Colorado State University women’s volleyball is headed to the Lone Star State to participate in the Fight in the Fort tournament on Friday and Saturday. 

The Rams will take on the Florida Atlantic Owls in their first match on Friday. Florida Atlantic University is coming into the tournament with a 2-0 record after dominating in the FAU Invitational. The Owls beat Grambling State 3-0 and Stetson University 3-1, 25-16, 25-20 and 25-17. The Owls lost the first set 20-25 but were not discouraged and came back to win three straight sets. 

Massiel Matos and Sydney Nemtuda lead the Owls in kills with 20. Matos led the Owls in kills last season with 369 and in service aces (.44/set). CSU will have to shut down the senior hitter if they hope to top the Owls. 

CSU will battle against Texas Christian University in their second match. TCU is sitting at a winning streak of three after the Cowtown Classic last weekend. The Horned Frogs finished the weekend winning nine sets and only losing one. TCU came away with a convincing 3-0 sweep against High Point University in their first game and continued to dominate. 

Sweeping the next match 3-0 against Lipscomb University, The Horned Frogs won set one 25-16, set two 25-19 and set three 25-19. In the next match against Villanova, it was more of the same. TCU won sets one, three and four, but only by a narrow margin.

After the weekend, Audrey Nalls leads TCU in kills with 35. Irem Ucar leads the team in assists with 54, Dani Dennison leads TCU with 21 digs and Afedo Manyang leads in blocks with 13.0. 

The biggest challenge the Rams will face over the weekend is No. 22 Florida State. FSU lost to No. 5 Wisconsin 0-3, losing 15-25, 22-25 and 23-25. However, the Seminoles bounced back and upset No. 3 Minnesota with a sweep 3-0, winning 25-17, 26-24 and 25-21.

The Rams are coming off a 2-1 home stand and are ready to improve on two dominant performances. CSU beat Chicago State University 3-0, Oklahoma University 3-0 and lost to California 1-3.

Besides No. 22 Florida State, the Rams will have an advantage over both FAU and TCU heading to Fort Worth.

Playing the University of California and the University of Oklahoma will work in the Rams’ favor, as the programs are stronger competition compared to Lipscomb, Stetson and Grambling State.

Breana Runnels leads the Rams in kills with 34 and Alexa Roumeliotis leads the team in digs with 34. Katie Oleksak is the team’s prominent setter with 88 assists — next closest is Roumeliotis with 10. Kirstie Hillyer leads CSU with nine total blocks. 

CSU looks to head down to Texas and show what Colorado is made of. Look for them to come out of the weekend with a winning record and hopefully take down a nationally ranked team. 

Tyler Meguire can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @TMeguire.