The CSU volleyball team’s winning streak came to an unfortunate end as the Fresno State defense dominated the red-hot Rams offense in a five-set match.

Coming off an impressive week winning two games on the road against Air Force and New Mexico, Malaya Jones won Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week.

The Rams had all the momentum coming into another Mountain West showdown at home; however, they couldn’t capitalize on a golden opportunity.

“Consistency, playing well at end game, being a better serve-pass team,” head coach Emily Kohan said. “We got aced 11 times and missed eight serves — that’s a lot of giveaway points on first contact, so we just have to be a better serve-pass team.”

The energy was palpable heading into the opening set, as the Rams surged forward with an impressive offensive outing. Finding gaps in the Fresno State’s defense, Kennedy Stanford led the charge with six kills, dominating the floor for the Rams.

In spite of the Bulldogs dominating performance on defense, the game plan remained the same for the Rams as they continued their offensive attack on the net. Multiple service aces from Jones and Stanford built momentum late in the second, as everything was falling into place for the Rams. 

Resembling a brick wall, the Rams front line wasn’t letting anything fall, which forced the Bulldogs to make major offensive adjustments. A powerful kill from Stanford put the second set to sleep, tying up the match at one set a piece. 

The Rams did not come out hot after their amazing performance from the second set. Multiple attack errors and missed cues on defense gave the Bulldogs momentum. Unlike the previous sets, the Rams could not find gaps in the defense as the offense struggled.

Burning both of their timeouts, the Rams were forced to make adjustments on both sides of the ball. The energy left the Rams’ side as nothing was falling for them. 

“I think that we are going to kind of focus on a lot of the things that went wrong tonight,” Stanford said. “Take away the good things and say, ‘OK, what do we need to focus on for our next opponent and what do we need to improve at?’”

Handling business with ease, the Bulldogs dominated the third set, despite a late push from the Rams. Fresno State was able to shut down the major offensive weapons for CSU, surging them forward as they dominated the third. 

The Rams caught fire early, despite the poor performance in the third set. Operating as a well-oiled machine, the Rams were diving and making big plays to keep them in the match.

The Rams picked up their energy after leaders Jones and Kennedy came up big for the team with huge kills down the stretch. Despite the Rams winning the fourth set, the consistency seemed off in regards to their body language and low energy — lower than fans are used to.

A back-and-forth battle defined the result of the fifth set. Both sides of the ball were working for the Rams as the energy picked up. However, the Bulldogs started blocking every ball that was sent from the Rams’ offense, blocking every gap.

The Rams couldn’t get anything going, with Fresno State capitalizing on the mistakes. A rare quiet game from Jones seemed to be the difference maker in this match, tallying only 10 kills for the Rams in only their fourth loss at home on the season.

“I think we just need to figure out what we have to work on and apply it immediately at practice and realize that we have the rest to conference we need to worry about,” Jones said. “This game is over, it happened — move on to the next and figure out how to beat Reno for sure.”

The Rams will seek revenge heading into Reno to square off against Nevada in another conference matchup as they will look to continue the on-the-road winning streak 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21. 

Reach Luke Hojnowski at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @lukehojo.