Rocky Mountain grad Bestgen a service weapon for CSU

A walk-on isn't supposed to disrupt practice.

But Kaitlind Bestgen, who walked on to the CSU volleyball team in 2011, does.

When serving, she often causes problems for coach Tom Hilbert's plans. She's just too good at times.

"When she gets going in practice sometimes, it's frustrating because we can't get anything done," Hilbert said.

The Rocky Mountain High School graduate has gone from little-used player into the best server in the Mountain West. The redshirt junior leads the MW with 33 aces. Her ace-per-set average has gone from 0.35 in nonconference play to 0.41 in MW action as the No. 9 Rams are closing in on a sixth conference title in a row.

"I was never the best server in high school. When I came here, I saw it as a way to get on the court and be able to contribute," Bestgen said. "It's really been a focus to me because I know being a really good server and getting the most aces is something I can do."

It's proven quite a change for a player who thought her time playing volleyball was done as her high school career was coming to an end.

Hilbert saw her play while scouting a teammate and talked to Glenn Gainley, Rocky Mountain's coach at the time. Gainley praised Bestgen's work ethic and competitiveness.

So Hilbert invited her to walk-on. She already planned on going to Colorado State University. After thinking it over, she accepted.

She was an outside hitter for most of her high school career, earning first-team all-conference and honorable mention all-state honors as a senior.

But she had to transition to a defensive specialist at CSU, using her redshirt season in 2011 to learn her new role. It's a big position change any time, but she had to do it at the escalated pace of major college play.

"The game at the college level is a lot faster, a lot more velocity, a lot harder serving. You hope that they survive it," Hilbert said. "You have to sit the passing lanes and take a thousand serves coming at you at 40 miles per hour before you relax yourself enough to play it."

Bestgen has certainly survived. She's gone from 28 sets played in 2012, to 80 last season and is already at 93 this season with three regular season matches remaining and has become a part of the best defensive unit in the conference.

Hilbert said her serves reach opponents in about 0.9 seconds. While it can disrupt practice plans at times, it provides valuable repetitions to CSU's defensive players to face the conference's best server every day in practice.

Bestgen hopes she gets to play at home in the NCAA tournament. That's a distinct possibility since the Rams have an RPI of 12 and generally the top 16 RPI teams host first and second round tournament matches.

"It's really nice because I can have all my family and friends here," Bestgen said. "I can be a role model for the younger players in town like the players here before were for me."

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and at facebook.com/KevinSLytle.

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Kaitlind Bestgen file

• Year: Redshirt junior

• Position: Defensive specialist

• Notable: Leads Mountain West with 33 service aces…Was second on the team in 2013 with 22 aces…Fifth on the team with 154 digs after recording 131 last season…Named first-team all-conference and honorable mention all-state as a senior at Rocky Mountain High School as the Lobos won a conference championship…Played club volleyball at NORCO.