Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Utah
Volleyball Falls In Four To #9 Utah
11/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2006
The Colorado State volleyball team dropped a four-game match to ninth-ranked Utah in the regular season finale, 28-30, 30-28, 21-30, 30-32 in front of 1,874 fans. The Rams fall to 17-9 on the year and 11-5 in Mountain West play, while Utah moves to 25-2 overall and 16-0 in league action.
Sophomore middle blocker Mekana Barnes led the Rams with 18 kills, while freshman middle blocker Tessa Nelson notched a career-high 16 kills and both junior right side hitter Tonya Mokelki and senior outside hitter Katherine Whitney added 13 kills each, while Whitney also added 13 digs. Sophomore setter Ashley Fornstrom tallied a career-high 19 digs to lead the match and freshman libero Katelin Batten added 17 digs.
"I'm pleased with how our team fought," said head coach Tom Hilbert. "We were outblocked 23-5 and to keep it as close as we did - I'm pretty proud of our players for that. Tessa really stepped up and showed she can hang in this physical arena with a team like Utah. I challenged her in game one and she came through."
Utah was led by sophomore right side hitter Whitney Webb with 18 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Airial Salvo added 14 kills and junior middle blocker Emillie Toone had 12 kills and a match-high 14 blocks. Junior libero Connie Dangerfield led the Utes with 18 digs, while freshman setter Sydney Anderson had 13 and both Webb and Salvo chipped in 10.
Colorado State played nine games this weekend, losing in five to BYU and four to Utah and seven of the nine were decided by the minimum two points.
Utah will be the top-seed in next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament, while the Cougars, ranked 20th in the nation, will be the two-seed and the Rams take the third-seed. Play begins in Las Vegas on Wednesday with the #8-#9 game (New Mexico vs Air Force), while the quarterfinals will be on Thursday. The Rams will face TCU in the first quarterfinal at 11:00 a.m. (Pacific)/noon (Mountain). The match will be televised live on the mtn.
