Colorado State volleyball prepares for Fight in the Fort

Tyler Meguire

September 4, 2019

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.

Paulina Hougaard-Jensen spikes the ball towards defenders — Paulina Hougaard-Jensen (11) spikes the ball towards defenders, as the Rams take on the Golden Bears. Colorado State University falls three sets to one. (Devin Cornelius | Collegian)

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 jumps and spikes the ball — Breana Runnels (15) jumps and spikes the ball down on University of Oklahoma defenders at Colorado State University’s White Out home game. CSU defeats OU three sets to zero. (Devin Cornelius | Collegian).

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.

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About the Contributor

DEVIN CORNELIUS, Digital Managing Editor

Devin Cornelius is the digital managing editor for The Collegian. He is a fifth-year computer science major from Austin, Texas. He moved to Colorado State University and started working for The Collegian in 2017 as a photographer. His passion for photography began in high school, so finding a photography job in college was one of his top priorities. He primarily takes sports photos, volleyball being his favorite to shoot. Having been on The Collegian staff for 4 1/2 years, he's watched the paper evolve from a daily to a weekly paper, and being involved in this transition is interesting and exciting. Although Cornelius is a computer science major, his time at The Collegian has been the most fulfilling experience in his college career — he has loved every second. From working 12-hour days to taking photos in Las Vegas for the Mountain West Conference, he cannot think of a better place to work. Working as a photographer for The Collegian pushed him outside of his comfort zone, taking him places that he never expected and making him the photographer he is today. As the digital managing editor, Cornelius oversees the photos, graphics and social media of The Collegian along with other small tech things. Working on the editorial staff with Katrina Leibee and Serena Bettis has been super fun and extremely rewarding, and together they have been pushing The Collegian toward being an alt-weekly. Outside of The Collegian, he enjoys playing volleyball, rugby, tumbling and a variety of video games. When in Austin, you can find him out on the lake, wake surfing, wake boarding and tubing. You can expect that Cornelius and the rest of The Collegian staff will do their best to provide you with interesting and exciting content.

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