Saturday Sweep: Rams Defeat Spartans at Home

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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

Oct 11

1:00 PM

Volleyball

vs Utah State

Oct 16

6:00 PM

Volleyball

at Air Force

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Colorado State volleyball team defeated San Jose State in straight sets Saturday afternoon as the Rams earned their third conference win of the season by a score of 3-0 with set scores of 25-22, 28-26 and 25-12.

Back in Moby Arena, the Rams entered Saturday's match with a 5-3 home record compared to a 2-5 record on the road. Looking to take advantage of the home court and bounce back from a 3-1 loss to Wyoming earlier this week, Colorado State's block defense and offense led by Malaya Jones were the two keys to victory against San Jose State.

Colorado State took the first set 25-22 after taking an early 13-7 lead. The Rams, who never relinquished a lead in the opening set after going up 4-0, had seven block assists in the first set alone. Three of the team blocks came within the first eight points of the match for Colorado State. In complimentary fashion, while causing the Spartans to commit attack errors, the Rams hit at a .400 clip themselves including Jones leading the offense with four kills.

In the second, Colorado State opened the set with a 6-1 lead, once again controlling the tempo of the match. Jones added four more kills to her total before San Jose State made a 9-2 run to tie the game at 17 all. With Jones in the back row, senior setter Emery Herman began distributing a higher number of sets to outside hitter and captain Kennedy Stanford in hopes of stunting the Spartan defense and regaining the lead.

With San Jose State defending off a set point for the Rams to tie the game at 24 all, Stanford, who had four kills of her own in the second set already, took over the Rams' offense to keep Colorado State in the set. The Spartans earned two set points as the game was pushed into extra points, but Stanford recorded kills on both set points for the Spartans as the Rams stepped forward to a 28-26 second set win and a 2-0 lead.

Head Coach Emily Kohan commended the Rams in their ability to close out the set as it has been a focal point of their preparation this week.

"We have been doing this one drill all week since Wyoming where you have to win three points in a row, two on passing and then you have to win the service point too," Kohan said. "All week they've been so frustrated with the drill because we call it 'Click Forward' and when we finally did it in the game to end to the set, we were so excited and finally got to say we clicked forward. I was really proud of them for executing."

After a tight second set, Colorado State came into the third set firing at all cylinders. Opening the set on a 17-4 run, Herman distributed the ball to six different hitters who recorded a kill before the set was over.

Within the third set domination of her team, Kohan took the opportunity to rotate in some of her non-starters including Delaney McIntosh, Alyssa Groves and Jazen DeBina to play the final points of the match. An educated Moby Arena crowd took notice and showed the newest players to the game some extra love as they entered the court.

"I thought Delaney came in and got a great serve and dig, we we're able to set Jazen on a nice tight set and Groves took a big out of system swing too," Kohan said. "Our team is only as good as the whole entire gym. They are ready and playing against the starters in practice every single day and so they're prepared when they get in there and I thought it was a good data point for everyone to get some playing time."

Colorado State dominated the third set with a winning score of 25-12 enroute to their second sweep of the season.

Jones and Stanford were the two Rams to record over double-digit kills with 13 and 11 respectively while Annie Sullivan added nine and Karina Leber added eight kills and eight block assists.

As a team, Colorado State hit at a .427 efficiency, its second-best number this season including hitting over .500 in the third set. The Rams also totaled 11 team blocks with 24 block assists.

Heading back on the road next week, the Rams will first travel south to play Air Force Thursday night at 6 p.m. before playing New Mexico in Albuquerque Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. Colorado State will return to Moby Arena Thursday, October 19 at 7 p.m. against Fresno State.

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