Rams Bounce Back to Win First Conference Match

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Sep 11

6:00 PM

Volleyball

vs East Texas A&M

Sep 12

6:00 PM

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vs Notre Dame

Sep 13

12:00 PM

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vs Notre Dame v. East Texas A&M

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vs Colorado

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7:00 PM

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at Colorado

By: Braidon Nourse

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Gritty defense and dialing in during key moments were two of Colorado State volleyball's biggest talking points at practice all week leading up to Thursday's match against San Diego State. Both were needed for its first Mountain West victory of the season, a 3-1 victory over the Aztecs, 21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-23.

After a few close sets down the stretch in their last two matches against Boise State and Utah State, the Rams honed in on taking and keeping leads late in those tight sets. That preparation paid off for head coach Emily Kohan.

"I think it was great that we were able to compete and execute our end game," Kohan said. "We've been in a lot of those situations, and we talked about it all week at practice. We've got to play clean volleyball when it matters, and I thought they did a really good job executing tonight."

Outside hitter Malaya Jones, who led all players with 16 kills on the night, said after playing timidly the past couple of outings, the Rams needed to fight for every block and especially every dig. It doesn't matter if you think you may collide with a teammate in the process — just keep the ball in play.

While the Rams didn't do much running into each other, digs and blocks were hard-fought, which made the victory a little sweeter for Jones, who has had to do both while rotating between the front and back rows over the previous number of matches.

"It feels amazing. Honestly, I think one of our problems lately is our confidence," Jones said. "We came in and when things weren't going our way, we kind of just cracked. Tonight, we were really strong mentally, we've been grinding at practice, and we finally got it done.

"We had to serve a lot harder, and I think we had to get them out of system so they could stop running their middles. I think we also needed scrappy defensive plays. We needed to make those plays, and when we did, we capitalized on them."

The spirited defense translated into a better offense down the stretch, however there were mistakes made in the first two sets which cost them some points. The Aztecs made some of their own, which the Rams took advantage of, making for a back-and-forth match early.

Kohan said the return and increased usage of defensive specialist Anna Porter facilitated improvement in the back end of the second set and beyond. Cleaner digs from her resulted in cleaner passing throughout plays, allowing for better finishes and ultimately more points.

"I think our passing was a little rough in the first set and I thought Anna Porter did a good job coming off of a couple weeks of injury," Kohan said. "She stabilized our first contact, which then led to us stabilizing our second and third contacts too, which I thought was a really big change for us."

As Porter made life a little easier for setter Emery Herman and subsequently the Rams' hitters, the offense started to click in the third set. They improved their hitting from .200 in the second set to a match-high .361 in the third.

Another important role in that particular advancement was outside hitter Kennedy Stanford's hitting, which amounted to .370 by the end of the match. She also added 12 kills.

"I'm really, really proud of Kennedy coming back," Kohan said. "She was keyed on last weekend and didn't have her best offensive weekend. And to see her come back and swing — I think she hit over .350 which is astronomical for an outside hitter — I was really proud of her for being able to recover from last weekend and play how we know she can play."

The Rams blocked 11 attempts, with middle blockers Karina Leber (seven) and Naeemah Weathers (five) leading the way individually. Kohan praised their growth and maturity as fourth-year players leading to an enhanced ability to read the game on their own in the moment without too much guidance from coaches.

The type of play displayed on both sides of the ball comes just in time for Saturday's match against co-conference preseason favorites UNLV. They'll play at Moby Arena at noon.

"I think UNLV is a good team and they also have the best player in the conference," Kohan said. "That's exactly why we designed our preseason the way we did, to play other amazing teams and we've shown we can play with anyone in the country. I hope the team is able to take those memories and put them into effect against a really good UNLV team."

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