No. 7 CSU first to reach 18 wins

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Seventh-ranked Colorado State became the first volleyball team in the country to 18 victories, defeating Fresno State in straight sets Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena (25-15, 25-7, 25-17). The victory is CSU’s 13th in a row -- tied for the sixth-longest winning streak in school history -- and improves the Rams’ record to 18-1, 6-0 MW.

CSU never trailed in the match, jumping out to leads of at least 3-0 in each set. The Rams held the Bulldogs (6-14, 1-5 MW) to negative hitting in the first two sets, and to .000 efficiency for the match. It was the lowest percentage by a CSU opponent since Wyoming hit -.028 on Oct. 5, 2012.

On the flip side, CSU -- which leads the Mountain West and ranks fourth nationally for hitting -- hit at a .429 clip, tallying 38 kills and just five errors. Ten came from junior opposite hitter Adrianna Culbert, who also added eight digs, three blocks and a service ace. Her 10 kills came on .625 efficiency.

“Dri played great and really asserted herself as an attacker,” head coach Tom Hilbert said. “Overall, we played a fantastic match against a team that’s young.”

Senior Kelsey Snider had seven kills (.538 hitting) and setter Deedra Foss had five (.833) -- in addition to 26 assists and five despite playing just part of Set 3. Freshman outside hitter Sanja Cizmic had five kills and a block in one set of action.

The story was the defense, however. In addition to out-digging Fresno State, 35 to 27, CSU also won the blocking game with 11.5 total stuffs compared to Fresno State’s one. Eight players had at least one block, with Snider leading the way with a season-most seven. CSU had 6.5 blocks in the first set alone.

“This Fresno State team is young,” Hilbert said. “They hit a lot of unforced errors, and a lot of that was because we blocked exceptionally well today. We didn’t just block, but we stuffed balls, and that intimidates people and causes them to do things they don’t want to do.”