LOGAN, Utah — No matter the situation, this year’s Colorado State volleyball team always seems to find a way.
On the verge of making program history, CSU was pushed to the brink Saturday night at Utah State, as the host Aggies won the first two sets.
The undefeated and ninth-ranked Rams had yet to face a 2-0 deficit all season. Yet somehow they managed to crawl back in it and pull out another win, 20-25, 21-25, 25-18, 27-25, 15-8.
The Mountain West victory improves CSU to 21-0, breaking a tie with the 2001 team for most wins to start a season in program history.
“They’re just figuring out a way, I don’t know,” CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. “That’s a record that these players deserve all the credit for, because they’re just good competitors. They’ve got a lot of grit and determination. You can say what you want about our schedule or whatever, it doesn’t really matter; we haven’t lost in 21 matches and we’ve been in some pretty precarious positions, and that’s pretty neat.”
Four Rams tallied double-digit kills, led by Marlee Reynolds with 16, followed by Kelsey Snider (14), Dri Culbert (12) and Michelle Lawrence (10), who Hilbert praised for coming off the bench and helping spark the comeback.
Culbert hit .522 on 23 attempts, while Lawrence converted at a .333 rate on her 27 swings. Sam Peters had 11 block assists, Jamie Colaizzi 25 digs and Deedra Foss 53 assists.
The turning point came late in the forth set when the Aggies were serving with a chance to win the match. But a kill by Culbert set up by Foss was the start of a 3-0 run by the Rams to extend the match. CSU controlled most of the decisive fifth set, never trailing after taking a 3-2 lead.
“We had not been down 2-0 so far this year, and I just told them in the locker room we’ve got to be resilient and go out and play and we can’t control what Utah State does,” Hilbert said “And we went out and won that set, and that changed everybody’s mentality.”
