CSU Athletics cannot gain a win against Colorado this season, extending now to volleyball. 

Colorado State wrapped up its penultimate match of the non-conference season in a heated game against rivals Colorado by coming up short in a 3-1 loss (23-25, 25-18, 30-32, 20-25.) Colorado’s win tallied up a second win in a row for the Buffs and put them one step closer to the Golden Spike Trophy. 

Since being introduced in 2019, the record for the trophy is split, CSU taking the first two wins and Boulder taking the last two, with CSU aching for it back. 

After returning to a home game after a fresh loss against Notre Dame, the Rams were playing for the win, powering them in the third set. It was anyone’s game, both teams exchanging just one point at a time, until it was too late.

After that, the Rams lost their momentum ending the first game against the Buffs on a sour note. 

“It’s always a little deflating when you’re like, after the set that close, and you don’t come out on top,” coach Emily Kohan said. “When we came back in that fourth set, I feel like our passes just didn’t let our offense get going fast enough, and we kind of lost our momentum.”

Overall, the passes might not have been clean, yet libero Kate Yoshimoto was cleaning the back of the court with how often she was on the floor diving after the ball. 

Yoshimoto managed to get 16 digs throughout her time on the court, also helping setter Emery Herman with assists, being wherever she was needed on the court and aiding where she could. 

“(I am) going for every single ball, and not letting any ball hit the ground without me on the ground too,” Yoshimoto said. “Hopefully I’ll touch it.” 

Yoshimoto was a key player, maintaining her presence on the court and being one of the last servers in the third set, having the whole game in the palm of her hands. 

At collegiate-level volleyball it is important to always maintain a solid serve, but when the score in the game is only one point off, it is the most important quality to have on the court. 

“I try to think that my (serving) average is good enough, and what I’m capable of is good enough,” Yoshimoto said. “I just have to do that every single time over and over.” 

If the 17 blocks done throughout the match made it to Yoshimoto she was able to deliver an almost perfect pass, her time off a thing of the pass. 

“Our tagline of defense is relentless pursuit, and that’s kind of what I tried to do today, and work around the block,” Yoshimoto said. “The blocks were putting up a nice lineup, so I was able to easily read around that.”

Right there leading the team with Yoshimoto was Herman, coming off of the Rams travel week, Herman was ranked second in the Mountain West for assists. 

Not only was she setting, especially to the middle hitters, but attacking herself, matching her kill record of seven, but she only attempted seven times making her hitting percentage 1.000, leading the percentage high for the team. 

“I think I just noticed that they were cheating one way or another with other hitters,” Herman said. “I was trying to open it up for my hands and do what I could.” 

Herman has now been able to see her strongest hitters of the game came from the middle, planning on setting to them most tomorrow. 

As setter she is a vital player on the court, focusing in on the key players while also predicting what will happen and having to prepare herself for that.

“(I want to) know kind of what their blocking scheme is and being able to get, even if the hitters have two blocks up, being able to put them in a good position to so score no matter who’s over,” Herman said.

CSU is not done playing out of conference yet, as there is a day two to the game tomorrow at CU. 

The Rams can use this one night to plan and attempt to clean up their side of the court in order to secure a win and bring home the Golden Spike Trophy to Fort Collins.

“I think we’ll be hungry for a win, so I think it’ll be a good gritty game,” Herman said.

Reach Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @sophgwebb.

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