Volleyball recap: Rams bounce Bulldogs for 13th-straight win

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Oct. 11, 2014

Final Stats |  Quotes |  Notes |  Photo Gallery 

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – No. 7 Colorado State became the first volleyball team in the country to 18 victories, defeating Fresno State in straight sets Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena (25-15, 25-7, 25-17). The victory is CSU’s 13th in a row – tied for the sixth-longest winning streak in school history – and improves the Rams’ record to 18-1, 6-0 MW.

CSU never trailed in the match, jumping out to leads of at least 3-0 in each set. The Rams held the Bulldogs (6-14, 1-5 MW) to negative hitting in the first two sets, and to .000 efficiency for the match. It was the lowest percentage by a CSU opponent since Wyoming hit -.028 on Oct. 5, 2012.

On the flip side, CSU – which leads the Mountain West and ranks fourth nationally for hitting – hit at a .429 clip, tallying 38 kills and just five errors. Ten came from junior opposite hitter Adrianna Culbert, who also added eight digs, three blocks and a service ace. Her 10 kills came on .625 efficiency.

“Dri played great and really asserted herself as an attacker,” Head Coach Tom Hilbert said. “Overall, we played a fantastic match against a team that’s young.”

Senior Kelsey Snider had seven kills (.538 hitting) and setter Deedra Foss had five (.833) – in addition to 26 assists and five despite playing just part of Set 3. Freshman outside hitter Sanja Cizmic had five kills and a block in one set of action.

The story was the defense, however. In addition to out-digging Fresno State, 35 to 27, CSU also won the blocking game with 11.5 total stuffs compared to Fresno State’s one. Eight players had at least one block, with Snider leading the way with a season-most seven. CSU had 6.5 blocks in the first set alone.

“This Fresno State team is young,” Hilbert said. “They hit a lot of unforced errors, and a lot of that was because we blocked exceptionally well today. We didn’t just block, but we stuffed balls, and that intimidates people and causes them to do things they don’t want to do.”

CSU jumped out to a 13-5 lead in the opening set, winning easily, 25-15. In the second set, the Rams hit .591 compared to Fresno State’s -.172, holding the Bulldogs to just four kills. CSU held a team to single digits for the first time since last November.

“That second set was pretty rare,” Hilbert said. “It was a 100 percent sideout rate; they didn’t score any serving points.”

Libero Jaime Colaizzi was part of two serving runs in the set, totaling two aces to go along with her 10 digs for the match.

“We stayed really dialed in and aware of everything that was coming at us,” Colaizzi said. “We didn’t have to work as hard on defense because the blocking was great.”

The early leads allowed Hilbert to play some reserves, including starts in sets 2 and 3 for redshirt freshman Jaliyah Bolden (one kill, two blocks), a third-set start for Cizmic and action in the third frame by junior setter Crystal Young (four assists).

“I’m proud of our team for getting through this, doing it right and doing it with class,” Hilbert said. “Now we move on.”

The Rams will look to remain unbeaten in MW action, next traveling to New Mexico (Thursday) and Air Force (Friday). The Lobos are currently in second place in the conference standings.

“New Mexico is good. They have one of, if not, the most dynamic players in our league – Chantale Riddle. They’re solid in a lot of places, well coached, competitive and they’re gunning for us. Their gym is a hard place to play. Next Thursday’s match is huge for us. We need to have a great week of practice and really go into that with the right attitude.”

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