Colorado State remains atop Mountain West Conference

Angel Cooper

October 12, 2019

The Colorado State volleyball team continues to prove why they are number one in the Mountain West Conference, as the Rams swept San Diego State 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-16) Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena.

Alexa Roumeliotis(#8) digs the ball up into the air, as Colorado State, takes on San Diego State at home. — Alexa Roumeliotis (8) digs the ball up into the air as Colorado State takes on San Diego State at home. CSU defeated SDSU in three sets. (Devin Cornelius | Collegian)

The Rams’ defense came out a little slow against the Aztecs, and the team found themselves in a close game.

The Aztecs were playing their cards right in the front row. Hannah Turnlund, Tamia Reeves and Victoria O’Sullivan were the top hitters from San Diego State. Turnlund had a few powerful kills that CSU had no chance to return.

Coach Tom Hilbert called a timeout after Lauren Lee from San Diego State got a pair of aces on his team. The timeout was much needed for the Rams to adjust and pull themselves together. The break-in play worked out because the Rams came back with more energy and started to attack more.

Setter Katie Oleksak helped her team catch up. Oleksak found her groove as CSU rattled off a 9-0 rally to take the lead 18-13. After the first set, the Rams were hitting .484% on the attack, with Kirstie Hillyer and Breana Runnels leading the team in kills.

The second set was quite an exciting show for the fans watching the game. CSU came out with more energy and started attacking the Aztecs’ middle front. All the Rams players were covering each other, and the team was communicating better.

The communication helped tremendously, allowing the Rams to score easy points on the Aztecs. The Aztecs thought that taking two timeouts would cool down the Rams, but it did not. Oleksak helped lead the team in the right direction on where to make a kill and a block. Coming into the match, Oleksak wanted her team to take more risks against SDSU, and the team executed.

katie Oleksak(#22) pushes the ball down on the San Diego State side for a Colorado State point — Katie Oleksak (22) pushes the ball down on the San Diego State side for a Colorado State point as CSU takes on SDSU at home. CSU swept SDSU in three sets. (Devin Cornelius | Collegian)

“My goal this week was to take more (offensive) risks.” Oleksak said. “We tried some new plays, and that was kind of fun.”

The third set was back and forth, but the Rams pulled away and secured the win, stretching their win streak to 15 games.

The Rams will be on their way to Boise State for a match on Oct. 17. The Broncos are 12-5 and 4-2 in the Mountain West Conference. Janell Walley, Lauren Ohlinger, Shae Duffy and Jessica Donahue are players to watch out for. CSU needs to make some adjustments and prepare themselves because the Broncos will give them a challenge.

Blocking is something that CSU is going to work on ahead of the matchup to prevent the Boise State offense from finding a rhythm.

“(We need to) work a lot on blocking because many teams that we played in preseason hit higher,” Hillyer said. “A lot of Mountain West teams sneak it higher, and we gotta work on taking away those angles and work on our low angles.”

Boise State will be hosting CSU on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Angel Cooper can be reached at sports@collegian.com or Twitter @angelcooper05.

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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