Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
4-3
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4-2
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Recap: CSU volleyball swept by Wichita State
9/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The Colorado State Rams were swept by the Wichita State Shockers in the first match of the Rams Volleyball Classic on Thursday night in Moby Arena.
CSU (4-3) dropped its third match in a row, while Wichita State (4-2) beat the Rams for the third consecutive time.
The Shockers led early in Set 1, jumping ahead by four at 14-10. The Rams rallied to tie the Set on three occasions at 18-, 19- and 20-all. CSU then scored consecutive points after being tied at 22-22 to earn set point after a solo block by Kirstie Hillyer, Wichita State called timeout, and came out with a 4-0 run to steal the first set from the Rams.
Wichita State rolled in Set 2, registering 15 kills on 23 attempts with zero errors for a .652 hitting percentage in the frame. The set featured only two tie scores (at 1-1 and 2-2) and one lead change (CSU opened with a 1-0 lead). Olivia Nicholson had three of her four total kills in Set 2, and Hillyer also added three kills.
Set 3 was played similarly as the set before it, with the Shockers again hitting at a high percentage (.481) and leading from 4-3 onward. Wichita State's Jody Larson went 5-for-5 attacking while the Rams hit .154 as a team. Hillyer matched Larson's five kills in the period, going 5-for-8 with no errors.
IN THEIR WORDS…
"We started out this match playing pretty decently and Jasmine had a monster game. We lost the first set in serving-passing. We got aced and we missed too many. And if you look at that category alone, they're plus-one, we're minus-eight. That is a nine-point differential just in that, service errors and service aces. We really didn't put enough service pressure. Their setting is outstanding. Their off-setting tempo is much faster than ours, we tried to prepare for, but really didn't do a very good job of it because it was faster than what we prepared for. They had zero hitting errors in the second game, one hitting error in the third game. So those are the numbers of extremely mature team and we had way more than that and didn't block. I thought our blocks did some okay things at time, but really this was a one-sided match. My hats off to Wichita State, they showed us some things we need to get better at and now we look at Texas." - CSU head coach Tom Hilbert's general thoughts on the match
"I think it is more not reacting in the way that all six of us are waiting for someone else to get it and we don't want to be the ones to get it or mess it up or anything. We just need to change our mindset and have six people on the ball at a time. And we have to be able to see when we have a solid block up, of course they're going to junk and we have to react to that quickly and a lot of the time we resulted into falling on the ground instead of running through balls we're all athletic enough to get. So one, it is just an effort thing. We have to be prepared to go get it ourselves and not wait for anyone else to go get it." - Senior libero Cassidy Denny on defensive miscues
STAT OF THE DAY…
.652 - Wichita State converted at a staggering .652 rate in the second set, recording 15 kills with zero errors on 23 attempts. The Shockers hit .440 for the match.
NOTES…
• Jasmine Hanna tied a season-high with 13 kills, and also matched her best output of the year with a .370 hitting percentage. She took a team-high 27 swings.
• Kirstie Hillyer also matched a season-best with 13 kills on a career-high .478 hitting. Her 23 attack attempts were her second-highest of the year.
• CSU's current three-match losing streak marks only the fourth time that the Rams have lost three in a row since Tom Hilbert took over as head coach in 1997. The Rams have never lost four in a row during Hilbert's tenure.
• CSU is now 3-3 all-time against Wichita State, dropping the last three meetings against the Shockers.
NEXT…
The Rams will host No. 3 Texas tomorrow for a White Out at Moby Arena at 7 p.m. The first 1,500 students in attendance will receive free white t-shirts. The match will also be the second of the Rams Volleyball Classic.