Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
TCU
Volleyball opens Mountain West with win over TCU
9/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The Ram volleyball team opened the 2007 Mountain West Conference season with a win over the TCU Horned Frogs 3-0 (30-27, 30-24, 30-16) Wednesday night in Moby Arena for the sixth-straight home victory. Ashley Fornstrom proved why she was named preseason setter of the year with 46 assists and 4 blocks. Jaime Strauss hit .462 with 20 kills for the Rams.
"TCU was a good team but we had some good things going on tonight," said Head Coach Tom Hilbert. "Jaime had a really good hitting night, especially considering they were doubling her all night. We made some plays at the end."
The Rams (6-3, 1-0) faced an early challenge from TCU(10-2, 0-1) in Game 1 as the teams stayed tight most of the game. CSU jumped to an early 3-0 lead behind the jump service of Tonya Mokelki. The Horned Frogs came back tying the score at eight. The score kept the two teams within one point of each other until CSU went on a 5-0 run making the score 25-21. The Rams finished out the game on a slicing cross-court kill by Strauss.
Colorado State and the Horned Frogs got into a hitters battle in the second game. The score again started out within one point before a Rams run made the score 19-13 behind the service of Mekana Barnes and Fornstorm's attacking. Both teams hit above .250 for the game. CSU won the game on a 7-11, Mokelki and Tessa Nelson, block on the right side.
Game 3 opened with the Strauss show as she had four of the first five kills of the game. CSU went up 10-3 on the strength of service by Jaci Davisson. The Rams did not miss a kill for eight straight points. CSU had a .500 hitting percentage for the game. The Rams did not look back during the game and held the Horned Frogs to just .118 hitting in Game 3.
Joining Strauss in double figure kills was Barnes with 13 kills. Both players have had double digit kills in every match this season. Katelin Batten led the Rams with 13 digs. Strauss had nine digs and Davisson finished with seven.
Four players hit .400 or better in the match (Strauss .462, Fornstrom .571, Barnes .435 and Mokelki .467) as the team hit .361. Mokelki had nine kills and freshman Danielle Minch finished with six while Nelson had five kills. Jonelle Wallace had one kill on the match.
CSU's blocking continues to be a key the Rams wins. CSU out blocked the Horned Frogs 11 to five. Nelson finished with a team high six blocks.
The Rams face off against New Mexico at 7 p.m. Saturday night. CSU will then take to the road for a pair of matches with Utah and BYU next weekend.
