Revenge is a dish best served cold. 

Just a short night ago, Colorado State volleyball suffered a 3-1 loss on the road against one of the best teams in the nation. However, Friday was quite the opposite story with the Rams sweeping the No. 17 nationally ranked Colorado Buffaloes in dominant fashion 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-15).

Although the Buffs produce the second-most blocks per set in the entire country at 3.38 coming into the matchup, it was CSU ultimately ending with the block advantage thanks to the smothering defense of Kekua Richards and Eve Wilson. The two led the defense to limit CU’s Ana Burilovic to just 14 kills in comparison to her 22 the night prior.

“I think that our scout executed it a lot better tonight,” head coach Emily Kohan said. “We didn’t change a lot. We anticipated some of their changes. We modified a few things, but I thought we did a much better job containing her. And you watch those middle blockers going bonkers when they got a big block.”

The star-studded Burilovic ranked 25th nationally in kills per set with 4.17 heading into Friday, and while it was the stifling front row of Richards and company, the relentlessness of CSU’s back row anchored by libero Karsyn Fetzer allowed the Rams to play a game of unison from start to finish.

“It’s incredible,” Fetzer said. “They’re amazing. I mean, I’m so grateful to be their teammate. They pushed me to be the best. I think they just have worked so hard and they just showed up. They showed out tonight and I’m so proud of them.”

Despite the firepower of Burilovic, Lily Dwinell, Sydney Jordan and Cayla Payne, it was big plays from CSU’s star players that proved to be too much — limiting the Buffaloes offense to a staggering .083 hitting percentage to CSU’s .256.

After just hitting a subpar .107 the previous night, it was the resiliency of Wilson along with Sofia Zabjek, Halle Jameson and Richards that aided in pushing the Rams over the top against one of the premier defenses in the NCAA. 

“I’ll give kudos to CU,” Richards said. “They’re a really good blocking team and they had really good schemes against us in certain situations. So again, we took what we had yesterday, and just said if we’re going to have a double block in front of us, like we got to try and use that regardless.”

Despite a Colorado defense anchored by the middle blocker Payne — who ranked 11th in the country in blocks per set with 1.55 — it was the offensive scheme of Kohan allowing the Rams to develop an offense that would eventually crack the game wide open.

“Man, we got to give a lot of credit to Erin Debiec for making five hitters get going,” Kohan said. “And I’m looking at this box score, it really was a well-balanced offense that was firing on all cylinders. So yeah, it’s a tough machine to stop when it’s doing that, and I’m really proud of the team because they celebrate when it’s someone else’s turn, and when it’s their turn, they’re ready.”

A win here in Moby Arena for the Buffs Friday would have set a record for their best start in program history. However, the Rams had other plans, handing CU their first loss of the season — in parallel to just the year prior.

With their home win in front of a sold-out crowd, the Rams improved to a 7-3 overall record. CSU will now shift its focus toward its inaugural Pac-12 conference schedule starting Thursday, Sept. 24, at home against the San Diego State Aztecs where they look to live up to their No. 1 preseason ranking. 

In the 51st matchup between the two programs, it was the surge of the Rams’ middle blockers that proved to be the deciding factor in what ended up as the Rams’ 31st win over the Buffs — allowing CSU to improve to a 31-20 all-time record against one of their biggest rivals.

“Man, sports will break your heart sometimes, but they also set your soul on fire, right?” Kohan said. “And these are the kind of epic matches that a player will talk about and remember forever. Right, the crowd was unbelievable. It’s a whiteout; it’s a rival; it’s a revenge tour; it’s a ranked team; it’s the last nonconference game. So many reasons to celebrate a really epic performance that our team turned around and just dominated.”