Three School Records Go Down in Four-Set Win Over Boise State

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BOISE, Idaho – The Colorado State volleyball team defeated Boise State in four set Saturday afternoon, avenging its five set loss to the Broncos earlier this season thanks to a record-setting performance by Malaya Jones and two career school records broken by Kennedy Stanford and Karina Leber.

While the Rams lead the Mountain West in hitting percentage, a feat they have held throughout conference play, hitting over .500 with over 50 attempts is not something seen often on a division one volleyball court, especially from a pin hitter. Saturday in Bronco Gym was a special day for Malaya Jones who set a four-set single match school record with 31 kills on 55 attempts hitting at a .509 percentage.

"Malaya was unbelievable, like truly unstoppable," coach Emily Kohan said. "There's been a couple games where teams have gotten beats on her as the match went on, but today she just stayed powering through. What was really fun to watch her do was start hitting a few different shots. When they started to take away her hard cross-court shot, she started going down the line and diversifying those shots to get kills."

"Fair to say I like having her on my side of the net," fifth-year setter Emery Herman said. "Whenever she gets in those mode where she's just going for it, I'm going to keep giving her the ball because I know they aren't going to stop her."

Jones was joined by Stanford and Leber in career school records to total three on the day.

In the second set, Stanford recorded back-to-back aces to put the Rams up 23-13 and notch her 100^th and 101^st service ace of her career, putting her past the three-digit mark and into the school record holding position passing Ciera Pritchard for the modern scoring format school record.

Leber joined the school-record-breaking party with a testament to her long and healthy career as a Ram, breaking the school record of sets played as a Ram of 497. The fifth-year senior passes Cindy Cox who played in 496 career sets during her time as a Ram from 1985-88.

"I'm so excited for everyone to reach their goals this year and we have so much to celebrate so far this season which makes it something super special to be a part of," Jones said.

"I think they've been really intentional about having and end goal and playing their best volleyball in November and leaving their mark and legacy on this program," Kohan said.

As for the match, the collective success of Colorado State's veterans still stands true as the reason for success on Saturday's box score.

In addition to Jones' big day, Naeemah Weathers and Maria Brun both added 10 kills on offense while Weathers hit at a .500 clip herself. An efficient front line, distributed by Herman who finished the day with 50 assists, hit .374 as a team, the third highest team number this season.
"I think it helps us so much to be balanced, especially when it comes to throwing of their blocking because they don't know who I'm going to go to or who to sit on, so having those options open across the front row opens things up for everybody," Herman said.

The Rams hit over .350 in both opening sets, a huge part of jumping out to a 2-0 lead with set scores of 25-15 and 25-16 respectively.

"Having my teammates hit well too just helps spread out the offense and helps me to have more court to hit in because the blockers are staying with them a lot of the time," Jones said. "It's complete mutual respect between us all because they're also such incredible hitters and it makes me feel more comfortable in the game."

Defensively, a strong blocking presence, 14 team blocks on the day, and out-digging the Broncos in the backrow 63-52, kept putting the ball back into the offensive zone for Colorado State with a combined 68% sideout percentage on the day. Jones also led the Rams defensively in digs with 15 to go along with libero Kate Yoshimoto who totaled 13 and a perfect serve reception percentage with 13 targets.

The home-court Broncos were able to rally back in the third set, forcing extra points on the Rams and spoiling the dominant sweep winning the third set 27-25.

With the Rams looking to avoid another five-set match against the Broncos, especially this time on the road, Jones had her largest production set of the match with nine kills alone in the fourth set hitting at a .474 clip.

"I think we're showing great composure because the gym got really rowdy in that third set. It was in deuce sets and a really tight game so to play with that much composure on the road after not starting the greatest especially again in the fourth, we just settled in."

Colorado State continued on to win the fourth set 25-22, holding off two lead changes from Boise State and eight tie scores to move to 12-2 in conference play.

The Rams will next travel to Fresno State Thursday before continuing on to face San Jose State Saturday in the final regular-season road trip before the Mountain West Championship tournament November 27-30. Colorado State clinched a spot in the tournament this week thanks to action taking place around the Mountain West.

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