Colorado State University Athletics
Thursday, November 10
Fort Collins, CO
7:00 PM
Colorado State
17-9,10-5Mountain West
0
vs
3
New Mexico
15-10,6-9Mountain West
1
2
3
F
New Mexico
25
25
26
3
Colorado St.
21
17
24
0
Rams Swept at Home By New Mexico
11/10/2022 9:12:00 PM | Volleyball
Final regular season home match set for Saturday
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – At the moment, the funk the team is in is one the program hasn't seen in more than a decade, and the answers seem to be there in their minds, but the actual performance is not.
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Coming off a tough road swing where Colorado State dropped a pair of matches which took them out of the hunt for the Mountain West regular season title, the goal was to return to Moby Arena and reestablish themselves. Instead, a New Mexico team with a losing record in conference play swept the Rams 25-21, 25-17, 26-24 on Thursday night.
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It is the first time since 2006 the program has dropped three Mountain West matches in succession, and those came at the end of the campaign, the last two teams in the drought both ranked. New Mexico and Nevada are not, and they produced sweeps.
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"Flat out, we have to work harder," setter Ciera Pritchard said. "There are a lot of points where we're looking at other people to make the play, and we all have to take ownership and make sure that we as individuals are making our plays so we can play more as a team. We're not playing as a team right now, and that's plain and simple why we're losing."
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The team was without starting libero Kate Yoshimoto, which put the off-color shirt on Helena Perez and altered the back-row rotation. Perez finished with 16 digs, and Ruby Kayser had 11, but the team was off defensively, and the passing was lacking in the first set.
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Serve receive was an issue, too, particularly in the second set, when the Lobos posted five of their eight aces. And New Mexico was going after every ball the Rams sent their way.
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"They were winning the transition game because they were making more plays than we were," CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. "We were out of sorts defensively as well as passing.
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"I think defensively for sure we have to be more willing to watch the game and play the whole game. You take a defender like Kate out of there, and it makes a difference, but you can't blame it on that. This was a winnable match for us, we just didn't do it."
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There wasn't a huge difference in a lot of the final numbers. Both teams had 44 kills, but the Lobos hit a touch better. They also had more balance, with a trio of attackers with 11 or more kills, led by 13 from Uxue Guereca.
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The Rams had one, and Annie Sullivan gave the Rams hope of forcing a fourth set with a hot run, finishing with 13 kills on a night she hit .370. Colorado State was able to fight off one match point in the third, but not the second, as Guereca's final kill ended the evening, her teammates rushing the floor.
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The idea of coming back to Moby – a safe place for the team through the years – seems like a good place to start to regroup after a tough week, and Hilbert is wondering if they're playing too tight.
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"I don't know. This team does seem to be feeling some pressure, but we've just got to go win a match," he said. "That'll soothe a lot of things."
But to do so, the Rams have to play better defensively and put together a more terminal and balanced attack. Pritchard knows they can do so because they've done it before this season.
Â
It's not the first time this year the Rams have had successive losses, just the first time with three. The final home match comes Saturday when they host an Air Force team coming off a win against Wyoming. What the regroup requires is something Pritchard said the Rams have displayed in the past.
Â
"Discipline. I'd rather have two people going for a ball than no one going for a ball," she said. "We have to have that sort of mentality that we're going to scrap and play to every last point. You watch New Mexico, they do that. We've got to get that sort of mentality back. We've had that before, and I think we can easily have that again."
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Coming off a tough road swing where Colorado State dropped a pair of matches which took them out of the hunt for the Mountain West regular season title, the goal was to return to Moby Arena and reestablish themselves. Instead, a New Mexico team with a losing record in conference play swept the Rams 25-21, 25-17, 26-24 on Thursday night.
Â
It is the first time since 2006 the program has dropped three Mountain West matches in succession, and those came at the end of the campaign, the last two teams in the drought both ranked. New Mexico and Nevada are not, and they produced sweeps.
Â
"Flat out, we have to work harder," setter Ciera Pritchard said. "There are a lot of points where we're looking at other people to make the play, and we all have to take ownership and make sure that we as individuals are making our plays so we can play more as a team. We're not playing as a team right now, and that's plain and simple why we're losing."
Â
The team was without starting libero Kate Yoshimoto, which put the off-color shirt on Helena Perez and altered the back-row rotation. Perez finished with 16 digs, and Ruby Kayser had 11, but the team was off defensively, and the passing was lacking in the first set.
Â
Serve receive was an issue, too, particularly in the second set, when the Lobos posted five of their eight aces. And New Mexico was going after every ball the Rams sent their way.
Â
"They were winning the transition game because they were making more plays than we were," CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. "We were out of sorts defensively as well as passing.
Â
"I think defensively for sure we have to be more willing to watch the game and play the whole game. You take a defender like Kate out of there, and it makes a difference, but you can't blame it on that. This was a winnable match for us, we just didn't do it."
Â
There wasn't a huge difference in a lot of the final numbers. Both teams had 44 kills, but the Lobos hit a touch better. They also had more balance, with a trio of attackers with 11 or more kills, led by 13 from Uxue Guereca.
Â
The Rams had one, and Annie Sullivan gave the Rams hope of forcing a fourth set with a hot run, finishing with 13 kills on a night she hit .370. Colorado State was able to fight off one match point in the third, but not the second, as Guereca's final kill ended the evening, her teammates rushing the floor.
Â
The idea of coming back to Moby – a safe place for the team through the years – seems like a good place to start to regroup after a tough week, and Hilbert is wondering if they're playing too tight.
Â
"I don't know. This team does seem to be feeling some pressure, but we've just got to go win a match," he said. "That'll soothe a lot of things."
But to do so, the Rams have to play better defensively and put together a more terminal and balanced attack. Pritchard knows they can do so because they've done it before this season.
Â
It's not the first time this year the Rams have had successive losses, just the first time with three. The final home match comes Saturday when they host an Air Force team coming off a win against Wyoming. What the regroup requires is something Pritchard said the Rams have displayed in the past.
Â
"Discipline. I'd rather have two people going for a ball than no one going for a ball," she said. "We have to have that sort of mentality that we're going to scrap and play to every last point. You watch New Mexico, they do that. We've got to get that sort of mentality back. We've had that before, and I think we can easily have that again."
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Team Stats
UNM
CSU
Kills
44
44
Errors
11
14
Attempts
120
122
Hitting %
.275
.246
Points
59
54
Assists
41
40
Aces
8
4
Blocks
7
6
Game Leaders
Kills-Aces-Blocks
Kills
13
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
6
Aces
0
Blocks
2
Kills
6
Aces
0
Blocks
4
Kills
5
Aces
0
Blocks
1
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