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Colorado State to Face Washington in NCAA Tournament
All-time series tied 2-2.
Dec. 3, 2002
Complete Release in PDF Format
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Colorado State advances to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth consecutive year and 14th year overall. The Rams will face Washington at the University of Hawai'i on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. (8:00 Mountain). Senior Shines On Senior Night: Colorado State ended its regular season with a three-game victory over Denver, 30-20, 35-33, 30-24 to improve to 22-9 on the year. On senior night, the lone senior on the team shone for the Rams. Middle blocker Michelle Knox tallied 18 kills and hit .467 in her last match at Moby Arena. Freshman outside hitter Tess Rogers also tallied 18 kills and hit .350 for the match, while sophomore setter Melissa Courtney tallied her second consecutive double-double getting 46 assists and 10 digs and adding three aces, while sophomore middle blocker Katie Jo Shirley led all players with 13 digs and sophomore libero Lindsey Kerr chipped in 12. Double Century: The match against Washington on Thursday will be the 200th for head coach Tom Hilbert at Colorado State. Hilbert enters the match with a 164-35 record at Colorado State (.824) and is 338-107 overall (.760). Made To Be Broken: Four different Rams have established Mountain West Conference records this season. Tess Rogers holds both freshman kill records in the league, while Melissa Courtney holds the conference assist record, Lindsey Kerr has broken seven different dig records and freshman opposite side hitter Andreya Downs has set four different service aces records this year. All-Tournament: Setter Melissa Courtney was named to the Mountain West Conference All-Tournament team after setting a career-high with 10 kills in the semifinals against BYU. She also tallied a career-high in hitting percentage and attacks and had three aces in the two matches. Tough Cookie: Sophomore Katie Jo Shirley is the only player on the team to have seen action in all 110 games for the Rams this season. She still managed to play in all five games against BYU in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, despite sublexing her shoulder in game two. Shirley played back row only in the last three games and ended the evening with nine digs. Against Denver on Wednesday, she played all the way around, tying for team honors with three blocks and leading the squad with 13 digs. Still In Reach: Sophomore Lindsey Kerr needs just 16 more digs to break the all-time Colorado State single-season dig record. Kerr has 422 digs on the year and the current record is 437 by Carrie Appleman from the 1992 season. They are the only two players in school history to record more than 400 digs in a season and Kerr is the only athlete in the Mountain West Conference since its inception to surpass the 400 dig mark. Conference Awards: The Mountain West All-Conference awards were announced at the annual pre-championship banquet on Nov. 20. Colorado State had five different student-athletes honored. Tess Rogers was named the conference Freshman of the Year, while Lindsey Kerr was honored as the Defensive Specialist of the Year. Melissa Courtney, Michelle Knox and Katie Jo Shirley were all named to the 12 player All-Conference Squad and for the fourth straight season, head coach Tom Hilbert earned Coach of the Year. This season, he shares the award with Mark Warner of San Diego State. Facing The Field: Colorado State has played eight of the other teams in the NCAA Tournament this season and sports a 5-4 record against those eight squads. A Tell-Tale Sign: Colorado State has won all eight matches where it has hit over .300 in a match this season. In the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament against Air Force, the Rams hit .347. Last year, the Rams were 21-0 in matches where the team surpassed the .300 mark. Since Hilbert joined the Colorado State program the team is 89-1 when hitting .300 or better with the only loss coming to Penn State in the Regional Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament in 2000 (2000 - 21-1; 1999 - 19-0; 1998 - 9-0; 1997 - 19-0). Even Keeled: The Rams will be making their 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and have an 13-13 record in those 13 years. The last three years the Rams have advanced to the regional semifinals after hosting the first two rounds in Moby Arena. This marks the first time since 1998 the Rams have had to travel for a first round match. McDish: Setter Melissa Courtney is just 58 assists shy of moving into seventh on the CSU career assists chart -- as a sophomore. Courtney currently has 1486 assists and Katherine Pettit (1997-2000) ranks seventh with 1543 assists. Courtney is also just 14 assists shy of 1500 for her career. Closing In: Sophomore Katie Jo Shirley needs just six more digs to record the 300th of her career and Michelle Knox is six blocks shy of 400 for her career at CSU. Lucky Number 13: This will be the 14th overall appearance for Colorado State in the NCAA Tournament and the eighth consecutive trip. Both rank 13th among NCAA Division I schools. UC Santa Barbara, Pacific, Penn State and Stanford are all in the tournament for the 22nd consecutive year in the tournament's 22nd year of existence. Aloha: Colorado State has never won a match at Hawai'i, posting an 0-5 record away from the mainland. In 1999, the Rams lost a four-game match to Long Beach State in the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. During the 1996 season the Rams lost a regular season conference match to Hawai'i and in the 1989 Wahine Classic the Rams dropped matches to UCLA, Texas and Hawai'i. This will be the first time that CSU has played a non-ranked team on the island. A Whole New Look: The Rams last played at Hawai'i in 1999, but there is not one player on the roster who was a part of that team. In fact, there are only three people -- head coach Tom Hilbert, trainer Erika Rice and volunteer assistant coach Moritz Moritz who were involved with the program three years ago. Home Sweet Home: For the sixth straight season, Colorado State won at least 10 matches in Moby Arena, posting a 12-5 record at home this season. Since Hilbert arrived at Colorado State in 1997, the Rams have tallied a 86-9 record in the friendly confines of Moby and the Rams have a 204-60 overall record since 1986 in the arena. Twice in the last four seasons the Rams have had unbeaten records at home, recording a 15-0 record in 2001 and an 18-0 record in 1999. Neutrality: In the NCAA Tournament the Rams are 2-3 all-time when playing on a neutral court and have won both First Round matches on a neutral floor (1998, South Carolina in Austin, TX; 1997, American in Pullman, WA). In The Books: Senior Michelle Knox established the hitting percentage record for a single match in the NCAA Tournament last season when she hit .714 (10-0-14) against Baylor in the First Round. Sophomore outside hitter Becky Sarauer also ranks second in school history for an NCAA Tournament with five solo blocks. During her NCAA career (minimum 30 kills) Knox ranks second at CSU with a .375 hitting percentage (34-10-64). Not Rebuilding, Just Reloading: For the third consecutive year, the Rams won the Mountain West Conference regular season title. Colorado State was 12-2 in league action this season after posting 13-1 records the previous two seasons. In the preseason Mountain West poll, the Rams were picked to finish second behind Utah, receiving one of the eight head coaches first place votes in the league.
Scouting The Competition: Washington is led by Paige Benjamin with 5.28 kills per game and Kara Bjorklund is leading the squad with a .396 hitting percentage. Sanja Tomasevic leads the team with 39 aces and is second on the team with 3.23 digs per game. Candace Lee is the defensive leader at 3.53 digs per game and Alexis McDonald has 1.16 blocks per game for second. Bjorklund also leads the Huskies in blocks at 1.17 per contest. Both teams have played San Diego State this season with the Huskies defeating the Aztecs in three games the second week of the season, while the Rams split their conference matches with the Aztecs. This will be the fifth meeting between Washington and Colorado State with each team winning two matches. The last contest came in 1997, a four-game victory for the Rams.
The Huskies, making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament
since 1997, are coached by Pac-10 Coach of the Year Jim McLaughlin. He
is in his second year with the Dawgs and is 30-26. Overall McLaughlin
is in his 12th season and sports a career record of 254-144. The first
seven years as a head coach he spent with the USC men's team and tallied
a 142-75 record during that time so his career record coaching women is
112-69 in six seasons.
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