The Colorado State women’s volleyball team looks like it will be just fine.
Less than a week after a disappointing loss to No. 4 Wisconsin in front of a raucous home crowd at Moby Arena, the Rams stamped their preseason schedule with a marquee win over No. 9 BYU on the campus of New Mexico State in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Led by outstanding freshman Jasmine Hanna’s 16 kills, Colorado State defeated the Cougars in four sets (23-25, 25-23, 25-20, 28-26), avenging their last loss to their former league rivals in 2012.
Along with Hanna’s dominant performance, CSU got 13 kills from senior middle blocker Kelsey Snider, 12 from senior outside hitter Marlee Reynolds and a double-double (10 kills, 14 digs) from junior Adrianna Culbert to lead the Rams to their 11th top-10 win under head coach Tom Hilbert.
“If you look at the stats, you’ll see we really out-dug them,” Hilbert said. “I think that really frustrated their attackers and led to some errors.
However, it wasn’t smooth sailing for the Rams early as they went down 12-5 early before tying it late in the set and eventually falling 25-23.
But the Rams used their momentum from the end of Set 1 to propel them early in the second set where they held the Cougars t0 a .179 hitting percentage. After 11 ties and five lead changes, CSU pulled away to take the set 25-23 and and knot the match up at one apiece heading into the intermission.
Led by Reynolds, Snider and senior setter Deedra Foss, CSU again used a big rally midway through the match to pull themselves back into the match before Snider took over at the end of the set. The native of Westminister accounted for the final four Colorado State points via three kills and a critical block.
It was a seesaw affair yet again in the fourth set with eight ties and two lead changes. BYU led 24-22 late in the set and seemed primed to send it to a decisive fifth set. But yet again, Reynolds and Snider had something to say about that. After tying the match at 24, Reynolds had a critical kill to put CSU up for good. In the third set alone, Reynolds, a senior from Dalhart, Texas, recorder five kills an no errors on 11 attacks.
CSU will now face New Mexico State tonight at 7 p.m. The match will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.com and Altitude TV.
Collegian Sports Editor Keegan Pope can be reached at kpope@collegian.com and on Twitter @kpopecollegian.
