Colorado State ends long road trip with win

BOISE, Idaho -- Seventh-ranked Colorado State capped its eight-match road trip with a 3-0 win Saturday afternoon at Boise State (25-19, 25-15, 25-22). The victory improved the Rams’ season mark to 14-1 and 2-0 in Mountain West play, while snapping Boise State’s six-match winning streak (8-6, 1-1 MW).

“I’m always happy when we get through road stretches with two wins,” head coach Tom Hilbert said. “It’s much harder than people think. I thought Boise State was on its A game and has a great future.”

CSU has never lost a set to Boise State, holding a 9-0 match and 27-0 set record all-time. The Rams cruised through the first two sets, using an 8-0 run in Set 1 and 6-1 run in Set 2 to take a 2-0 lead entering intermission.

Boise State hung tougher in the third set, however, even holding a two-point lead as late as 15-13. The Rams, though, fought back to take an 18-16 advantage, and regained the lead for good at 20-19.

“That last set, they made very few mistakes and they stayed right with us,” Hilbert said of Boise State. “We won it in the end because of our experience. It was a great, great match, and a great and clean effort by our entire team.”

CSU’s final four points came from Marlee Reynolds kills, who finished with a team-most 13 kills, doing so on .310 efficiency.

“Marlee came up big at the end of that set,” Hilbert said. “She was very aggressive, and when we were in a tight set she stepped it up. She had some important kills and was blocking very well.”

As a team, the Rams hit .340, with all attackers hitting above .300. Freshman outside hitter Jasmine Hannahad 10 kills on .364 hitting, followed by senior middle blocker Kelsey Snider (8, .333), sophomore middle blocker Acacia Andrews (6, .417) and junior right-side attacker Adrianna Culbert (3, .375).

Culbert and junior defensive specialist Jaime Colaizzi had 11 digs apiece, while the Rams out-blocked the Broncos, 12.5 to 5.0. A match after setting a personal best with nine blocks, Andrews had a team-most six. Four other players had four or more stuffs, including senior setter Deedra Foss who had 37 assists and four blocks. Led by three from Snider and a pair from junior defensive specialist Kaitlind Bestgen, CSU had six service aces.

“Deedra doesn’t get enough credit,” Hilbert said. “She moves the ball around well, she looks for the right matchups and she does a very nice job.”

The Rams have now won 23 consecutive true road matches dating back to Oct. 27, 2012. Included in that stretch is three wins against Boise State.

Since its lone loss of the season -- Sept. 6 to No. 4 Wisconsin -- the Rams have won nine matches in a row. They will next return to Fort Collins for their first home match since Sept. 9. CSU has played its past eight matches away from home, its longest stretch since 2003. That year, the Rams also played eight in a row away from Moby Arena, and ironically, both times the road trip began on Sept. 12 and concluded on Sept. 27.