Emery Herman knows that sharing is caring.
Fresno State volleyball found that out the hard way on Saturday, as Colorado State beat the Bulldogs in a 3-1 (25-16, 20-25, 25-11, 25-23) victory.
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When Malaya Jones demands the attention she does each and every set, Herman’s job is made a lot easier. The graduate setter for the Rams has the luxury of spreading the ball around to each of the Rams’ weapons.
If the focus is on containing Jones and Kennedy Stanford, Naeemah Weathers or anyone else is just waiting for their opportunity to feast. Really, there’s no wrong answer on where the ball should be set.
“When I can set anybody and it’s a great option, it makes my life so much easier,” Herman said. “So, shout out to them for doing all that they do and (for) being amazing.”
Herman wasn’t just dominant in her passing game, but across the board. She finished with 46 assists, three service aces, a game-high 12 digs and a team-high two blocks.
That dominance is a big reason she was named to the Mountain West preseason team, and why CSU was chosen to finish first in the conference. A 4-0 conference start and a nice revenge win against the Bulldogs — who beat the Rams in the MW Championship — goes a long way toward living up to those expectations.
“We talked about it literally right before the game,” Jones said. “We’re like, ‘Revenge is short, let’s go.’ We just got super excited. We also try not to make it too personal — we just wanted to go out and still do our jobs and not think too much about last year, but also it would be sweet if we could win.”
Business as usual for the Rams’ leading hitter.
Jones does often lead the box score in kills for the Rams, but she also does so much more. She added nine digs and three service aces to her game-high 20 kills, putting together a complete performance. Those numbers always stick out, but what doesn’t is the attention she draws from the opponent.
“Malaya and Naeemah are next to each other, so it’s hard to focus on which one you want to send the two blockers to,” coach Emily Kohan said. “Emery does a really nice job of making some decisions.”
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The balanced box score is something that Kohan praised Herman on, for her ability to get everyone on the court involved and going. Weathers tallied 12 kills, Karina Leber finished with 12 and true freshman Maria Brun got in on the action killing nine balls.
Each time the ball is in the air, Herman has a choice to make. Sometimes that choice comes while the ball floats in the air above her, sometimes she has to be fast on her feet and make those decisions while the ball sits in her hands for just a brief moment.
“It’s never the same,” Herman said. “Sometimes it’s ball in my hands, sometimes it’s as the person past I already know. But the latest is balls in my hands.”
Keeping the defense off balance and guessing is a pivotal part of CSU’s attack. This allows the offense to spread the opposing defense across the court, and when that happens, the veteran presence that the Rams boast is able to shine through and find those empty spots on the floor.
The IQ of those veterans is huge. The chemistry they’ve been able to build over several years playing with each other has been huge. That isn’t just privy to the offense, however, it translates over to CSU’s ability to play defense as well.
“If you serve tougher, it helps your block have less decision to make, which helps your defense play behind it,” Kohan said. “It’s this big chain reaction. Our whole offseason, we focused on point scoring which is serving, blocking and defense.”
As CSU looks forward with heavy expectations hanging above it, a sense of pride comes along with reaching the heights the Rams are supposed to.
In the third set, CSU showed truly how high it could fly. A 25-11 third-set victory over the defending MW Champions, is the expectation.
“We kind of talk about: it’s our standard,” Jones said. “We should be serving that aggressively, we should be executing at a high level because we know we can, and we should show it. So we have to keep it as closest to that (third set), it’s not going to happen every time, but as closest to that as we possibly can.”
The undefeated start to MW play is a stark contrast to the way CSU opened up the season. In each of her first two seasons, Kohan has brought in a gauntlet of teams for the Rams to play.
That might not translate to winning in the moment, but the games in conference count for much more than the others, and her philosophy has been working out pretty well.
“We knew going into that non-conference that it probably wasn’t going to be undefeated,” Kohan said. “But we played every team really tough. … Proud of the way that we were able to stay confident and not let it get us rattled and know that it was going to hopefully still keep paying off as the season progresses.”
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.
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