FORT COLLINS — The tighter a set gets, the more at ease Tom Hilbert becomes. Even more confident.
His No. 6 Colorado State volleyball team (20-1 overall, 8-0 in Mountain West play) has afforded him this sense of calm, using a blend of talent and an ability to be at ease in moments when other teams fold. He hasn’t gone back and counted the times the Rams have pulled out wins in those situations, but he knows it is a lot as they prepare to host Boise State and Utah State this week at Moby Arena.
He’s correct, too.
Colorado State has played 68 sets this season, and 30 of them have been decided by five points or less. In those instances, the Rams have won 24 of those sets (three of the losses came to No. 5 Wisconsin), an 80-percent winning percentage. That’s the best Hilbert can ever remember his team playing in those tight matches.
There’s not a single simple reason for it, but many in the veteran coach’s eyes, most notably, their play in the back row. He said it’s not just the hard digs, but the balls they deflect at the net and the loose balls they control well. In a tight match at New Mexico, the Rams passed at a rate of 2.7 on a scale of 3, simply phenomenal to him.
“I think end-game is when our defense really shows,” junior libero Jaime Colaizzi said. “I think we’re always good, but getting those cover balls and picking up the swings is what allows us to get more swinging attempts. That’s what we stress in practice. Be good at end-game, don’t miss serves, make your digs, don’t make hitting errors. I think that’s made a big difference.”
Once a team proves it can handle the moment once, they gain a confidence, and Hilbert sees it in his team. Mentally, the Rams have proven they not only won’t flinch but find a way to raise their level of play.
“I think we just have a mentality that we’re going to be tough. Even if we’re behind, like set two at New Mexico and set two at Wyoming, those two stick out,” senior outside hitter Marlee Reynolds said. “We may be down, but we’re just fighters and fight back and battle with them.
“Usually teams get really nervous, but I know we can do it. It’s cool to prove to ourselves — we’ve done this several times, we can come back and we can win this. I think it gives us a chip on our shoulder and some confidence.”
Reynolds said winning is fun, no matter how it happens, but Colaizzi admitted there something to snatching a win the opponent thinks they have and making it their own.
It’s not just seizing momentum, but a bit of will, too.
“Especially what sticks out is that Wyoming set two,” she said. “That was one set they thought they had won. Going into that third set after that, we were so ready to dominate because we had just taken the wind out of their sails.”
This isn’t the most physically dominating team Hilbert has coached, but he said they aren’t bad at that type of game either. But other coaches around the league are curious about the knack the Rams have when sets get tight, and New Mexico’s Jeff Nelson asked Hilbert why it was. For Hilbert, it was the blend of all their attributes leading to a squad that just knows how to close.
“I said the fact that Deedra Foss, Jaime Colaizzi and Dri Cuilbert are on the floor all the time and they’re good players,” Hilbert told Nelson. “They are experienced, great volleyball players.”
That, and maybe a bit of swagger that’s developed along the way.
“For me personally, my mentality when a match gets close is let’s show them who we are, let’s show them what the sixth-ranked team in the nation looks like,” Colaizzi said. “That kind of fuels our fire a little bit, and I have full confidence this far in the season when a match gets tight we’re going to win.”
Boise State (12-8, 5-3) comes to town on Thursday (7 p.m.) on social media night, followed by the Aggies (9-9, 5-3) at noon on Saturday for a Pink Out for cancer awareness month.
Contact Sports Editor Mike Brohard at 970-635-3633 or mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard
