Kohan Era Opens With Upset of No. 10 Kentucky

Calendar

Show:/

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

Sep 25

6:30 PM

Volleyball

at Wyoming

By Mike Brohard

FORT COLLINS – A legend waves to the crowd, exits stage left.

Did a new one just enter Moby?

"Not quite," Emily Kohan laughed. "He left me with a full house."

The Kohan era at Colorado State opened with a resounding roar from the third-largest volleyball crowd at Moby Arena – 7,687 strong, bolstered by a record student section of 4,395 – witnessing a 3-1 upset of No. 10 Kentucky, 29-27, 25-19, 20-25, 25-18. As the Wildcats' final attempt sailed wide, the Rams on the floor fell to the court in celebration, the bench rushing in behind them.

Off to the side, Kohan threw up her hand in jubilation, then went into a group hug with her retooled coaching staff.

Not much in life is perfect. Friday night was for the kid from Swink after taking over the program from Tom Hilbert.

One win down, only 636 more to go.

"Perfect debut. Could you ask for anything better?" she asked. "Crowd, awesome. Whole family here. Team, amazing. Coaches, great calls. It was pretty remarkable."

Mainly, the way the Rams played. Much of what hampered the squad a season ago was non-existent during the match. The passing was crisper. They blocked strong at the net. Service errors were at a minimum against the aggressive approach they took. And when sets were tight, the rejuvenated play fed them with confidence.

The opponent wasn't just any team, either. The Wildcats, winners of seven consecutive conference championships and the 2020 NCAA champions, had three returning AVCA All-Americans on the floor. You can't face a team like that with doubts.

"I mean, we know how great of a group we have this year and what we want to accomplish," outside hitter Annie Sullivan said. "We have a lot we want to accomplish in the future, and that starts right now. We know that we're a good enough team to take down these opponents, so that's just what we've been focusing on in practice."

Sullivan was at her very best, putting down a career record 18 kills on the night, hitting .311 with just four attack errors. Malaya Jones came in with 11 from the opposite side, also hitting better than .300, as the team hit at a .346 clip. None of the squad's attackers hit less than .300 as Kennedy Stanford landed nine kills, Karina Leber and Naeemah Weathers combining for 13 kills from the middle.

The new part of the equation was setter Emery Herman, who dished out 35 assists and also contributed five kills. She transferred in from Arizona at the end of last season, giving her less than eight months to work with her new lineup of hitters.
"To set everybody above .300 is pretty dang impressive against a very physical blocking team," Kohan said. "She was spot on with her accuracy and her decision making, so I was super happy with her joining our team."

One number with really stood out was the blocking. Colorado State outblocked the Wildcats 12-2, with Weathers leading the way with six. Leber had five, and the trio of Sullivan, Jones and Herman each had three.

That fact, Jones said, was not a surprise. Yes, she's fully aware of how the team performed there a season ago but making improvement a point of emphasis never strayed in practice. They expected to be the better blocking team.

"Damn right. Absolutely," Jones said. "We were in the gym cranking. Our bomb squad, they were working, hitting our hands as hard as they can. We've been doing that since spring. We haven't let up a single time.

"We had to really zero in and trust our block, trust our hands and be fast, be quick. That was something we did struggle with last year. We were on top of it tonight. We were on our schemes, talking to each other every single point and we stayed into it every single time. We didn't let up."

Nor did the Rams back down. The first set went extra, partially because CSU missed three chances at set point earlier on, then fought off a couple of Wildcat chances. In the second set, Colorado State pulled away at the end, and at that point, they had yet to have a service error.

They had five in the third set but came back unfazed with the temporary setback and blazed out to a 7-2 start in the fourth frame and never really let Kentucky make a serious run at tying the match.

"I think the biggest thing that impressed me was how bold and aggressive our team played. With a team as good as Kentucky you don't win by going out being passive," Kohan said. "We served really tough, and I told them I'm willing to take some missed serves if we can get them out of system. Our hitters were taking big swings at the ball and Emery got everyone involved."

Then they all took part in the celebration. It was too magical of a night for them to pass up the opportunity, especially after Kohan told them to do exactly that when they could.

For a moment late in the match, Kohan heeded her own advice.

"There was a point in the set, we were at 22, I was like, 'holy cow, this is pretty remarkable.' You tell your team to finish it, so I tried not to look ahead too much," Kohan said. "One of my speech points before the game was take a moment and breathe it in, because there's very few people who get to play in front a crowd like this in the country, so make sure you enjoy some of those little moments."

A bunch of little moments combined became huge.

It may not be the stuff of legends, but it's a pretty good start to a potential story.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results