Colorado State University Athletics
Ram volleyball faces off with San Diego State Thursday night
9/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The Mountain West Conference leading CSU volleyball team continues its season with a pair of home matches against two up-and-coming teams. The Rams face San Diego State Thursday at 7 p.m. and UNLV in a rare 1 p.m. match Saturday.
CSU took over sole possession of the MWC lead after upsetting then-No. 17 BYU in a thrilling five-game match in Provo. The Rams hit just .229 and were out-blocked in the victory. Jaime Strauss had a career match with 30 kills and 21 digs. She becomes the first Ram in the MWC era to earn at least 30 kills and 20 digs in the same match. Strauss also is just the second athlete in the MWC this season to join the AVCA 30-kill club. Also at BYU, Ashley Fornstrom set a career record with 80 assists. The performance was the fourth best in CSU history and the third best in Mountain West Conference history for a five-game match. Katelin Batten was one shy of her career high in digs with a match-high 27. Fornstrom added 10 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Also in double-figure kills were Mekana Barnes (18), Danielle Minch (15) and Tonya Mokelki (14). Batten and Barnes also finished with three aces each.
San Diego State enters the match with a 10-4 record and a 2-1 MWC mark. The Aztecs pulled an early season upset defeating Utah and taking BYU to five games. SDSU has played just three road matches this season, netting a 2-1 mark. The Aztecs have run a 6-2 offense this season but were forced to play with one setter, Kristen Castillo, after Leah Lathrop was forced to sit last week against UNLV. As a team SDSU hits .229, third in the MWC. Stephanie Darnall leads the Aztecs in kills per game, averaging 3.51.
Barnes continued to write Mountain West history last week. She was named MWC Player of the Week for the third time, a first in the history of the conference. In addition she set single-match blocking records for both the Rams and the MWC with 17 block assists and 19 total blocks against Utah.
