Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
BYU
Volleyball Falls In Five To #19 BYU
9/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 16, 2006
For the third straight season, the Colorado State and BYU volleyball teams played five games in Provo, but this season the 19th-ranked BYU Cougars came out on top, 28-30, 30-28, 30-27, 23-30, 15-11 in front of 2,406 fans. The Rams fall to 5-6 on the year and 0-2 in Mountain West Conference play. BYU improves to 10-1 overall and 2-0 in league action.
Junior rightside hitter Tonya Mokelki led the Rams with 21 kills, shattering her previous career-high of 13 kills from last season. Senior outside hitter Katherine Whitney tied her season high with 16 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Jaime Strauss had 13 and freshman middle blocker Tessa Nelson notched 11. Strauss also led the Rams with 12 digs, while Whitney chipped in 11 and freshman libero Katelin Batten had 10.
"I'm very happy even though we didn't win," said Head Coach Tom Hilbert. "I walk away from tonight feeling like we are a much better team than I felt like last night. We played five great teams in a row and we're much more seasoned now than we were. We have a lot of great volleyball left to play."
"Tonya showed tonight she can be a goto player for us," Hilbert continued. "She was the difference maker for us. She was a good emotional leader and she got it done."
BYU was led by junior rightside hitter Erica Lott with 26 kills and a .550 hitting percentage. Junior outside hitter Chelsea Goodman also chipped in 20 kills. Libero Janvier Beaumont led the match with 17 kills and senior middle blocker Lindsy Hartsock tallied 10 blocks.
The Rams scored the first three points of the first game with kills by Barnes, Mokelki and Strauss. Lott answered with a kill and then the teams traded points to 9-7. Goodman stepped back to the service line for the Cougars and rattled off five straight points to take the 12-9 lead. After a CSU timeout, the Cougars scored two of the next three to take a four-point lead at 14-10. Nelson got back-to-back kills and then a BYU error and an ace serve by Mokelki knotted the score at 14-14. The score was again tied at 15, 16 and 17 before BYU took a two-point lead at 19-17. Whitney got a kill and then BYU scored two straight to lead 21-18. The teams traded points until BYU scored two straight to lead 25-21 and Hilbert called a timeout. Nelson got a kill, then after a CSU error, BYU committed three of its own to make the score 26-25 BYU. After a Cougars timeout, Lott and Goodman recorded consecutive kills for the 28-25 lead. The CSU senior, Whitney took it up a notch, getting a kill, combined with Barnes for a block and then had a solo block on Hartsock to tie the score at 28-28. After a Cougars timeout, she tallied another kill and then a BYU error gave the Rams the 30-28 win. Nelson led the team with five kills, while Fornstrom, Barnes and Whitney each had two blocks.
Colorado State trailed the entire second game, falling behind early 10-4. Mokelki had three of the four kills for the Rams during that stretch. After a CSU timeout, Goodman recorded a kill for an 11-4 advantage when Fornstrom got a kill and then set up Barnes and Whitney for kills as the Rams pulled within four, 11-7. Trailing 25-18, Hilbert called his final timeout and refocused his team. Fahnestock notched a kill, then BYU scored two straight for a 27-19 lead. Mokelki tallied another kill, then the tough serving of Fahnestock forced BYU into three straight errors to make it a four point contest, 27-23. The teams traded points to 29-24, when Fornstrom and Nelson each recorded a kill and then combined for a block and a 29-27 score. BYU called a timeout, Porter hit a ball out of bounds and BYU called its final timeout leading 29-28. Dyer then had her third kill for the Cougars win, 30-28.
BYU scored the first three points of game three, when Mokelki tallied her 11th kill. The teams traded points to 10-7 when Strauss recorded back-to-back kills to bring the score to 10-9. After the teams alternated points to 12-11, the Rams thought they had tied the score at 12-12 when a jump-ball was called after a whistle for a back row block by the setter was recanted. The Cougars scored seven of the next nine points, with the two Ram points coming off Whitney kills, to give BYU the 19-13 advantage. Trailing 22-15, Hilbert called his final timeout and Nelson tallied her eighth kill after the break. Down 25-18, the Rams scored three straight to make it 25-21 and BYU used a timeout. The teams traded points to 28-23 when Mokelki tallied another kill and her second ace of the evening and then a BYU error had the Rams within two at 28-26, but could come no closer and dropped game three 30-27.
Fornstrom began the fourth game with an ace serve and the Rams scored four of the first six points to lead 4-2. Lott and Dyer had back-to-back kills to tie the score at 4-4. It was again tied at five, six, and seven when Hartsock had a kill and combined with Lott for a block for the 9-7 BYU lead. Whitney tallied two kills with a Lott kill sandwiched in between to make the score 10-9. The teams traded points until back-to-back kills by Mokelki and Strauss tied the score at 12-12. The score was again tied at 13-13 when Nelson had a kill followed by a Strauss ace serve for the 15-13 CSU lead. The Rams scored two of the next three to extend their lead to 17-14 and BYU called a timeout. The Cougars came out of the break and scored three of four points to close within one, 18-17, but The Rams scored four straight with two aces by Whitney for a five-point cushion, 22-17. The teams traded sideouts to 24-20 when the Rams scored two straight, including a block by Nelson and Strauss for the 26-20 lead and the Rams went on to win 30-23.
Whitney and Mokelki recorded back-to-back kills to open game five, but then BYU scored five straight to lead 5-2. Mokelki got a kill, then was blocked and Strauss notched consecutive kills for the 6-5 score. The teams traded points after a BYU timeout to 9-8 when BYU scored two straight for the 11-8 lead and a CSU timeout. Fahnestock got a kill after the break, then Harsock answered. Consecutive kills by Mokelki and Strauss forced BYU into a timeout leading by just one, 12-11. The Cougars go-to player, Lott, recorded the last three kills of the contest to give BYU the 15-11 victory.
Colorado State will return to Moby Arena to face New Mexico on Friday and TCU on Saturday. Both matches are scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
