Colorado State University Athletics
CSU volleyball hosts successful kickoff BBQ
8/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The CSU volleyball team hosted members of Head Coach Tom Hilbert's NETwork group, along with members of the local media, at the program's annual preseason media/booster kickoff BBQ on Tuesday evening.
Members of the NETwork group were invited to attend the end of Tuesday's practice session, with Hilbert joining the crowd for the latter portion of the practice to talk with fans about the drills and situations that the players were working on.
The fans and media then transitioned into Bob Davis Hall, located on the south concourse of Moby Arena. A buffet dinner was provided, with Hilbert opening with a breakdown of the team and a Q&A with the media.
Hilbert, who is entering his 19th season at CSU, began his monologue by introducing their recently-adopted teammate, 10-year-old Sara Robinson. Sara, who suffers from epilepsy and recently had a procedure on a tumor that is wrapped around her optic nerve, joined Hilbert at the podium and received an ovation from the crowd.
"She's been an inspiration to our team," Hilbert said of Sara, who has her own jersey (No. 30) and a locker in the team's locker room. "We're very confident that Sara is getting better and she's helping our team and we hope our team is helping her, too."
Hilbert also announced that CSU will play a special exhibition match on Sept. 21 against Shanghai Eastbest & Lansheng, a club that holds five Chinese Volleyball League championships. The match will be at 7 p.m. at Moby Arena and tickets go on sale tomorrow. Season ticket holders will have the first chance to purchase their same seats for the match, with two weeks to claim their tickets.
"They're going to be very, very good," Hilbert said of the visitors from Shanghai. "It will be a very good and entertaining match. In 2011, we played a team from China called Tianjin, and this team will probably be better than them. We expect this will be a fun match to play and really entertaining for everybody."
Afterwards, the players mingled with the fans in attendance and also spoke with local media.
The Rams' first report day was Sunday, followed by the first set of two-a-day practices on Monday. CSU begins the 2015 season with a home match versus Baylor on Aug. 30. Single-game and season ticket packages are available for purchase at CSURams.com/Tickets.
Full Transcript:
On the season ahead...
"The CSU volleyball team has got, in my opinion, we are one of the best we've ever been in the areas of ball-handling, service receive and defense. We've got experience in those positions, we have good players in those positions and we have multiple players who can do those things. Frankly, right now, our defense is way ahead of our defense. Our defense is good, they know the hitters on this team, and they are very, very effective. We have good players in all hitting positions, but we are not very deep. We have some players coming off of injuries that we are nursing back to health right now. We are trying to keep practices short, but intense."
On the setter position...
"As you know, we graduated a very good setter last year (Deedra Foss). We now are going through the paces with four different setters on this team to try to figure out who we are going to end up playing. It's likely you will see a lot of different players playing in that position. We are toying with the idea of playing a 6-2, which is a system where you have two setters rotating through the back row. If one of those happens to be Adrianna Culbert, she will also rotate through the front row. We will stick with that concept for about a week and a half. Setters are all different, and they need to learn to be consistent with their tempo and location of the ball. We are not going to be a complicated team, but I'd like to play fast, if we can."
On what can be expected from this team...
"I do know that this team will be exciting. The reason is, we play great defense and we will continue to play great defense. We also serve tough and will serve-receive well. It should allow us to get a lot of balls to a lot of different players. We just have to get more terminal. If we can terminate balls against our own defense, we can terminate balls against any defense. We have some really good defenders players playing in the back court for us."
On the schedule...
"Our schedule this year, in terms of RPI, is actually more difficult than it was last year, and last year was a pretty difficult schedule. There aren't as many headliner teams on it, but there are a number of teams that were in the NCAA Tournament last year."
On the Mountain West slate...
"If you look at the Mountain West, I think you have four teams who are all returning a lot of players that were good last year in Wyoming, San Diego State, Boise State and New Mexico. All of those teams could be very good. It's going to be very difficult to project, and they all return more players than we do."
On the urgency to find a new setter...
"There is a lot of urgency but I don't want to rush it. I want them all to get fair shots at it, and I want to make sure I am making the right decision. I also want depth. They all have interesting things they do well, and they are all different from each other."
On senior transfer Alex Reid...
"She's a great player and she's a great leader. She's a good personality to have on the court. Not only can she attack, but she's a really good ball-handler. I thought her service was great today and she played good defense in the middle-back and we were able to transition off of her. We knew what we were getting with Alex Reid, as Brook and I were very familiar with her as a young player."
On the match at Texas in September...
"It's a tester to see how we are against a team that is a final four-caliber team. I am excited right now thinking about it. Those are the kind of games that we don't want to go in and say `we need to go and win this game'. We need to compete well and see what happens against a team of their caliber. I believe we are a national-caliber team, and I want us to test ourselves against the best, and they are certainly one of the best."
