CU volleyball team stays dominant in Maryland tournament

By Jillian Arja in Front Page, Sports, Volleyball on Sep 9, 2012 16:22 / comments

The CU volleyball team completes the Maddie Bingaman Memorial Tournament in Baltimore, Md. with a perfect 3-0 record.After taking down the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in five sets on Friday, CU played the Howard University Bison for the second match of the tournament early Saturday morning and easily swept them in a three set match (25-14, 25-19, 25-8) before defeating Robert Morris University Saturday afternoon.

As her teammates cover for the block, junior Kerra Schroeder goes up for the spike against Stanford in fall of 2011. This past weekend the CU volleyball team competed at a tournament in Baltimore, Md. where they had a winning record, 3-0. (CU Independent/Amy Leder)

The Buffs’ defense was solid with junior middle blocker Nikki Lindow recording nine kills. Lindow hit an impressive .667 with only one error on 12 attacks. Her teammate sophomore right-side hitter Ana Pantovic hit 1.00 in the match. Kelsey English, Neira Ortiz Ruiz and Alexis Austin added four kills each. Overall, CU had 27 kills in the win and hit an average of .333.

The Bison, on the other hand, hit -.150 for the match and did not make it above .000 in any set during the entire match. Their team recorded 13 kills and had 23 errors.

The Buffs then completed their perfect record with their last match in the tournament against Robert Morris University on Saturday afternoon.

The win against Robert Morris gave Colorado a 3-0 record for the tournament and an overall 7-2 record for the season so far.

CU head coach Liz Kritza told the CU Sports Information Department that she was pleased with how far her young team has come so early in the season.

“A successful weekend was important for this team at this point in the season for multiple reasons,” Kritza said to CUBuffs.com. “With a relatively young season and an ever younger team, finding ways to succeed is paramount to the overall quality of our season.”

Against Robert Morris, CU recorded 48 kills and hit .268. Nicole Edelman handed out 39 assists and directed the Buffs to a .268 hitting percentage.

On the defensive side, the Buffs recorded 47 digs and posted nine blocks. Elysse Richardson had 11 digs and Lindow led the Buffs at the net with six blocks, one solo and five assists. English and Emily Alexis, outside hitter, each added three block assists.

Perfection is hard to reach and the Buffs still have a long way to go in order to compete with the powerhouses of the Pac-12, but this weekend, the Colorado volleyball team’s performance was just about perfect.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jillian Arja at Jillian.Arja@colorado.edu.