Colorado State University Athletics
Saturday, August 28
Fort Collins, CO
2:00 PM
Colorado State
0-1,0-0Mountain West
1
vs
3
Northwestern
1-1,0-0Big Ten
1
2
3
4
F
Northwestern
25
21
25
25
3
Colorado St.
23
25
16
20
1
Rams Drop Opener in Front of Impressive White Out Crowd
8/28/2021 5:26:00 PM | Volleyball
Students flock to Moby for first time in 546 days
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Delayed by a day – and the harsh realization the concerns of a global pandemic are not gone – the long-awaited return of fans in attendance finally arrived at Moby Arena.
The beneficiary was the Colorado State volleyball team for its annual White Out game Saturday. Both ends of the floor were a sea of white-clad students – more than 3,000 strong -- reaching the back wall on the east side and pumping decibels throughout a four-set afternoon affair with Northwestern.
For the players, it created an indescribable atmosphere, but the end result was not what any of the total of 5,537 in attendance wanted, a 3-1 loss, 25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20.
"I enjoy playing with adrenaline," CSU outside hitter Kennedy Stanford said. "That atmosphere and feeling all of that, it can't be put into words. Last year, everyone wants to say we still brought energy, whatever. That is unrivaled. That is as good as it gets."
Colorado State could not find a terminal grove offensively as the Rams were continuously playing out of system, and the Wildcats produced better offensive production than the night previous in a five-set loss to Northern Colorado.
Hilbert felt outside hitter Kennedy Stanford gained steam as the match wore on, and she did lead the team with 12 kills and hit .206. Middle Sasha Colombo has found a home at the spot, producing eight kills while hitting .500.
But the backup offense wasn't there. The Rams had one outlier set where they just were not clean – the third, with 11 hitting errors. The other three, they just were not very terminal, hitting .139 as a squad.
"We need some more productivity out of the other three attacking positions," CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. "Some of it was probably jitters. We've got some young kids playing those spots. Some of it was jitters, and we just have to get through that, understand what the good plays are and what the not-so-good plays are and move on and get better. We've got talent."
Jacqi Van Liefde's first swing produced a kill, but Hilbert felt the offense ignored her at times and the opposite hitter became cold. He wants to make sure she is fed more moving forward, because she's looked great in practice. Transfer Annie Sullivan had a cold start, but closed with nine kills as she took more confident swings.
Stanford was never really cold, but she did become more confident.
"They definitely rotated where they started every time, so I was lined up against some different people," she said. "Early on I was lined up against their right side, and later on I was lined up against their setter, who obviously, if you're a setter, you're working on setting a lot more than you are blocking, so she gave a lot more space for me to bring out. I think that helped bring confidence, and from there, it was just opening up my vision to swing high hands and stuff like that."
The Rams had two sets, the second and fourth, with double-digit kills, 10 and 13 respectively, with setter Ciera Pritchard finishing with 28 assists.
But the issue was serve receive for Hilbert, which put the offense in scramble mode.
"There's a lot of things. One is, we're out of system so much, and Ciera is scrambling and trying to locate balls that they can get good swings at," Hilbert said. "It's not happening all the time. If we pass that poorly, we're going to have to be better at the setting part of it, and it's not just Ciera, it's anybody setting that second ball. That's part of it. And I think they blocked a few balls, they were a big, physical team, and it got to Annie for a period of time, where she was doing a lot of junking and tipping, and we needed to get more big swings and kills out of her."
Some of the Rams' back-row issues could be directly attributed to the serving of Temi Thomas-Ailara, who posted eight aces against five errors. The Rams knew she could bring it, but the night before, she wasn't accurate. Saturday, she also added a change of pace, and that seemed to produce an after effect, even when she wasn't standing on the back line.
On top of it, she produced as a hitter, noting a match-best 16 kills, with fellow outside Hanna Lesiak totaling 10. The Rams struggled blocking a season ago, and did again in the match. Again, a side cause was Northwestern setter Alexa Rousseau adding eight kills to her normal chore of dishing the ball, which she did successfully 39 times.
That threat alone made the CSU middles a little more hesitant to leave the center of the court open.
"I think all of us still have a long way to go blocking, and that's a big focus of our practice," Colombo said. "I think we're showing little improvements, and its different practicing blocking and playing a game and blocking. They have a very fast, outside tempo ball, so it just comes to seeing that and trying to get used to that."
