Rams fall to UNLV in Regular Season Finale

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Sep 25

6:30 PM

Volleyball

at Wyoming

Sep 27

12:00 PM

Volleyball

vs Nevada

Oct 2

6:30 PM

Volleyball

at New Mexico

Oct 4

2:00 PM

Volleyball

at Grand Canyon

Oct 9

7:00 PM

Volleyball

vs Boise State

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Colorado State volleyball team fell in three sets to the conference leading UNLV Rebels Saturday afternoon as the Rams fell short against the hard-hitting UNLV front row.

Coming into the match as the top two hitting teams in the conference, the Rams offense was efficient, killing the ball at a .340 percentage, but with the Rebels hitting at a .509 rate, Colorado State fell short on the road.

Splitting the first two sets, the Rams fell in set one 25-20 but fought back to a 25-22 second set win.

In the second, Colorado State hit at an effective .435 hitting percentage with zero hitting errors. Both Kennedy Stanford and Malaya Jones had three kills each from the outside position and middle blocker Karina Leber added three blocks in the second set alone.

From the service line, setter Ciera Pritchard had three aces in the second set, the exact number needed to send the senior past 100 aces in her career with the Rams. With the Mountain West tournament yet to be played, Pritchard sits just four aces outside the top fifteen in Colorado State history for career aces.

Beyond the second set, the Rams struggled to handle the hitting force of the Rebels. Without committing a single hitting error through the final two sets, the Rebels' offense cruised to a 25-17 win in the third set and a 25-12 in the fourth set.

Leaders for the Ram include Jones who finished the day with 14 kills hitting .565. Stanford was the next leading hitter for CSU with 10 kills followed by junior Naeemah Weathers who hit at a .625 rate, good for five kills on the afternoon.

The Rams will return to Fort Collins and begin post-season prep as they host the Mountain West Tournament at Moby Arena next week from Wednesday through Friday. Colorado State will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face off against No. 6 seed San Diego State in the first round of the tournament Wednesday at 4 p.m.

For the Rams to extend their post-season into an NCAA Tournament appearance, they will need to beat San Diego State Wednesday in order to face the No. 2 seeded San Jose State Thursday. Two wins would put the Rams in the championship game where they would most likely see UNLV for the third time this season as the Rebels enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed.

Ram fans can find the full bracket, game times and buy tickets for the Mountain West Tournament at CSURams.com.

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