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Colorado State Hosts Air Force and New Mexico
Rams look to finish regular-season undefeated in MWC action.
Nov. 14, 2003
Complete Release in PDF Format
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The Colorado State volleyball team plays it final home regular season matches on Friday and Saturday against Air Force and New Mexico, respectively. The Rams are 12-0 in Mountain West Conference action and have already clinched no less than a share of their fourth consecutive regular-season title. A win over either team this weekend gives the Rams the outright title. The Rams will be the top seed in the Mountain West Conference Tournament Nov. 20-22 at San Diego State. Winning 15 Straight: Colorado State won a non-conference match against the Denver Pioneers, 30-21, 30-24, 30-28 in Hamilton Gym to move to 22-4 on the year. Junior middle blocker Katie Jo Shirley again led the Rams, this time with 14 kills and a .650 hitting percentage (14-1-20). Sophomore right side hitter Dre Downs and sophomore outside hitter Tess Rogers each chipped in 11 kills, while junior middle blocker Bri Frech led all players with eight digs and hit .533 on the night. Shirley also led the team with five blocks. The Rams hit .330 for the match, with six aces and seven blocks, along with 35 digs. Streaky: The Rams have won 15 straight matches, dating back to a loss at Minnesota on Sept. 19. The streak is the fourth longest in school history and marks the 10th time the Rams have won at least 10 straight. The 15 straight is the longest since the 2001 team set the record with 20 straight. Honored Again: Junior middle blocker Katie Jo Shirley was named co-Mountain West Conference player of the week after her performance against Wyoming. She hit .548 with 19 kills and was just two blocks shy of her first career triple-double. Kelsie Kartchner from Utah joined Shirley in the award. Kartchner and the Utes defeated BYU, solidifying the Utes for second. Made To Be Broken: With the 12-0 start in Mountain West Conference play, the Rams break the record for the best start in league action. Colorado State breaks the old record of 10 straight wins to start conference play, held by the 2001 Colorado State team that won the regular season title with a 13-1 mark. Playing For The Cameras: All seven matches of the Mountain West Conference Tournament will be televised, including a live broadcast of the championship match on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain. MWC-TV will broadcast the four quarterfinal matches back to local stations. The Colorado State match will be shown on Channel 68 in the Fort Collins area. The semifinals will both be tape-delayed on CSTV (Nov. 22 at 11 and 1, respectively) and the final will also re-run on CSTV at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 24. Quick Start Important: The first game of a match is extremely important this season. The Rams are 19-0 when winning game one of a match and 3-4 when losing the first stanza. They are also 17-0 when winning the first two games of a match and 0-2 when dropping the first two games. Queens Of the Mountain: Colorado State leads the league in hitting percentage (.256), opponent hitting percentage (.154), assists per game (15.16) and kills (16.60). The Rams are also second in aces (1.85). Individually, Katie Jo Shirley leads in hitting percentage (.410) and Melissa Courtney leads in assists (13.24). In conference play only, the Rams lead in assists (15.48), kills (17.12) and aces (2.02) and are second in hitting percentage (.262) and opponent hitting percentage (.160). Courtney leads in assists (13.55) and aces (0.55) and Shirley is second in hitting percentage (.399). Setting The Standard: Melissa Courtney knows exactly which player on the team to get the ball to at exactly the right times. The Rams are hitting .262 in conference play, which ties for second in the league and is just .004 off Utah's .266. The Rams are averaging 17.12 kills per game, which is 1.4 kills per game more than any other team in the league. Courtney leads the league in assists with 13.55 per game, almost two per game more than any other setter in the conference, and she leads the conference in aces per game with 0.55 per contest. Courtney also ranks ninth in the conference in digs per game. Against all opponents, the Rams lead the conference hitting .256, average 1.3 kills per game more than any other team, getting 16.6 kills per game. Courtney leads the league in assists at 13.24 and ranks among the best in the nation in that category, and ranks