FRESNO, Calif. — Elite teams have a way of making it look easy sometimes.
That’s how coach Tom Hilbert viewed his No. 10 Colorado State volleyball team’s sweep at Fresno State on Saturday.
“Fresno is a good team, they’ve got some talented kids,” Hilbert said after his team’s 25-13, 25-16, 25-21 victory. “We were able to really win this match much easier than I thought we were going to.”
The victory improved the Rams to 27-0 this year and 18-0 in the Mountain West, extending the program and MW win-streak records. The 15th sweep of 2013 also capped the Rams’ road record at 12-0. They’ve now won a program-record 17 straight road matches and 19 consecutive away from Moby Arena dating back to last year.
Saturday’s matinee at the Save Mart Center was a complete effort by Hilbert’s team, which handed the second-place Bulldogs (17-14, 11-8) just their second 3-0 loss at home all season.
Marlee Reynolds and Kelsey Snider combined for 25 kills, with Snider hitting .611 and Reynolds .344. Colorado State hit .384 as a team, as Deedra Foss totaled 34 assists.
“Marlee was taking very smart swings. I was just really pleased with how she was playing, playing with great composure,” said Hilbert, his team just one of two remaining undefeated teams in the country along with No. 4 Missouri. “Then Snider is just super athletic. This is a team that she matches up well with. So you’ve got to use her the right way, and Deedra Foss made good decisions and when to set her today, and it ended up being a great match for her.”
Defensively CSU had nine blocks and held FSU to hit just .160. Korrin Wild, who entered the match ranked second in the conference with 3.73 kills per set, was held to just six kills and a -.061 hitting percentage.
“One of her three rotations we neutralized her because of what we were doing in a combination of serving and blocking,” Hilbert said. “The rest of it, we blocked her a few times early, and she has and tendency to start spraying balls around when she does that. She just didn’t get into a rhythm.”
The Rams, already crowned the MW champions for a fifth straight season, now wrap up the regular season at home Wednesday against San Diego State and Friday against UNLV.
