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Colorado State Travels To SDSU and UNLV
Rams enter week 15-7, 7-1 MWC.
Oct. 29, 2002
Complete Release in PDF Format
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Colorado State will embark on the longest road trip of the conference season this weekend as it heads to UNLV and San Diego State. The Rams defeated both teams in the first meeting of the year and swept the road trip the past two years. Border War Win: Colorado State won its 10th straight meeting over Wyoming with a four-game victory on Friday. Freshman outside hitter Tess Rogers led the Rams with 14 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Becky Sarauer had 13, freshman opposite side hitter Andreya Downs added 12 and senior middle blocker Michelle Knox chipped in 10 kills. Sophomore libero Lindsey Kerr led all players with 14 digs while sophomore middle blocker Katie Jo Shirley had a match-high five blocks. Ending On A High Note: In game four at Wyoming on Friday evening, the Rams hit a season-high .636 (15-1-22) and Michelle Knox hit six balls all for kills for a perfect 1.000 hitting efficiency. All Tied Up: Andreya Downs tied the Mountain West Conference record for service aces by a freshman this weekend. Downs now has 38 aces on the year, tying Aspen McPartland of San Diego State from the 2000 season. Downs already holds the freshman aces record at CSU and is just 20 aces shy of tying the CSU all-time record of 58 held by Sherri Danielson from 1984. Spooky: In 10 less games than last season, Becky Sarauer had matched her freshman total of 169 kills and has 33 blocks (7-26) compared to her 32 (7-25) from last season. Doubled Up: Tess Rogers doubled her career-high in service aces with four at Wyoming on Friday. She had previously recorded two aces in a match on four different occasions. The freshman also tied her career-high with three blocks (six times). Streak Stays Alive: Michelle Knox and Tess Rogers kept their streak of double-figure kill matches intact at Wyoming on Friday. Both have hit double digits in kills in their last nine matches and Knox has recorded at least 10 kills in every conference match this season. Ms. Rogers Neighborhood: Tess Rogers is now just 36 kills shy of tying the MWC freshman record of 326 held by Delavane Diaz of Air Force from the 2000 season. Rogers has 290 on the year and is averaging 3.82 kills per game. She is also just 54 shy of tying the CSU freshman record of 344 held by Angie Miller from 1988. Balanced Attack: For the second time in three matches and the sixth time this season, the Rams had four players notch double figures in kills in a match. Twice this season (Kansas State, San Diego State) five players have tallied at least 10 kills in a match. Turning It Around: After starting the season 0-4 in four game matches, the Rams have won their last three, all coming in Mountain West Conference action. The Rams have defeated New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the last three weeks in four-game matches. Sole Possession: Thanks in part to Utah defeating San Diego State over the weekend, the Rams regain their spot at the top of the standings alone. SDSU is now 7-2 on the year while CSU is 7-1 and the two teams will meet on Saturday. A Lot of Options: Sophomore setter Melissa Courtney has a lot of different options this season on who to set and she has taken advantage of those opportunities as three Rams have 200 kills on the season and two more are over 150. Tess Rogers leads the team with 290 kills, while Michelle Knox has 257, Andreya Downs has 233, Katie Jo Shirley has 189 and Becky Sarauer stands at 169. Those starting five hitters are all averaging over two kills per game. Aces Are Wild: The Rams have 141 aces this season for a 1.78 per game average which ranks fifth all-time at Colorado State. Only two teams have averaged over two aces per game. The 1984 team holds the record at 2.12 while the 1993 team averaged 2.01. Last season's team is third at 1.93 while the 1987 squad had 1.87 aces per game. Four different Rams have tallied at least 20 aces this year with Tess Rogers and Michelle Knox both sitting right at 20. Andreya Downs leads the team with 38 aces while Melissa Courtney has 30. Solo Stops: Michelle Knox has 24 solo blocks this season which ties the single-season record at CSU during the Tom Hilbert era (since 1997). Esther Langley also had 24 solo blocks, doing so her senior season in 1998. Knox's career record of 42 solo blocks at CSU also ranks third during Hilbert's time at CSU. Angela Knopf holds the record with 82 solo blocks, while Courtney Cox tallied 53. Rounding out the top five are Langley with 41 (only two years under Hilbert) and Summer Jennings with 34. Split Time: Freshman middle blocker Melissa Dennett has begun practicing with the basketball team. The middle blocker will practice the first part of each week with the basketball team and will spend the latter portion of the week with the volleyball team until the volleyball season ends. Sophomore Standouts: Three different sophomores on the CSU team lead the Mountain West in a statistical category. Katie Jo Shirley tops the league in hitting percentage at .345, while Melissa Courtney leads the league in assists at 13.01 and Lindsey Kerr remains the top defensive player in the conference with 3.78 digs per game. Those same three lead the same categories in conference matches only. Shirley is hitting .376, Courtney is averaging 13.23 assists per game and Kerr is digging 3.65 balls per game. Closing In: Michelle Knox needs just 27 kills for her 500th at CSU and is 11 digs shy of her 300th career dig. Tess Rogers needs just 10 kills for the 300th of her career and she will become the first freshman since Angela Knopf in 1998 to notch at least 300 kills as a freshman. A Long Time: Colorado State has not lost a match in three games in Mountain West Conference play since the middle of the 2000 season -- a stretch of 32 matches -- and has been swept only once since the inception of the Mountain West Conference 50 matches ago. The lone sweep was at BYU during the 2000 season. Colorado State has been swept only the once in the last 64 