second in the league in aces per game at 0.44. The Doctor Is In: Dre Downs recorded three double figure kill matches in the first nine she played this season. Downs then had a slump, not hitting double digits for nine straight matches, but she seems to have exploded out of the slump, recording double figures in the kills column in four of the last five matches and she hit .421 against Denver on Tuesday. Early Starts: Colorado State has an impressive streak of wins when winning the first two games in a match. The Rams are 112-1 when winning the first two games in a contest since the beginning of the 1999 season and have won their last 36. The only loss during that stretch was the championship match of the Mountain West Tournament against Utah in 2001. This season, the Rams are 17-0 and were a perfect 17-0 last year. In 1999, they were 24-0 and 28-0 in 2000. The 2001 season the Rams were 25-1. National Rankings: According to the NCAA statistics released Nov. 9 the Rams are ranked 12th in assists per game at 15.16 and they rank 11th in kills per game with 16.60. Melissa Courtney is ranked 16th with 13.24 assists per game and Katie Jo Shirley ranks 11th in hitting percentage at .410. The Rams also have the 18th best winning percentage this season with a 21-4 record. Well Rounded: Colorado State boasts better per game numbers in every category than its opponents this season -- kills, assists, aces and digs -- and they are tied in blocks. The Rams are also hitting over .100 points better than the opposition. In conference matches, the Rams rank higher in all five per-game categories, as well as in hitting percentage. Serving Efficiency: Freshman Kristen Karlik is the most efficient server on this season's team. Karlik has just 10 errors in 230 serves, with 15 aces for a .957 efficiency. Sophomore outside hitter Casey Bauer is next on the list, missing 10 serves in 184 tries with 14 aces for a .946 percentage. In three matches this season, Bauer's rotation has been the most efficient. Double Trouble: During non-conference play (13 matches), the Rams had players record just six double-doubles and setter Melissa Courtney recorded the only double-double through the first half of conference action (38 ast, 11 dig vs SDSU). In three of the last four matches, there have been four double-doubles recorded, three from Katie Jo Shirley, including two where she was two shy of a triple-double. Against San Diego State on Oct. 30, Shirley needed two more digs for a triple-double (14k-10b-8d) and against Wyoming, the junior was two blocks shy of a triple-double (19k-12d-8b). Ticket Information: Tickets to all home Colorado State matches are available by calling the Ram Ticket Office at 1-800-491-RAMS or locally, 491-RAMS. Tickets are also available for purchase on the Colorado State website at www.csurams.com. Reserved single-match tickets are just $6, while general admission is $5 and youth general admission is $3 (ages 3-18). CSU students are admitted for free. Block Party: Katie Jo Shirley has quite a string of blocks going. The junior has had at least one block in the last 58 matches for the Rams, dating back to the opening match of the 2002 season. Bri Frech has tallied at least one block in all 26 matches this season. Dre Downs has an active streak of six matches going. Holding Steady: For the first time in seven weeks, the Rams did not move up at least one spot in the USA Today/AVCA Division I Coaches poll. Colorado State is ranked 15th in the nation with 682 points, an increase of 48 points from last week. The Rams have been ranked 74 weeks since head coach Tom Hilbert joined the staff in 1997 and 15th is the highest ranking since the Rams were 10th in the 2001 final poll. The top five in the poll remained the same. Into The Crystal Ball: Prior to the start of 2003, the Mountain West Coaches voted on how they thought the teams would finish the conference race. Utah received five of eight first-place votes and was picked to win with 47 points. The Rams were chosen second with two first-place nods and 41 points, while BYU was slated to capture third with 36 points. San Diego State received the final first-place vote and finished fourth with 35 points. UNLV, Wyoming, New Mexico and Air Force rounded out the voting, respectively. In actuality, the coaches weren't that far off with one week remaining. The team leaders inverted Colorado State and Utah, and with one week remaining, inverted New Mexico and Air Force. The middle of the conference could see a lot of shifting, however, with two matches remaining for each of the eight squads. Extra Point Games: