PRINT EDITION

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Have a strong opinion about something happening on campus or in Fort Collins? Want to respond to an article written on The Collegian? Write a Letter to the Editor by following the guidelines here.

Print Edition

Letter to the editor submissions

Have a strong opinion about something happening on campus or in Fort Collins? Want to respond to an article written on The Collegian? Write a Letter to the Editor by following the guidelines here.

CSU volleyball announces 2025 Mountain West schedule

Sophie Webb, Sports Editor

April 10, 2025

Collegian | Cait Mckinzie

Maria Brun (26) jumps up to spike the ball over the net during Colorado State University’s match against Fresno State University Oct. 5. CSU won 3-1.

Colorado State volleyball has released its schedule for the Mountain West conference portion of the season — the Rams’ final time in the conference before joining the Pac-12 in 2026.

The full fall schedule for 2025 has yet to be released.

After powering through the 2024 season and winning their 23rd conference championship, the Rams are set on continuing the conference streak, despite having lost several valuable players.

But with the start of another year comes a fresh schedule and new challenges.

Tuesday, Sept. 23, at Wyoming

CSU volleyball tends to have a difficult nonconference schedule to start the year, and if the pattern continues, a Border War game is the perfect start to the conference season. The Rams will be on a high after competing against tough teams, and the Border War can put them in a high-stakes situation early on, setting CSU up well for future games.

The question stands, though, if the team will have built up enough chemistry — especially since there are several new players — to take on a highly competitive opponent.

Saturday, Sept. 27, vs. New Mexico

New Mexico ended the 2024 season 6-12 for the MW, and CSU has emerged victorious the past four times the teams have faced each other. And with no dramatic changes to UNM’s team, the Rams seem to have an easy second game for the conference season.

Thursday, Oct. 2, at UNLV

Once again, there was nothing too daunting about UNLV throughout the 2024 season, ending up seventh in the conference. But with both teams having several younger players, this could be one of the more even matchups throughout the year.

Saturday, Oct. 4, at San Diego State

San Diego State, one of CSU’s future competitors in the Pac-12, presented itself as a challenge in 2024, being the Rams’ first game in the MW Tournament. As of April 9, SDSU does not have a single first-year on the team. The players’ experience and maturity could be difficult for CSU to compete against.

Thursday, Oct. 9, vs. Boise State

There was a chance to see how powerful Boise State was in the MW tournament, but after forfeiting their game against San Jose State, the Broncos gave up any chance of competing in the championship. Last season, BSU took the first game against CSU — and vice versa in the second — but the Broncos appear to be an upcoming threat in both the MW next season and the Pac-12 in 2026.

Saturday, Oct. 11, vs. Utah State

CSU beat Utah State in both of the games the teams played last year, and USU lost to BSU in the first round of the MW Tournament. This is not to discredit the team, however, as they lost only two fewer conference games than the Rams.

Thursday, Oct. 16, at Air Force

In a ranking sport, a team always has to come last, and in 2024, that was Air Force. The team only won two of the 18 games played against MW opponents, making them an easy target to beat in the upcoming season.

Saturday, Oct. 18, at Nevada

And right above to AFA stands Nevada. The Rams beat the Wolf Pack at both the beginning and end of the conference season, hurting UNR’s final conference record of 5-13.

Thursday, Oct. 23, vs. San Jose State

CSU’s toughest opponent last season, SJSU, was the team to beat to win the conference championship. Although SJSU received multiple wins due to forfeits, they were difficult to beat. The Rams won two out of their three games.

Saturday, Oct. 25, at Fresno State

As CSU faced Fresno State, there was fire before the game. In 2023, FSU was the hill the Rams could not climb, costing them the first rank within the conference. The Bulldogs did get out in the first round of the MW Tournament but added a game into CSU’s loss category in their second matchup of the season.

Thursday, Oct. 30, vs. Nevada

Within two weeks of facing each other for the first time in the season, UNR will come to Moby Arena.