To their credit, the Rams tallied seven aces of their own, spread out among five players, against seven errors. Libero Alexa Roumeliotis had 19 digs, the best total on court.
The beneficiary was the Colorado State volleyball team for its annual White Out game Saturday. Both ends of the floor were a sea of white-clad students – more than 3,000 strong -- reaching the back wall on the east side and pumping decibels throughout a four-set afternoon affair with Northwestern.
For the players, it created an indescribable atmosphere, but the end result was not what any of the total of 5,537 in attendance wanted, a 3-1 loss, 25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20.
"I enjoy playing with adrenaline," CSU outside hitter Kennedy Stanford said. "That atmosphere and feeling all of that, it can't be put into words. Last year, everyone wants to say we still brought energy, whatever. That is unrivaled. That is as good as it gets."
Colorado State could not find a terminal grove offensively as the Rams were continuously playing out of system, and the Wildcats produced better offensive production than the night previous in a five-set loss to Northern Colorado.
Hilbert felt outside hitter Kennedy Stanford gained steam as the match wore on, and she did lead the team with 12 kills and hit .206. Middle Sasha Colombo has found a home at the spot, producing eight kills while hitting .500.
But the backup offense wasn't there. The Rams had one outlier set where they just were not clean – the third, with 11 hitting errors. The other three, they just were not very terminal, hitting .139 as a squad.
"We need some more productivity out of the other three attacking positions," CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. "Some of it was probably jitters. We've got some young kids playing those spots. Some of it was jitters, and we just have to get through that, understand what the good plays are and what the not-so-good plays are and move on and get better. We've got talent."
Jacqi Van Liefde's first swing produced a kill, but Hilbert felt the offense ignored her at times and the opposite hitter became cold. He wants to make sure she is fed more moving forward, because she's looked great in practice. Transfer Annie Sullivan had a cold start, but closed with nine kills as she took more confident swings.
Stanford was never really cold, but she did become more confident.
"They definitely rotated where they started every time, so I was lined up against some different people," she said. "Early on I was lined up against their right side, and later on I was lined up against their setter, who obviously, if you're a setter, you're working on setting a lot more than you are blocking, so she gave a lot more space for me to bring out. I think that helped bring confidence, and from there, it was just opening up my vision to swing high hands and stuff like that."
The Rams had two sets, the second and fourth, with double-digit kills, 10 and 13 respectively, with setter Ciera Pritchard finishing with 28 assists.
But the issue was serve receive for Hilbert, which put the offense in scramble mode.
"There's a lot of things. One is, we're out of system so much, and Ciera is scrambling and trying to locate balls that they can get good swings at," Hilbert said. "It's not happening all the time. If we pass that poorly, we're going to have to be better at the setting part of it, and it's not just Ciera, it's anybody setting that second ball. That's part of it. And I think they blocked a few balls, they were a big, physical team, and it got to Annie for a period of time, where she was doing a lot of junking and tipping, and we needed to get more big swings and kills out of her."
Some of the Rams' back-row issues could be directly attributed to the serving of Temi Thomas-Ailara, who posted eight aces against five errors. The Rams knew she could bring it, but the night before, she wasn't accurate. Saturday, she also added a change of pace, and that seemed to produce an after effect, even when she wasn't standing on the back line.
On top of it, she produced as a hitter, noting a match-best 16 kills, with fellow outside Hanna Lesiak totaling 10. The Rams struggled blocking a season ago, and did again in the match. Again, a side cause was Northwestern setter Alexa Rousseau adding eight kills to her normal chore of dishing the ball, which she did successfully 39 times.
That threat alone made the CSU middles a little more hesitant to leave the center of the court open.
"I think all of us still have a long way to go blocking, and that's a big focus of our practice," Colombo said. "I think we're showing little improvements, and its different practicing blocking and playing a game and blocking. They have a very fast, outside tempo ball, so it just comes to seeing that and trying to get used to that."
To their credit, the Rams tallied seven aces of their own, spread out among five players, against seven errors. Libero Alexa Roumeliotis had 19 digs, the best total on court.
Team Stats
NU
CSU
Kills
53
39
Errors
19
22
Attempts
131
122
Hitting %
.260
.139
Points
72
50
Assists
47
36
Aces
10
7
Blocks
9
4
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
12
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Kills
9
Aces
0
Blocks
0
Kills
8
Aces
1
Blocks
2
Kills
5
Aces
0
Blocks
3
Players Mentioned
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