FORT COLLINS — Tom Hilbert wanted more of a challenge for his team this season, and the schedule released Thursday by Colorado State delivers on that wish.
The Rams, who won their fifth consecutive Mountain West title last year, going 28-2 on the season, will play host to national runner-up Wisconsin at Moby Arena on Sept. 6, the highlight of the 2014-15 slate. In addition, CSU will face four conference champions and six teams that participated in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, three finishing in the final top 25 rankings.
“It’s a very good schedule,” Hilbert said. “We need to pull off some wins. I’m not saying we have to be undefeated, but we have to pull off some wins against teams we’re not supposed to beat.”
The conference coaches voted to cut down to 18 games, meaning the removal of two home-and-away matches. CSU will face Nevada (road) and San Jose State (home) just once next season.
CSU opens the season with the Ram Volleyball Classic Aug. 30-31, facing Virginia Commonwealth, UC Santa Barbara and Marquette. The next weekend the Rams will hold a joint tournament with Northern Colorado, playing the Bears in Greeley on Sept. 3. On Sept. 5-6, the Rams return home to face Florida A&M and Wisconsin, a squad that still boasts two All-Americans.
CSU has a history of bringing top competition on Moby, having previously hosted Nebraska, UCLA and the Badgers, something Hilbert takes pride in providing.
“We’re doing that part right,” he said. “We have such a good home-court environment. We have a reputation nationally for how good it is, so a team like Wisconsin is not scared to come in here. They want it. They know we’ll be a good, quality team to play and they know the environment is going to be good, championship-type environment.”
Also on the non-conference home slate is Denver (Sept. 9). Road non-conference matches include BYU, New Mexico State, UTEP, Arizona State, Pepperdine and North Carolina Central, all in a stretch of eight days at two different tournaments.
The Rams start conference play on Sept. 25, doing so on the road at Utah State. Border War matches with Wyoming will be played Oct. 7 in Laramie and Nov. 26 at Moby Arena to close the season.
The 31 regular-season matches are the most for the program since 2003, when they scheduled 32, finishing the season 30-5.
By Mike Brohard