Rams Settle in for Four-Set Victory Over Fresno State

Calendar

Show:/

Sep 11

6:00 PM

Volleyball

vs East Texas A&M

Sep 12

6:00 PM

Volleyball

vs Notre Dame

Sep 13

12:00 PM

Volleyball

vs Notre Dame v. East Texas A&M

Sep 18

6:00 PM

Volleyball

vs RV Colorado

Sep 19

7:00 PM

Volleyball

at RV Colorado

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The unusual part wasn't seeing the kills leaning toward one side of the floor.

What made Saturday's match different for Colorado State's volleyball team was the slant didn't have to be that extreme against Fresno State at Moby Arena, producing a four-set victory, 25-17, 19-25, 25-12, 25-17.

Outside hitters Breana Runnels and Kennedy Stanford led the way, producing 25 kills in the victory to carry the load. But it wasn't such a heavy lift as the positon tandems in the middle and on the opposite side also did their part – the middles combining for 15 kills, the opposites 11.

"It's always a nice time when the ball can be spread around," Runnels said. "I think it's kind of interesting; maybe the 6-2 kind of helped that situation. We're all going to get up and do our job, for sure."

The 6-2 came about because starting setter Ciera Zimmerman was still able to play, but only limited, due to an ankle injury she suffered last weekend at San Jose State. So coach Tom Hilbert wanted to use her where he could, but when it came time in the back row, he inserted Barrett Power. Both of them produced 19 assists in the match, but the offense naturally flowed differently with a different set of two hands directing the traffic.

Hilbert said the switch – which the team worked on for three days in practice – wasn't that big of a deal for the team to pick up. Then again, there are aspects the Rams have been working on all season which are finally starting to take hold.

Hilbert saw a major one start to take hold for his newest players to the lineup.

"The key in the first set and the third set was to play cleanly," Hilbert said. "We didn't in the second set. It is what it is with these young kids. They start to make mistakes and I want to be mad at them, but they're freshmen.

"What it's a sign of is they're starting to settle down a little bit and understand what we need to do to be good. You saw Barrett play way better than she did in San Jose. She made a couple of bad decisions, but for the most part, she was getting balls into hittable spots for these guys to get kills."

When the Rams were clean, they were really good. They hit .254 overall, with the second set the outlier at .162. It also helped Colorado State drew the middles into the attack early, as Sasha Colombo had three kills in each of the first two sets, finishing with nine on 16 swings without an error.

Karina Leber struggled early, but bounced back with a quality fourth set as those two (with one from Naeemah Weathers) posted 16 kills in the match.

"It's important to get the middles involved. Every match we want to do that," Hilbert said. "Sasha has become a really nice attacker against these kind of teams that don't' double. She's a good one-on-one attacker, and the way she runs the middle is much faster than what Fresno does, and it's good to do things they don't see in their own practice gym."

She also blocked well, leading the team with five in the match as the Rams finished with eight, and libero Alexa Roumeliotis was her normal self, digging up 26 Fresno State attacks.

The improvements didn't stop there. Kennedy Stanford made it three successive matches with double-digit kills, her 10 second to pin mate Runnels, who led the team with 15.

On the other side, Alyssa Groves picked up her first career start and produced a career-best six kills. She split time with Jacqi Van Liefde, who put down five swings.

It wasn't just the play, but the adjustments. As Hilbert noted, the 6-2 forces multiple lineup changes, and in both the second and fourth set, he ran out of substitutions.

Runnels is all about seeing it start to take hold.

"I feel like the pace of the game was a little slower than we expected, but I think we found the right moments to really capitalize," she said. "The freshmen, they're doing a great job. You can see they're starting to develop a lot more.

"I for sure know what they're going through. Something about me is I try to keep a mental toughness. Five years ago, it's kind of hard to remember what I was like, but I'm sure I was in the same position."

Saturday, the Rams had a little more of it, and it showed. While they are 6-5 on the year, the team is 5-1 when seeing an opponent for the first time. They would have loved to run out a second time, but travel issues for Fresno State made this a one-day affair.

From here on out, the schedule is all one-and-done, with Boise State and Utah State coming to Moby in the next week, followed by trips to New Mexico and San Diego State the first week of April.

"They did some nice things. It was really good development for a lot of people today, so I was really pleased," he said. "It was a good day for us. I think we played with more maturity than Fresno State did, and that was a big part of it. We did a nice job blocking on their pins, because their pins are good players. We dug them, blocked them and frustrated them a little bit."

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results