Whatever the Colorado volleyball team accomplishes during the 2021 season, the Buffaloes will have to do it without one of their top weapons.
This week, CU head coach Jesse Mahoney confirmed that junior Sterling Parker will miss the season due to a shoulder injury. While Mahoney declined to offer a specific diagnosis, it is a nagging-type injury that Parker battled through during the delayed 2020 season earlier this season.
The Buffs had hoped Parker, an honorable mention All-Pac-12 selection in each of her two seasons at CU, would be able to play through the injury again this fall. Instead, Parker will undergo surgery next week.
The setback leaves the Buffs shorthanded, though plenty of talent remains looking to pick up the slack as CU travels to Champaign, Ill., to face Iowa on Friday and the host Fighting Illini on Saturday in the annual Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge.
“She has had a shoulder issue since she’s been here and it has kind of degraded slowly,” Mahoney said. “We kind of hoped to get her through another season before she had surgery, but it just wasn’t working out.”
Parker’s absence didn’t hurt the Buffs during their season-opening series last week at the Charlotte Invitational, where CU posted wins against Xavier and Charlotte, the latter of which ended the Buffs’ 12-game road losing streak.
Senior Leah Clayton carried the offense in Charlotte, averaging 5.29 kills per set while earning the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week award. Without Parker, the Buffs will look for more production from players like Jill Schneggenburger, Kelley Levaggi, and highly-touted freshman Jahara Campbell. Parker ranked second among the Buffs last season in kills per set (2.26) and was tied for third in total blocks (36).
A team attempting to bounce back from consecutive sub-.500 seasons will watch the degree of difficulty increase throughout the nonconference schedule leading up to the start of Pac-12 play in three weeks. The Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge is the first step in that process, and it generally has been a successful venue for the Buffs. In four appearances in the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge under Mahoney, CU has gone 6-2.
“We watched film on Tuesday of this past weekend and everyone is feeling great about what we’re doing, and we’re still pointing out things that we need to get better at,” Mahoney said. “Because you can’t get away with that against a top-25 team. Which is essentially a lot of the teams on our schedule.
“With the players we still have on the floor, most of them are veteran at this point. Traveling back-to-back weeks, we’re hammering on them about taking care of your bodies, those types of things. Back-to-back travel ads up physically. We had to take Monday off and had a short week, but I like where we’re at. We’re in a comfortable and confident place, and I expect us to play well on the road again.”
CU Buffs volleyball vs. Iowa
GAME TIME: Friday, 3 p.m. MT, Champaign, Ill.
BROADCAST: TV — Big Ten Network.
RECORDS: Colorado 2-0; Iowa 0-2.
NOTES: The Buffs take on Illinois in the second match of the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge on Saturday (1 p.m. MT, Big Ten Network)…These are the same teams the Buffs played in Iowa in the most recent Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge in 2019. The Buffs swept both teams, including then-No. 5 Illinois…CU is 3-0 all-time against Iowa and 5-5 against Illinois…Iowa opened the season with losses against Duke (3-2) and Coastal Carolina (3-0)…The Buffs finally play at home on Sept. 10 with matches against Texas Tech (10 a.m.) and San Jose State (7 p.m.).
