FORT COLLINS — Katelin Batten saw the potential in her pupil and wanted her to fill her former role at Colorado State.
What she envisioned in Jaime Colaizzi is playing out, but on Tuesday night, it worked counter to what the desired goal was for Batten, now an assistant coach at the University of Denver.
Colaizzi produced a season-best 22 digs in the match, a three-game sweep for the No. 14 Rams against the Pioneers at Moby Arena, 26-24, 25-17, 25-11 as the Rams moved to 6-1 on the season. Colaizzi’s performance came a match after having 19 digs against No. 4 Wisconsin, sitting just three behind her career-best of 25 against Utah State in 2013.
“I always want to see her play well,” Batten said of Colaizzi, who she coached at the club level at NORCO. “I knew from the very first year I coached her she was going to be really special. She’s super-athletic, she makes great reads, she has awesome ball control. I always wanted her to come here and do better than I ever did. She’s doing that. She’s awesome. I love seeing her succeed.”
To top Batten will be a chore, as she still holds the CSU career records for digs (1,783) from 2006-09 and digs per set (4.01). She built those totals with three of the top five seasons in total digs.
After one year in the libero position, Colaizzi’s 445 last year sit fourth.
“I kind of feel like I’m in her footsteps a little bit. She has such big shoes to fill,” said Colaizzi, who had 11 of her digs in the third set as the Rams really started to roll after a sluggish opening set. “Obviously there’s been liberos in between us, but she’s definitely the reason I’m here. I don’t think I could have made it this far without her. I owe a lot of that to her.
“It feels good to be successful in this role, because I know she’s proud of me. It’s awesome. She always teased me about, ‘oh, you’re going to break all my records and stuff like that. It feels really good to be successful in this role and get to play them every year, so I always get to see her.”
The two teams, both of whom were 5-1 entering the match, played a tight first set with the Pioneers fighting off two set points for the Rams before the hosts finally broke through.
It was a different story after that. The Rams had 20 kills in the first set, but they came along with nine hitting errors. CSU added 32 more kills on just seven more errors the rest of the night, staying in complete control the final set of the evening.
Freshman Jasmine Hanna led her team in kills for the second straight match, backing up her 13 against the Badgers with 15 more, hitting .393 in the process. She was a player Hilbert said he considered redshirting early in fall camp, but now she’s becoming one of the more potent hitters on the squad.
She’s growing into her role on the outside, with seven of her kills coming in the first set.
“I think so, and Tom always tells me he thinks I’m maturing as a player, and I feel it too,” she said. “I feel like I’m becoming a smarter player as each match goes on, and even working through the sets. Sometimes set one is a little rough for me and I kind of work through it. Eventually, I think I’m getting better and better.”
Dri Culbert gave the Rams two in double figures, closing with 10. Setter Deedra Foss had 43 assists on the night, giving Hilbert the distribution he wanted in the game play. Kelsey Snider and Marlee Reynolds both had nine kills as the Rams hit .319 on the evening.
For Culbert, an honorable mention All-American a season ago, it was her first match with double-digit kills, representing the work she and Foss have been focusing on in practice.
“We’ve been working on that, getting our consistency back, getting comfortable with each other again on the right side,” she said. “It’s working really well. She’s doing a great job of setting me. She makes it easy for me.”
For Hilbert, the win represented a quality victory because he feels DU is going to be really strong this year and contend for the Summit League title. It also gives the Rams a strong springboard into three successive weekends on the road littered with quality opponent’s starting with No. 9 BYU on Friday.
A good defense will help, and that’s what the Rams have had this year led by their libero. While it was special for her to play in front of her mentor, it wasn’t what she took most away from her strong performance.
“Not particularly because we were playing DU, but it’s good to kind of keep consistency with my defense,” Colaizzi said. “That’s something that I think in the past — I mean I’ve never been terrible at defense — but it’s been something that I really wanted to work on, kind of extending my range. It’s huge for me, and I can say that I am proud of my defensive game of late.”
So is her former coach, who obviously taught her pretty well.
“Did she listen? Is that what she told you?” Batten said with a smile. “I think she did. You’ll have to ask her.”
Contact Sports Editor Mike Brohard at 970-635-3633 or mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohard
