven contests, but Sunday’s win combined with Friday’s sweep of Arizona gives the Buffs a huge boost of momentum going into the second half of the Pac-12 schedule.

CU had been 0-3 this season against ranked opponents while getting swept in all three decisions.

“That’s something that we’ve been working on in practice lately, is not getting too high or too low,” CU setter Taylor Simpson said. “I know at the beginning of the season, sometimes when we were down by a few points it felt like the world was kind of ending. So we’ve really worked as a team to have a better mentality towards that. I think that is something that really showed today.”

Senior outside hitter Lexi Hadrych helped stake the Buffs to a strong start, recording five kills and an ace out of the gate at the Buffs jumped to a 10-2 lead in the opening set. Arizona State steadily chipped away at the deficit, eventually tying the frame at 19-19. In a back-and-forth finish, CU was up 24-21 before four straight by the Sun Devils gave ASU a 25-24 lead. But a pair of Sun Devils errors sandwiched around a key block from CU’s Skyy Howard gave the Buffs a 27-25 win and an early advantage.

The second set was tied at 11-11 when the Buffs reeled off four consecutive points to outscore the Sun Devils 14-7 the rest of way. CU held a narrow lead for much of the third set before ASU pulled ahead 21-20. However, the Sun Devils committed three consecutive attack errors to put the Buffs back in control, and CU broke a 24-24 tie and clinched the victory with consecutive kills from Hadrych and freshman Lily Dwinell.

Hadrych led CU’s attack with 18 kills, while Maya Tabron contributed eight kills with a team-leading 11 digs. Simpson finished with 39 assists and Howard posted a game-high seven blocks to go with four kills.

CU completes the first half of the 20-game conference schedule at 4-6, but the Buffs will have just two more home games following next weekend’s home series against the Los Angeles schools, which begins Friday against USC (7 p.m., Pac-12 Network).

The Buffs entered the weekend at No. 62 in the RPI but should get a solid boost after the weekend sweep. And, under Mahoney, the Buffs’ two most recent NCAA Tournament teams have fared well down the stretch. The 2018 squad also was 4-6 at the midpoint of conference play but went 6-4 the rest of the way. Last year’s team was 5-5 halfway through the conference slate but went 7-3 in the final 10 matches.

“If we stay healthy, we’re going to get better throughout the season,” Mahoney said. “We’re better than we were two weeks ago. We’re better than we were a month ago. The second half is really important. We were 4-6 in the first half. I’m not sure what the number is in the second half, but we’re going to win more than four. And that’s going to put us in contention to be where we want to be in the postseason.”

CU Buffs women’s volleyball 3, No. 17 Arizona State 0

AS 25 18 24

CU 27 25 26

Leaders

Kills — Arizona State: Levinska 17, Cyr 9, Rabelo 8. Colorado: Hadrych 18, Tabron 8, Dwinell 7, Payne 6.

Assists — Arizona State: Shroll 37. Colorado: Simpson 39.

Aces — Arizona State: Cyr 2, Neal 2. Colorado: Hadrych 1, Jordan 1.

Blocks — Arizona State: Jeter 5, Cyr 3. Colorado: Howard 7, Simpson 3, Hadrych 3.

Digs — Arizona State: Levinska 14, Shroll 8, Cyr 7. Colorado: Tabron 11, Hadrych 10, Riddle 5, Simpson 5, Burilovic 5.