Colorado State clinches share of Mountain West title

As San Jose State's final serve missed, the CSU volleyball team knew it had just earned a historic win.

The 3-0 victory at Moby Arena clinched a share of the Mountain West title, sending the Rams into a raucous celebration.

Or not.

There was no more cheering than usual after the 26-24, 25-14, 25-14 win Wednesday night.

No. 9 Colorado State University celebrated like it had just won an early September match, not just clinched its sixth conference title in a row.

That's because there's more work to do. In the unlikely event the Rams (27-2, 15-1 MW) lost their final two matches and UNLV won out, they would share the title.

"I think that we're all really excited about it. We do want it to ourselves and we have two more matches to play," senior Marlee Reynolds said. "It's cool we won, but let's focus on the two matches we have left and then we can celebrate."

The Rams can clinch the title outright at 2 p.m. Saturday at Nevada, who is third from the bottom of the league.

The conference title also secures CSU's 20th consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament. CSU once won five MW titles in a row (2000 to 2004) but has never had six in a row.

It came in an odd match against the conference's worst team.

Middle blocker Kelsey Snider was out with concussion-like symptoms. Coach Tom Hilbert moved redshirt freshman Jaliyah Bolden into the starting lineup and Acacia Andrews saw time as an outside hitter when she normally plays middle blocker.

In the first set the Rams were out of sorts and San Jose State (4-25, 1-15 MW) led for much of the set, taking a 24-22 lead.

CSU regained composure to win 26-24. Then in the final two sets the Rams dominated like most had expected.

SJSU hit negative-.128 in the second set and just .071 in the third. The Rams bounced back from .190 hitting in the first set to finish at .300 for the match.

After four errors to start the match, junior Adrianna Culbert led the Rams with 10 kills.

Reynolds had nine and Bolden and fellow middle blocker Alexandra Poletto had eight each.

"The biggest thing in my mind was to not mess up," Bolden said with a laugh after her career high in kills. "I didn't want to come in and it be awkward. I didn't want anyone to miss a step."

After playing at Nevada Saturday, the Rams host Wyoming at 7 p.m. Nov. 26 where they will likely get to celebrate an outright title with their fans.

The selection show for the NCAA tournament is at 6 p.m. Nov. 30.

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

NO. 9 CSU 3, SJSU 0

• Next up: No. 9 CSU at Nevada, 2 p.m. Saturday

• Twitter updates: @Kevin_Lytle