CSU celebrates seniors, MW title with win over Wyoming

The seniors followed the script perfectly.

Pregame celebrations of a graduating class sometimes drain a team emotionally, causing slow starts and uneven play.

That surely didn't happen Wednesday night.

The CSU volleyball team's three seniors led the team to a 3-1 (25-19, 25-15, 21-25, 25-20) win over Wyoming in the regular-season finale.

Several factors allowed the Rams to start well in front of 4,273 fans.

Most of all, even though they had the pregame senior ceremonies, they know it's not the end of their careers.

"It's not our last match," senior middle blocker Kelsey Snider said. "It was a special night of celebrating but it wasn't like, 'Oh god, this is the last time I'll ever get to play.' "

The first set was emotionally charged with coach Tom Hilbert demonstrative all set, picking up a yellow card for arguing a call that tied it at 16.

His team responded, winning nine of the next 12 points to take a 1-0 lead.

The second set was more of the same as No. 9 Colorado State University attacked well and took a lead in the second half of the set to go into the intermission up 2-0.

After the break, Wyoming (23-8, 12-6 Mountain West) shuffled its defense and dug more CSU (29-2, 17-1 MW) shots, allowing the Rams only nine kills in the set.

The Rams shot just .021 for the set as Wyoming forced a fourth.

The final set was a wild, back-and-forth affair that was tied at 18, 19 and 20 before CSU finished off the 25-20 win.

"I consider this to be a really good win for us," Hilbert said. "We really did play very well, Wyoming did also. It was a competitive match between two good teams."

Just like you would want on senior night, the graduating class led the way.

Outside hitter Marlee Reynolds had a match-high 12 kills. Snider had 11 and five blocks, and setter Deedra Foss had 46 assists.

Some of the youngsters chipped in, too.

Freshmen Jasmine Hanna and Alexandra Poletto had 10 kills each, and Poletto added a career-high eight blocks.

Wyoming provided a stiff test, a welcome change to end the regular season after sweeping matches against MW weaklings San Jose State and Nevada last week.

"I think it was good to have a really good, competitive team to play," Foss said. "Last week was a little slow, so ending the season with a tougher team really helps us. We get that flow back of what it's like to play tough competition."

The night started with senior celebrations and ended with a confetti-filled trophy celebration as the Rams received their MW title hardware.

CSU clinched its sixth straight league title last week, earning a 20th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.

Now the Rams wait until the NCAA tournament selection show at 6:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPNU.

The top 16 teams in the RPI are most likely to host first- and second-round games, and CSU is 16th this week.

It will be a nervous few days of waiting. Well, maybe once Thanksgiving festivities are done.

"Eating a lot of food (Thursday)," Reynolds said when asked what they'll do waiting for the selection.

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

No. 9 CSU 3, Wyoming 1