FORT COLLINS — In his pregame chat with his team Saturday, Tom Hilbert talked about the Colorado State football team the night before. In openers, he told his volleyball team, not everything goes well right from the start. So instead of stressing, he impressed upon them the virtue of patience, let things come together in fall into place.
Just like the football team did in beating Colorado 31-17 the night before, Hilbert’s No. 18 volleyball team did the same, relying on strong back-row play, impressive serving and the hitting of Marlee Reynolds in posting a 25-18, 25-16, 25-12 sweep of Virginia Commonwealth at Moby Arena to open the Rams Classic.
“I thought that we were patient. One of our main keys was to win the passing and serving battle here, and we for sure did,” Hilbert said. “A great deal of it was this lady (Kaitlind Bestgen) right here. If we can get that kind of production out of her — and half of that — in matches that we play throughout the year, that’s really good.”
The Rams led 16-14 in a tight first set when Bestgen hit the service line for a second time. When her run was done, the Rams held a 22-15 advantage as the junior laced three aces and tried for another that led to an error. Bestgen finished the match with four aces and three errors, a risk-reward margin both she and Hilbert will take with as affective as she was in the match.
“I definitely changed my serve around a lot, starting a jump-float, increasing the velocity of it,” said Bestgen, who had 22 aces a season ago. “I do feel like if I’m producing aces, my risk window is going to be better. I will miss a few more balls, but I’m going to get more aces, and I feel that will be OK.”
It also didn’t hurt that Reynolds was hot from the pin all match. She had 10 kills before she had an error, finishing with 13 on the day, establishing herself in the role Hilbert said she needs to fill, that of the terminal go-to hitter the Rams will need.
Hilbert flatly said that’s her job. It’s not a role Reynolds has always been eager to accept, but now she is in her senior season.
“I definitely am. Just my first two swings, I was like, ‘all right,'” Reynolds said. “I felt like I started in a rhythm and felt really good. (Setter Deedra Foss) was feeding me balls, our defense was playing well and our serve-receive as well. That also helps with me being able to be terminal.”
Reynolds said the play of the back row helped the hitters establish a flow, and Foss used it to post 26 assists in the match, adding four kills in the process. Hilbert was also impressed with the way his team blocked, recording nine in the match as middle Kelsey Snider led the team with four (one solo) and Acacia Andrews added three assists.
Foss had missed some practice time with an ailing back and after taking a ball to the eye, and opposite hitter Dri Culbert was out a while with a knee sprain. Both of them looked good, with Culbert finishing with six kills, a figure matched by Snider as the team had 41 and hit .304.
With Colorado State in control of the final two sets, Hilbert was able to rotate young players into the lineup to get a look, with true freshmen Sanja Cizmic, Jasmine Hanna and Alexandra Poletto hitting the floor, as well as redshirt freshman Jaliyah Bolden.
Cizmic started the match at outside hitter, finishing with one kill and two errors. That led to Hanna’s entrance, and she showed a strong arm swing in putting down her first two swings of the night for kills. She had five total and hit .333 in the match.
“Even coming out, coming off the bench, coming in, it was like, this was super-nervous,” Hanna said. “I know for me and I know most players when they’re super-nervous and tentative and stuff, that’s when they tend to make mistakes. I was like, ‘let’s just ease into it,’ and it makes it a lot easier having great teammates around.”
Hilbert was impressed with the composure she carried on the floor, and he saw strong signs out of all of his youngsters. It’s a process that will continue to carry on the first three weekends of the season as he starts to determine a more set rotation for the remainder of the season.
“We want to answer some questions about what people do in match situations,” Hilbert said. “We’ve got tougher ones coming up. I don’t think I’m done making decisions about who is doing what on this team. We want to see people over time, as well.”
The Rams were to take the floor one more time on Saturday, hosting UC-Santa Barbera (7:30 p.m.) before playing Marquette on Sunday (1 p.m.) to close out the opening weekend.
Contact Sports Editor Mike Brohard at 970-635-3633 or mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and at twitter.com/mbrohard