Colorado State has played in nine extra-point games this season and is 6-3 in those games, including winning the last four, all in conference play. On three occasions the Rams have won 31-29, while two victories were 32-30 and one was 33-31. The Rams have dropped games by the scores of 29-31, 30-32 and 31-33. State Success: Colorado State has posted a 72-19 record (.791) against four-year schools in the state of Colorado. The Rams are 19-1 vs Air Force, 17-11 vs Colorado, 2-0 vs Colorado College, 9-0 vs Denver, 5-0 vs Metro State, 10-6 vs Northern Colorado, 8-1 vs Regis and 2-0 vs Southern Colorado. Feast Fit For A Queen: CSU leads the Mountain West in aces in conference play with 2.02 per game and three players rank in the top 10 in the same category. Becky Sarauer moved onto the list after serving up at least one ace in five of the last six matches and has tallied 10 aces over those six and is now averaging 0.33 per game. Melissa Courtney has six matches this season with at least three aces in the match and leads in conference play with 0.55 per game and Bri Frech is averaging 0.50 per game in league action and has at least one ace in nine of 12 conference matches, including six of the last seven. Home Sweet Home: Colorado State loves playing in Moby Arena. The Rams have posted a 32-1 (.970) all-time record in Mountain West Conference play at home, losing only last season to BYU in five games. All time in Moby, the Rams are 214-62 (.775) and have posted a 96-11(.897) record at home since the arrival of Tom Hilbert in 1997. On Pace: With two matches remaining in league action and if the Rams play the minimum amount of games in both matches, setter Melissa Courtney should end the conference season with 649 assists, which would be the third best total in Mountain West Conference history. Last season, she set the record with 693 assists, breaking the record previously held by former CSU setter Allison Peckham. Quick Hits On Air Force: The Falcons are sitting at .500 on the season with a 13-13 record. Air Force also has posted a 3-9 mark in Mountain West Conference play and for the first time since 1999, will not face Colorado State in the first round of the league tournament. This will be the 21st meeting between the two teams with the Rams winning 19 of the 20 previous matches. Air Force won the first match between the schools back in 1982. Senior outside hitter Delavane Diaz leads the Falcons and the Mountain West with 5.00 kills per game and she leads the team with 2.60 digs per game. Senior setter Kristin Huitt is averaging 12.09 assists per game, while middle blocker Kristin Hamlett leads the team with 0.88 blocks per game. Defensive specialist Carly Siefken leads the team with 0.49 aces per game. The Falcons are hitting .209 on the season, and are averaging 14.28 kills, 13.18 assists, 1.88 aces, 12.14 digs and 1.90 blocks per game. In the first meeting between the two teams this season, back on Oct. 18, the Rams won in three games, 30-21, 30-22, 30-20. Diaz led all players with 15 kills, while the Rams Becky Sarauer and Tess Rogers each had 10. Lindsey Kerr and Melissa Courtney both had eight digs to lead all players and Bri Frech had a match-high three aces and five blocks. Head Coach Penny Lucas White is in her eighth season with the Falcons and sports a record of 64-157. Overall, she is in her 13th season of coaching with a 159-237 mark. Quick Hits On New Mexico: The Lobos are 1-11 in Mountain West Conference play and are 4-22 overall. This will be the 47th meeting between the Lobos and Rams with the Rams holding the 26-20 lead in the all-time series. Senior outside hitter Anna Reines leads the team with 3.62 kills per game. Freshman Jennifer Heasty leads the squad with a .224 hitting percentage and Chelsea Sondrup is averaging a team-best 0.74 blocks per game. Setter Monica Meihack is averaging 5.91 assists per game and has a team-best 0.31 per game ace average. Adah Burke is the top defensive player on the team with 2.79 digs per game. The Lobos are hitting .167 with 12.50 kills, 11.19 assists, 1.83 aces, 10.41 digs and 1.81 blocks per game.
The Rams won the first meeting on Oct. 17 in three games, 30-22, 30-22,
30-77. Four Rams were in double figures in kills, while Reines was the
only Lobo in double digits with 12. Bri Frech led all players with three
aces and nine digs and Sondrup had a match-high four blocks. Head Coach Kelley Sliva is in her second year at New Mexico and posts a
record of 14-43. Overall she sports a 157-147 record in her 11th year as
a head coach.
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