Colorado State University Athletics
Volleyball Hosts Hilton Classic
9/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 8, 2005
| Sept. 9 | Oregon State vs Virginia Tech | 5:00 PM | |
| Sept. 9 | CSU vs. UC Irvine | 7:00 PM | Gametracker |
| Sept. 10 | UC Irvine vs Oregon State | 10:00 AM | Gametracker |
| Sept. 10 | CSU vs. Virginia Tech | 12:00 PM | Gametracker |
| Sept. 10 | UC Irvine vs Virginia Tech | 5:00 PM | Gametracker |
| Sept. 10 | CSU vs. Oregon State | 7:00 PM | Gametracker |
Hilton Classic: This will be the 18th year of the Hilton Classic, formerly the UPHI Classic. Oregon State, UC Irvine and Virginia Tech are all first time participants in the annual event. Colorado State has won the tournament 12 times, including last year. Arizona and Loyola Marymount have competed in the classic three times, while Auburn, Kansas State, Northern Illinois, Texas A&M and Utah State have each competed twice.
Through The Looking Glass: Colorado State has started the season 1-3 for the first time since 1982 when the Rams posted a 5-23 record and were 2-8 for a sixth place finish in the IAIAW. The Rams have started the season 1-4 on two occasions, in the first two year's of the team's existence in 1976 and 1977.
Roster at 13: Colorado State had two roster moves recently. Joining the team as a walk-on is junior defensive specialist Amber Piel. Piel went to Merino High School with current senior outside hitter Tess Rogers and then went on to play at Northeastern JC in Sterling. Freshman libero Kelsey Hoff has decided to leave the team due to personal reasons. Hoff had started all four matches, three as the libero and one at defensive specialist.
Senior Leadership: The three seniors on the CSU roster have combined for 171 of the team's 258 kills in the first three matches of the season, accounting for 66.3 percent of the teams kills. Middle blocker Dre Downs and outside hitter Casey Bauer lead the team with 58 kills each, while Tess Rogers is third with 55 kills.
Denver Recap: Colorado State dropped a four-game decision to Denver, 23-30, 27-30, 30-27, 27-30. Dre Downs led the team with 18 kills, while Casey Bauer tallied 16 and Tess Rogers and sophomore right-side hitter Tonya Mokelki each chipped in 12. Freshman setter Ashley Fornstrom, getting her first career start at the setter position, recorded 29 assists in the first two games, while junior setter Katherine Whitney set the last two games and recorded 31 assists. Kelsey Hoff led the team with 15 digs and Downs and freshman middle blocker Mekana Barnes led the team with six blocks each.
In The Starting Blocks: Ashley Fornstrom started her first career match against Denver on Tuesday. The last time a freshman was the starting setter was back in 1998 when Allison Peckham started five matches for the Rams. In 1994, Analisa Saylor was the starting setter all year as a true freshman.
Connections: Both Oregon State and Virginia Tech have players on their rosters from the state of Colorado. OSU's senior libero Kristy Mortensen is from Alamosa and played at Northeastern JC with current Ram Amber Piel. Virginia Tech senior middle blocker Liz Kapp is from Aurora and played at Grandview. She also played for the same club team as CSU's Mekana Barnes, Front Range, but the two did not play for the club at the same time. The third connection between the teams in The Hilton Classic comes from assistant coaches. CSU's Karrie Larsen and Salima Rockwell from Oregon State played on the national team together back in the mid-1990s.
Quite The Trio: Colorado State has three freshman in the starting rotation, Mekana Barnes, Ashley Fornstrom and Jaime Strauss. The last time the Rams had three freshman in the starting rotation was back in 1998 when Courtney Cox, Angela Knopf and Allison Peckham were all starting for the Rams.
All-Tournament: Dre Downs made a very smooth transition to the middle blocker position after starting on the right-side the past two years. Downs was named to the Pepperdine Classic All-Tournament team after hitting .538 in the three matches (40-5-65), averaging 3.64 kills, 1.00 blocks and 0.91 digs per game.
Classic Recap: Colorado State started the season with a three-game sweep over the Cal State Northridge Matadors, 30-28, 30-20, 30-26 on Friday evening, before dropping a pair of matches on Saturday. In the first match, the Rams lost a five-game decision to Northern Iowa, 30-21, 24-30, 30-26, 25-30, 14-16 and then fell to #25 Pepperdine in three games, 28-30, 18-30, 24-30.
League Leaders: Colorado State leads the Mountain West Conference in both kills (17.20) and assists (16.13) per game. The Rams also rank third in hitting percentage at .236. Individually, Dre Downs ranks second in the conference in hitting percentage at .447, while Katherine Whitney is second in assists per game with 12.00. Downs also ranks eighth in blocks per game with 1.13 and Casey Bauer and Downs are tied for fifth with 3.87 kills per game and Tess Rogers is eighth with 3.67 kills a contest.
In The Books: Dre Downs hit .571 (23-3-35) against Northern Iowa, which is the fifth-best hitting percentage by a Ram in a five-game match in school history. The 97 kills against the Panthers ranks third all-time, while the .286 hitting percentage ties for 16th, the 89 assists ties for second and the 91 digs ties for 16th in a five-game match.
