Colorado State sweeps VCU, UCSB to open season

Six sets was all it took for the CSU volleyball team to pick up its first two wins of the season.

The Rams swept Virginia Commonwealth Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena and then did the same to the University of California-Santa Barbara in the night match.

In the opener, outside hitter Marlee Reynolds had 13 kills and Rocky Mountain High School graduate Kaitlind Bestgen had four service aces.

Ranked No. 18 in the nation, Colorado State University beat VCU 25-18, 25-16, 25-12. Dri Culbert, who has battled injury leading up to the opener, had six kills and hit .385. Freshman Jasmine Hanna had five kills.

The night match against UCSB — a team that made the NCAA tournament last year and is receiving top-25 votes — proved more difficult.

The Rams (2-0) won a back-and-forth first set on the strength of their middle blockers. Kelsey Snider had six kills and Acacia Andrews had four.

"Set one was a nice, competitive set," coach Tom Hilbert said. "They were much better than I thought they were going to be in terms of running that fast (offense)."

In the second set, Hanna had three kills and Reynolds had two. CSU hit .345 in the set and held UCSB to .122 to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.

CSU dominated the third set to finish off a 25-23, 25-18, 25-16 win in front of 2,700 fans.

Snider was a dominant force against UCSB. The senior had 13 kills, no errors and hit .722.

"They couldn't stop her in any of the zones she was hitting in," Hilbert said. "When we play teams like that, where she has an athletic matchup, we need to take advantage of it."

CSU's defense forced UCSB to hit .126 for the match, and the Rams had 13 blocks.

"I think we're doing really well," Snider said of the team's blocking. "(Assistant coach Luke Murray) is making really good calls, which is helping us middles. That's a focus of ours right now."

The Rams play the toughest match of the tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday when they face Marquette (2-0), another NCAA tournament team receiving votes in Marquette (2-0).

"I think Marquette's good. I think that match (Sunday) will be really, really difficult," Hilbert said. "They play sound in every area, and they're more athletic in every area than both teams we played."

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