FORT COLLINS — Florida A&M University entered Friday searching for its first win of the season. The Rams made sure the Rattlers didn’t find it against them as CSU defeated FAMU 25-13, 25-16, 25-11 on Friday at Moby Arena for their fifth straight sweep of the season in front of 2,386 fans.
The Rams have won every set they’ve played in this season and their 15 straight set wins to open the season is the most since 1986 when the Rams won their first 21 sets of the season.
On this night it was the freshman who shined for CSU. For the first time this season, middle blocker Alexandra Poletto received the start and just the second time her classmate, outside hitter Sanja Cizmic started.
“We took the opportunity because I truly believe that these two freshman sitting over here (Cizmic and Poletto) are good players and they haven’t been starting matches, we’ve been calling them in off the bench and I wanted to give them some committed time in a game so they get more comfortable because they’re good,” said head coach Tom Hilbert.
They looked plenty comfortable on Friday night, as both players had double digit kills—Poletto with 12 and Cizmic with 11—which was also the first time the Rams had two players in double digits in a match this season. Poletto finished with a hitting percentage of .857, the second best hitting percentage in a match in Rams history.
“That’s pretty good, actually, and half of them were tips,” Hilbert said, laughing. “The fact is what she didn’t do was come in a freak out and hit balls at the net or out of bounds.”
The final point in the first set was notched by Poletto, who played perfect through two sets with eight kills on eight attacks.
Hilbert, who is in his 18th season as head coach of the Rams, said he knew this would be a talented freshman class mostly because he’s been around to see many different classes. He attributes their readiness to play the game rather than being developmental-type players to their quick success.
“It was a good experience. It was challenging coming off the bench in the past matches halfway through the second set and you put a lot of pressure on yourself to try and play really well in that situation, so being able to start right off the bench and play automatically is a lot easier,” Poletto said. “I feel good right now.”
Poletto and senior outside hitter Marlee Reynolds looked in sync throughout much of the night, showing their ability to block well together on several points. Poletto said it helps that she and Reynolds are in the same rotation during practice while Reynolds gives her pointers and shows her where she should stand. The Rams finished with nine blocks, four of which came in the final set.
The team finished with a season high hitting percentage of .469 while also holding FAMU to .051, the lowest hitting percentage of an opponent for the Rams in this young season.
Senior middle blocker Kelsey Snider, who won the Rams Volleyball Classic MVP award as the Rams swept Virginia Commonwealth, UC-Santa Barbara and Marquette to win the tournament title, finished with nine kills. Heading into Friday’s match, Snider led the team with 38 kills while hitting .444. On Friday she had the second leading hitting percentage at .583.
Snider was impressed with what she saw from the freshman on Friday.
“They’re amazing,” Snider said. “As a senior, that’s awesome to know that we have depth and for the years to come. They’re going to be even better. They did really well and I’m really proud of them.”
Freshman middle blocker Jaliyah Bolden also saw action in two sets and finished with one kill.
“We played a few different scenarios and so now we got to rest some people so we need to come out tomorrow night and be very energized,” Hilbert said.
The win sets up a match between two undefeated teams in No. 13 CSU and No. 4 Wisconsin at 7 p.m. Saturday at Moby Arena. On Friday night, the Badgers earned their third victory of the season as they defeated the University of Northern Colorado in four sets.