conference matches -- dating back to the beginning of the 1998 season. Tough Competition: Colorado State has played 21 different opponents this season and 11 of those teams have tallied at least 15 wins this season with one team, San Diego, breaking the 20-win barrier already (20-5). CSU also played 14 teams during the non-conference schedule this year and nine of those squads are ranked in the top three in the standings of their conference and Louisville, Oral Roberts, Arkansas and Robert Morris are all first in the standings in their respective leagues, or divisions of their leagues. Queens of the Mountain: In league play, Colorado State ranks first in hitting percentage, assists and service aces and rank second in opponent hitting percentage and kills per game. Against all opponents, the Rams lead the league in assists, kills and aces and are second in hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage. On Pace: The Rams have at least eight matches remaining this season and are averaging 3.59 games per match which would mean the team would play in 29 more games this year. At that pace, Andreya Downs would end the season with 52 aces which would be the fourth best total in school history. Lindsey Kerr would tally 409 digs which would rank second behind Carrie Appleman's 437 digs from 1992. CSU is also averaging 3.03 blocks per game which would tie for fifth all-time and the 1.78 aces per game would rank fifth on the charts. Road Tests: Four of the Rams last six conference matches will be on the road as the Rams travel to UNLV and San Diego State this weekend and then the final weekend, Nov. 15-16 will be at Utah and BYU to end the conference regular season. Sandwiched in between the two trips will be a home weekend against New Mexico and Air Force on Nov. 8-9. Early Starts: The Rams are 12-0 this season when winning the first two games in a match. Colorado State has now won 89 of its last 90 matches when winning the first two games. In 2001, they were 25-1 while in 2000 CSU was a perfect 28-0 and in 1999, they went 24-0. The only loss after winning the first two games came in the championship match of the Mountain West Conference Tournament against Utah after winning 75 consecutive matches when winning games one and two. Streaky: Colorado State currently has a winning streak against every team in the conference except for BYU. The Rams have won the last 16 meetings against Air Force, the last 11 against New Mexico, eight straight against San Diego State, eight straight against UNLV, one against Utah and 10 against Wyoming.
Scouting The Competition: This will be the 16th meeting between the two teams with Colorado State holding a commanding 13-2 advantage in the series. The last win for UNLV came in Las Vegas during the 1999 season and the Rams have won the last eight match-ups. In the first meeting between the two teams earlier this season, the Rams won in three-games, 30-20, 30-25, 30-19. Michelle Knox led the Rams with 13 kills, while Tess Rogers chipped in 11. Lindsey Kerr tallied a match-high 18 digs and Katie Jo Shirley had six blocks. Patricia Assuncao led the Rebels with 10 kills, while Shannon Chase had a team-high eight digs and four players each had one block assist. Assuncao and Leiana Oswald are both averaging 2.99 kills per game to lead the team, while setter Nicki King is one of only three players to have played in every match (Assuncao, Chase) and is getting 10.61 assists per game. She also leads the team with 2.14 digs per game. Assuncao has 57 blocks to lead the team. In conference only matches, Assuncao leads the squad with 3.16 kills per game, while Blair Wilkes leads the team with a .301 hitting percentage. King stands at 10.44 assists per game and Nina Franchini leads the team with 2.79 digs per contest, while both Christina Kirschner and Sarah Fachner have 23 blocks in league action. Deitre Collins is in her seventh season with the Rebels and sports an overall career record of 72-114. She is 2-13 against the Rams and both wins have come in Las Vegas. San Diego State: The Aztecs were tied with the Rams for first place in the league standings until they dropped a match to Utah over the weekend. San Diego State turned around and defeated BYU in Provo on Saturday to move to 16-10 overall and 7-2 in MWC action. This will be the 24th meeting between the two teams with the Aztecs holding the slight 12-11 advantage in the all-time series. Colorado State has won the last eight meetings, with the last San Diego State win coming in 1996. The first match was a five-game thriller between the two teams as the Rams hung on for the win in Moby Arena. Tess Rogers led all players with 23 kills, while Michelle Knox added 20, Becky Sarauer had 16, Andreya Downs added 11 and Katie Jo Shirley had 10 kills. Lindsey Kerr established a career-high with 26 digs, and Knox led the Rams with six blocks and Melissa Courtney tallied a career-high 69 assists. San Diego State was led by Nicole Akporiaye with 14 kills, while Rochelle Currier added 13, Aspen McPartland had 12 and Melissa Wright added 11 in the loss. McPartland also led all players with 28 digs and Akporiaye had a match-high eight blocks. Seven different Aztecs have tallied over 100 kills this season and four -- Akporiaye, McPartland, Zlatina Anguelova and Currier -- have notched over 200. Anguelova, who was injured in the third game against the Rams, is getting a team best 3.37 kills per game, while Akporiaye is hitting .329 and averaging 1.48 blocks per game to lead the team. Robyn Gregg leads the team and the conference with 0.51 aces per game and McPartland leads the team with 3.12 digs per contest. In conference only matches, Akporiaye is leading the team at .339, while Anguelova is right behind her at .324 and leads the team with 4.17 kills per game. Gregg leads the league in aces with 0.75 per game and Akporiaye leads the team and league with 1.82 blocks per game. McPartland leads the team in digs with 3.45 per contest.
Mark Warner is in his eighth season with the team and has a career
record of 133-116. Against the Rams, Warner is 6-8 and has lost the
last eight matches.
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