The Colorado Buffaloes volleyball team may be young, but they will be ready to compete for a win.
The Buffs’ next attempt for victory will be Friday morning in Denver as they will open the Colorado Invitational against the Denver Pioneers.
“This team is very hungry and thirsty to win,” said CU assistant coach Tom Hogan. “They have never played [Division I] before, and it’s a really neat experience to start a team out with a clean slate.”
With a 3-3 record, the Buffs look forward to another chance at Denver as they lost to DU during a spring scrimmage.
Senior setter Kaitlyn Burkett said the team is looking for redemption from last spring’s loss.
“DU is a good team,” Burkett said. “They are pretty solid; they run a quick offense. It will be a good match-up for us, and will really test us. I’m really excited about it. We played them in the spring. It was really close — we ended up losing, so I think we’re excited to come back and show them what we got.”
CU and DU will co-host the tournament.
The team will experience their second double-header of the season about six hours after their match against DU. The Buffs will make their home debut at 7 p.m. at the Coors Events Center vs. San Diego. They had their first double-header last weekend at the Yale Invitational.
Hogan said playing two games in one day is not ideal because they only have 11 players on the roster. This means everyone is at a higher risk of getting injured.
Burkett said the team is eager to finally play their first home game, even if it’s the second game of a double-header.
“It’s definitely unusual in college volleyball,” Burkett said. “We are really excited to go down and play DU, and finally get a chance to play in our home court.”
For a young team, the hardest part might be bonding as teammates and learning a new system. Hogan said the players know how hard the rest of the season is going to be.
“The main thing is we are learning a completely new high-level system and a learning experience in terms of getting out on the court and playing D-I volleyball,” Hogan said. “They really understand it’s going to be difficult, but we want to learn more in every match we compete in.”
Hogan also said with a new team, new challenges arise.
“This season is going to be a challenge, and they know that they are young and inexperienced,” Hogan said. “But they know they work as hard as the experienced teams do.”
However, Hogan did say CU’s fresh talent is their biggest strength and weakness.
“Our inexperience is our weakness because we have never played at the D-I level,” Hogan said. “But it is also our strength because we don’t have to relearn new habits.”
Burkett said she is proud of her team for stepping up to the challenge, especially with the team’s youth.
“We are definitely trying to coach these girls, and help them out, but they are doing so well with the transition,” Burkett said. “It’s hard to come in as freshman and play such big role because it’s not easy, and they have really stepped up to the challenge. I’m really proud of a lot of the girls, and we’re going to keep pushing them and asking them for more, and myself, too.”
The young Buffs are new to D-I Volleyball, but are prepared to fight amongst the best.
However, Hogan said that the team is in a transition period with highs and lows.
“We can win against the best teams in the country and lose to the worst ones,” Hogan said. “The peaks can sometimes be very high, but the valleys are low.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Gina Yocom at Gina.Yocom@colorado.edu.
1 comment
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