Saturday, Nov. 1, vs. Air Force

Like UNR, AFA will turn right around and compete against the Rams again. The two conference teams AFA managed to beat in 2024 were UNLV and UNR.

Thursday, Nov. 6, at Utah State

USU finished 15-14 overall, marking their fourth consecutive season with a winning record.

Saturday, Nov. 8, at Boise State

BSU’s top two kill leaders from the 2024-25 season will not return for another year, leaving Anabel Kotzakov the a likely candidate to lead next season.

Thursday, Nov. 13, vs. San Diego State

At 20-10, SDSU finished with the best overall record among MW teams but didn’t fare quite as well in conference play.

Saturday, Nov. 15, vs. UNLV

Caleigh King led the Rebels in digs and service aces last season and is currently set to return to UNLV.

Tuesday, Nov. 18, vs. Wyoming

Paige Lauterwasser will be the focal point of the Rams’ defense, as she racked up 404 kills throughout the 2024-25 season.

Thursday, Nov. 20, at New Mexico

By the end of the regular season, UNM was ranked in the top 100 in the nation in team digs per set, blocks per set and opponent hitting.

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

About the Contributors

Sophie Webb, Sports Editor

Sophie Webb is back at The Collegian for her third semester, taking on the sports editor role. As a first-year student at CSU, she is pursuing a journalism and media communication degree. After beginning her journalism career in high school, she joined The Collegian in her senior year, contributing to several desks including sports, arts and entertainment, news and life and culture. In her first year at CSU, she dedicated the majority of her time to being a beat writer for women’s volleyball and basketball and found a passion for sports writing. As an editor, she now aims to help other writers discover their own passions. Webb’s favorite parts about working for the sports desk are covering tight, nail-biting games and interviewing athletes for feature stories. She gets to learn about the person behind the jersey, making her appreciate the game that much more. Her goal is to carve a place for herself at The Collegian and immerse herself in sports along with learning the ins and outs of CSU Athletics so she can act as a resource for sports writers. She eventually wants to pursue a career within the field and hopes to make an impact. Webb is excited to explore all aspects of journalism and media and is eager to grow both as a writer and as a professional during her time at CSU.

Cait Mckinzie, Photo Director

Cait Mckinzie is a second-year student double majoring in art and journalism and media communication. She is one of two photo directors for the 2024-25 school year. Despite growing up in Renton, Washington, Mckinzie knew she wanted to go to Colorado State University since middle school. She had only ever been to Colorado twice, but she visited campus once, and that was all it took. At first, there wasn’t much in Fort Collins that Mckinzie was familiar with. But in high school, she was the co-head of visuals for her school newspaper, so she applied to The Collegian as a photographer to get back into a similar environment. Mckinzie was first introduced to photography by her grandfather, who has been a photographer most of his life. After he gifted Mckinzie her first camera in her junior year of high school, she began to take any assignment she could for her high school paper to improve her skills. Of all the memories made in her first year at CSU, most of the interesting ones came from The Collegian. One Halloween drag show assignment, a lot of mentorship and a few months of practice later, Mckinzie found herself being offered the position of photo director for the next academic school year. Mckinzie is excited for another year at The Collegian and aims to continue learning and growing during her time as one of the photo directors.

Comments (0)

When commenting on The Collegian’s website, please be respectful of others and their viewpoints. The Collegian reviews all comments and reserves the right to reject comments from the website. Comments including any of the following will not be accepted. 1. No language attacking a protected group, including slurs or other profane language directed at a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social class, age, physical or mental disability, ethnicity or nationality. 2. No factually inaccurate information, including misleading statements or incorrect data. 3. No abusive language or harassment of Collegian writers, editors or other commenters. 4. No threatening language that includes but is not limited to language inciting violence against an individual or group of people. 5. No links.

Share your thoughts...

All The Rocky Mountain Collegian Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest