Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Utah
Volleyball Wins Five-Game Thriller
10/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 9, 2005
Box Score
Highlights
Behind a season-high 21 kills by senior outside hitter Tess Rogers and 11 blocks by senior middle blocker Dre Downs, the Colorado State volleyball team improved to 10-4 on the season and 4-1 in Mountain West Conference play with a five-game thriller over Utah (11-6, 3-3 MWC).
Rogers notched 21 kills and hit .293 with four blocks, while senior outside hitter Casey Bauer added 16 kills, five blocks and five digs, Downs had 14 kills and 11 blocks and sophomore right-side hitter Tonya Mokelki chipped in 12 kills and four blocks. Junior libero Katherine Whitney notched a season-high 22 digs with two aces.
"I think this was a fun match," said head coach Tom Hilbert. "Every time, it seems, you get Utah and Colorado State together, it's going to be a war and it was again tonight. We've got some wonderful kids that play really hard and they deserved a reward like this. Utah came back in game four and really fought us, but when we pass the ball well we're a really good team."
Utah sophomore middle blocker Emillie Toone led the team with 13 kills and tallied a career-high 12 blocks, while senior outside hitter Shelly Sommerfeldt notched 12 kills and freshman outside hitter Airial Salvo added 10 kills and 13 digs to go along with five blocks. Senior libero Danielle Leichliter had 10 digs and both freshman setter Shannon Krug and sophomore right-side hitter Whitney Webb added five blocks. Sommerfeldt also had both Utah aces on the evening.
Downs became the 12th player in school history to record double figures in blocks in multiple matches in a season and the first since Bri Frech in 2003. The record for most multiple match double figure block totals is six by Angie Miller in 1988.
Colorado State lost game one 30-24, but battled back to win the next two, 30-21 and 30-18. The Rams hit .371 in game two and .419 in game three, but struggled in game four, hitting just .020 and dropping the game, 30-21. Utah started off strong in game five, taking the early 4-1 in game five, but Rogers notched five kills and the team had three blocks to pull out the 15-11 win.
Colorado State will take a break from Mountain West Conference action, hosting the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The Rams then return to league play with four matches on the road before returning to Moby Arena on Nov. 4.