News & Notes:
* Dre Downs had the 50th career double-figure kill match on Tuesday against Denver.
* Jaime Strauss played front row for the first time in her career at CSU, recording a career-high four kills against the Pioneers.
* Mekana Barnes tallied a career-high six blocks against Denver.
* Bauer is averaging 3.87 kills per game this season, which is almost twice her career average of 1.96 entering 2005.
* Dre Downs notched her 900th career kill against Denver and now has 914, ranking 19th in school history.
* Tess Rogers needs 21 more kills to move into 11th on the CSU career charts.
* Downs is 23 kills shy of 18th on the CSU career list.
* Downs tallied six blocks against Denver moved into 14th on the career charts and now needs just nine more to move into 13th. She currently has 288 blocks in her career.
* Tonya Mokelki needs just 15 more kills for the 100th of her career.
* Rogers is 24 blocks shy of the 200th of her career.
* Katherine Whitney needs 17 digs for her 200th at Colorado State.
Picked Third: Colorado State was chosen by the Mountain West coaches and selected media to finish third in the regular season race in the preseason poll. The Rams were also chosen to finish third in 2002, a year they won the regular season title. CSU has won at least a share of the last five regular season titles in the Mountain West Conference, with the first year of the league, 1999, being the only season the Rams have not had their hands on a regular season title. The Rams have also won the last two Mountain West Conference Tournament titles.
PreSeason All-Conference: Tess Rogers was named the Mountain West Conference Preseason Co-Player of the Year along with Lindsy Hartsock of BYU and Dre Downs was also named to the Preseason All-Conference team.
Closing In: Colorado State head coach Tom Hilbert is just five wins shy of his 400th career victory. The ninth-year head coach of the Rams is 395-120 in his 17th year of coaching and is the 12th most winning coach (by percentage) that is active today (.768). Hilbert also sports a record of 221-48 at Colorado State.
Tuesdays With Tom: Join head coach Tom Hilbert, along with a player or two, every Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. at the Hilton. Learn the inside scoop on the previous week, the upcoming matches and obscure statistics and strategies.
Non-Conference: Colorado State is 79-23 (.775) against other Division I conferences. The Rams post perfect records against the ACC (5-0), Atlantic 10 (2-0), Big East (6-0), Big Sky (1-0), Big South (1-0), CAA (1-0), Horizon (3-0), Ivy League (1-0), Mid-American (3-0), Mid-Continent (1-0), Mid-Eastern (1-0), Northeastern (1-0), Ohio Valley (2-0) and Sun Belt (6-0) and have non-losing records against every league except the Big Ten (1-4). This weekend, the Rams will face members of the Big West (6-4), ACC and Pac-10 (4-4).
Sisters, Sisters: Ashley and junior transfer Brittany Fornstrom are one of 25 sets of sisters playing volleyball at the same Division I school, and the Rams are one of 23 teams to sport at least one pair of sisters. Colorado State and Utah (Amy Tingey and Emillie Toone) are the two schools in the Mountain West Conference with sisters on the same team and Utah is the only opponent of the Rams this season to have siblings on the squad together.
Scouting The Opposition:
UC Irvine: The Anteaters are 3-3 and went 1-2 last weekend, defeated UMKC and losing to UNLV and Santa Clara.
Senior middle blocker Amanda Vazquez leads the team with 3.75 kills and 1.46 blocks per game and is a close second in hitting at .401. Whitney Pavlik leads UCI with a .403 hitting percentage, while setter Christa Conom leads the team with 11.96 assists. Both Devon Sutherland and Vazquez have nine aces on the year and Keegan Featherstone is averaging a team-leading 3.62 digs per game.
The Anteaters are averaging 14.58 kills, 13.12 assists, 1.67 aces, 14.12 digs and 3.19 blocks per game while hitting .242.
Head Coach Charlie Brande is in his sixth season at UC Irvine and he is 77-78 overall.
Virginia Tech: The Hokies are 1-2 with a win over Georgetown and losses to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Mississippi State.
Katie Esbrook leads the team with a .333 hitting percentage and 3.56 kills per game, while Allie Kupec is averaging a team-best 1.11 blocks per game and Amanda Cloyd is averaging 5.33 digs a contest. Rachel Dulla leads the squad with seven aces and setter Melissa Markowski is at 11.67 assists per game.
The Hokies are averaging 14.11 kills, 12.89 assists, 1.67 aces, 14.22 digs and 2.44 blocks while hitting .176 on the year.
Head Coach Greg Smith is in his sixth year with a record of 69-80.
Oregon State: The Beavers are 3-0 with victories over Portland, Portland State and Davidson.
Kristin Murray leads the club with 3.30 kills per game, while Abby Windell is hitting .583. Both Murray and Brittany Cahoon have 11 blocks on the year and senior Kristy Mortensen leads the team with 2.90 digs per game. Desma Stovall is averaging 9.00 assists per game, while Ashley Evans is at 4.5 a contest and Stovall leads the way with four aces.
Oregon State is hitting .352 with 15.00 kills, 13.00 assists, 1.60 aces, 14.20 digs and 3.50 blocks per game.
Terry Liskevych is in his first season with the Beavers and was the head coach of USA Volleyball for 12 years.
