FRESNO, Calif. — Colorado State struggled at times Thursday night, but Adrianna Culbert never did.
The junior opposite hitter paced the No. 10 Rams to a sweep over Fresno State, 25-21, 25-16, 25-20 in Mountain West play. CSU continues to lead the conference after moving to 24-2 on the season, 12-1 in MW play. The last-place Bulldogs slid to 6-21, 1-12.
It wasn’t the Rams’ best performance of the year, but coach Tom Hilbert was happy with the way his team found a way to work around some of the issues they had.
“I didn’t think we played particularly well from a blocking and a defensive standpoint, even though we had a lot of blocks,” he said. “I don’t think we created a lot of offense from defense, and our outside hitters were sporadic. I just don’t think we were very good. It’s OK that we didn’t play our best and still won.”
Culbert finished the night with a team-best 12 kills on just 17 swings without an error. She also had an ace and seven digs. Overall, CSU hit .319 on the night while limiting FSU to just .082.
“She was very good, and we were purposely trying to spread the ball around, get some slides to get better at them,” Hilbert said. “I thought we were good early in the game, but then we went back to our bad ways.”
It wasn’t until the end of the night the Rams were potent from the other pin, with Jasmine Hanna closing with 10 kills, while Marlee Reynolds finished with nine. The Rams’ two outside hitters had just eight kills through the first two sets, combining for 11 in the final set; Reynolds had seven of hers the final two sets.
Fresno State kept the sets tight at the beginning, and even through the end of the first and third. Colorado State put together strong runs at the end of each set to get out in three.
Colorado State posted 13 blocks on the night, getting seven from Alexandra Poletto off the bench. It was her first action in a while, as she has been out with an ankle injury. The freshman also contributed three kills. Kelsey Snider had eight kills and six blocks in the middle, while setter Deedra Foss finished with 38 assists.
“There’s way more there,” Hilbert said of the off performance. “We weren’t great off the first swing, but we won rallies. They aren’t a great blocking team themselves, so if we were diligent in every rally, we’d win it. I felt there were some things we could have been better at, and we really didn’t start digging the ball until the last set.”
Colorado State still holds a 2.5 game lead on UNLV, which beat New Mexico in five sets on the road.
