Sometimes Malaya Jones gets a little tingle; coach Emily Kohan calls that turbo mode.
Jones going turbo mode usually spells doom for her opponents, and Thursday night doom was spelled UNLV. In a sweep (25-21, 25-11, 25-22), CSU finished 6-0 across all sets against the Rebels on the season.
Ad
Jones’ night ended with her collecting a seventh double-double on the season finishing with 15 kills and 10 digs. Jones played hyper-efficient volleyball hitting .484 on the night, while attacking 31 times, more than double the next closest number of attacks by a Ram, which was 13.
“Not every game is going to be like that,” Jones said. “So when I can feel that little tingle, I’m like ‘oh, I’ve got to really ride with this one.’”
Kohan said Jones gets a look on her face, and from there it might as well be game over.
When someone of Jones’ caliber steps on to the court, sometimes the incredible play can go underappreciated, because of how often it happens. But Jones’ greatness is not lost on Kohan.
“No, I think we appreciate it,” Kohan said. “And every once in a while, teams kind of get a beat on her and we also have the other people — that I think we’ve shown in other matches that other people can step up. … I feel very lucky that we’ve got a bunch of people that on any given night can be the one to lead the box score.”
The Rams have now won 12 of their last 13 sets going back to the first time they swept UNLV. Kohan has stood strong on the fact that November is the month where CSU has to play its best volleyball.
With that time at the doorstep, things feel like they’ve clicked for the Rams. Still, the peak is a few steps away.
“We can always improve, there’s always things we can do better,” Emery Herman said. “But I think we have a really good chemistry going right now and we’re flowing really well together, so I’m just excited to see the rest of the season as we continue.”
Although the last four matches CSU has played have been against the bottom three teams in the Mountain West, Kohan still feels like her squad is playing good volleyball.
Ad
The lone set the Rams lost was to New Mexico, in Albuquerque and tallied 25-27. That’s also a game in which CSU held the Lobos to just .092 hitting. A sign of a good squad oftentimes is dominating lesser opponents, and clearly CSU has done that.
“Tonight we played really good volleyball on our side, regardless of who’s on the other side,” Kohan said. “And that’s what we talk about — UNLV came out strong, we had to climb back in that first set and I was really proud of their composure. … I think it’s maybe a combination of (playing the bottom three teams and things clicking), but again, I’m really proud of the way we did on our side.”
In each of those games, they’ve held their opponent to hitting less than 19%. A big emphasis in practice has been how scrappy the Rams play.
All night long someone dove to the floor, through the announcers table or into the stands with zero hesitation. The Rams are No. 1 in the conference, and that’s not something that’s going to be easy for someone else to take with just seven games left in the regular season.
“The number of times in Moby Arena is winding down and I think those seniors are feeling that a little bit,” Kohan said. “And they want to do a good job leaving a legacy with the crowd in the way that they lead this court, but digging it one game at a time and still trying to get better.”
On Saturday the Rams get to defend their home court taking on San Diego State, a team that reverse swept them earlier in the year.
Whether Jones goes turbo mode again or one of CSU’s other fronts takes over, everyone’s looking for just a little taste of revenge.
“Oh yeah, for sure,” said Herman, about ramping up for Saturday’s game. “We don’t want to lose any game, but especially ones we’ve lost before. We’re going to come back even harder.”
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.
Interested in more sports content? Sign up for Ram Report here for weekly CSU sports updates!
