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2007 Volleyball Season Review
March 4, 2008
The 2007 CSU Rams volleyball team was young, but not immature. With only two seniors on the squad, many sophomores and juniors saw considerable playing time in games throughout the season. And with talent was not defined by age, the Rams fought to defy preseason expectations for another year. Picked in the preseason coaches' poll to finish second in the conference behind BYU, the team resisted that fate by winning the regular season Mountain West Conference title for the ninth time. CSU volleyball earned 76 votes in the preseason CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches' Poll, ranking the Rams 30th. Yet the team spent weeks ranked in the Top 20, their highest spot being 17th in the nation. Finishing strong like volleyball teams of the past, the Rams made their 13th entrance to the NCAA tournament with a No. 14 seed. A large part of the Rams' success, junior middle blocker Mekana Barnes earned unprecedented individual honors for her incomparable contributions to the team. She was named to the preseason all-MWC team, but exceeded this expectation by so much more. As if being named MWC Player of the Week four times in one season, two times in back-to-back weeks, wasn't enough, the MWC named her its Player of the Year. Nationally, the Sports Imports/AVCA recognized Barnes as its Division I Player of the Week. In the postseason, she was named to the AVCA all-region team and became the eighth in CSU history to be named to the AVCA All-American squad, on the third team. She is only the third junior in CSU volleyball history to earn the honor. Barnes was also the only player in the NCAA to be in the Top 10 for both hitting percentage and blocks per game. Fellow juniors Jaime Strauss and Ashley Fornstrom joined Barnes on the AVCA All-West region team - Fornstrom as the designated setter. This was the first such honor for the three players. Additional honors for Fornstrom and Strauss included selections as Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for each, preseason selection to the all-MWC team as setter for Fornstrom, and Strauss' appointment to the all-MWC team as an outside hitter.
The season began in paradise at the Asics Challenge in Hawaii. The tournament was anything but a vacation for the Rams, however, who lost all their games, to Oregon State, No. 10 Hawaii and Michigan. The team did not get discouraged, and came back to Moby Arena to beat No. 13 Ohio State for its first win of the season. This win proved to be an omen of the good fortune the Rams would experience on their home court throughout the season. The team had no losses when playing at Moby Arena. Next up for the Rams came the Coors Classic and the Hilton Invitational - both home tournaments, both won by CSU. Then the team opened its Mountain West Conference schedule with a win over TCU, followed by a sweep of New Mexico. A loss in four games at Utah interrupted the success. In that loss, though, Barnes established two single-match blocking records. She had 17 block assists and 19 total blocks, both records for a single match and a four-game match. She also surpassed 300 career blocks during the match, and after it had tallied 312. The Rams quickly recovered from the loss to the Utes to upset No. 17 BYU in Provo, Utah - a win that opened up an eight-game winning streak. CSU played three matches at home, beating San Diego State, UNLV and the Northern Colorado. The team then won two matches on the road - one against Air Force and the other a sweep of Wyoming. Back in Fort Collins at Moby Arena, CSU won against BYU and Utah, providing another sweep for the Rams. In the win against Utah, Fornstrom notched a triple-double on the night with 52 assists, 14 digs and 10 blocks. This was also Tom Hilbert's 450th career win. A loss at UNLV halted the winning streak, but after that, the Rams returned to form and won five matches in a row, all won in three games. The 650th program win for CSU volleyball came at Denver. The Rams' next win came at San Diego State in a game that was postponed due to forest fires. A home win over Wyoming preceded a victory over PAC-10 opponent Arizona. Then the team returned to Moby Arena for Senior Night, the last home game, at which the seniors earned a victory over Air Force. The Rams split their last road trip with a hard-fought loss in five games at TCU countered by a win at New Mexico. Their win at New Mexico, along with UNLV's loss at Utah, gave the Rams their ninth MWC regular-season title. At the MWC tournament in Las Vegas, CSU beat San Diego State in the first round before losing to Utah in the second. Still given a No. 14 bid into NCAA tournament, CSU traveled to Michigan, where it beat Illinois State in the first round. In that win, sophomore Katelin Batten broke the CSU single-season dig record, which she set in 2006 with 438 digs, after digging 15 balls for 449 digs. Unfortunately, the 2007 volleyball season ended with a loss in the second round to Michigan. Other season highlights included an alumnae game during homecoming week, when many influential players returned to the Moby Arena floor to duel the current team. And for the first time, CSU volleyball fans had the opportunity to listen to home and away games broadcasted live on KCSU 90.5 FM. Committed to excellence on the court as well as the classroom, Ram volleyball was also proud to boast five players named to the MWC academic all-conference team: Tonya Mokelki, Tessa Nelson, Crystin Rodrick, Jaque Davisson and Audrey Hemmings. |
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