Oct. 27, 2011
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Colorado State tightened its grip on first place in the Mountain West as it defeated San Diego State in three sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-21) Thursday night at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. With the win, the 25th-ranked Rams improve to 16-4 overall and 9-1 in league play. The Aztecs, meanwhile, saw their record fall to 13-7 and 6-3 in conference as they remain in second place in the MW standings.
Senior Paije Pearson led SDSU with nine kills and also recorded nine digs over the three sets. Neither team had a player in double figure in kills as Pearson tied CSU's Brieon Paige for match-high honors.
Fellow Aztecs Raegan Shelton and Kyley Sexton finished with right and six kills respectively as only three kills separated the team totals on the night. The difference in the match was at the net where CSU had 10 team blocks to just three for San Diego State.
In a battle of the conference's top two setters, SDSU's Johnna Fouch notched 31 assists while CSU's Deedra Foss had 29.
The opening set saw 10 ties scores and six lead changes before settling in at 19-19 late in the contest. Colorado State then ran off four straight points thanks to a kill by Deedra Foss and a trio of Aztec hitting errors. The teams then traded the next four points with the Rams getting the win on a ki9ll by Dana Cranston. Sexton led SDSU with four kills.
Set number two was another close affair over the first half of the game with the score knotted at 11-11. At that point the home side scored three in a row to take a lead it would not relinquish. SDSU stayed closed and trailed by only two at 19-17, but the Rams took six of the next seven points on three kills and three Aztec miscues for the seven-point win.
In the third set CSU went ahead for good at 2-1 a built that advantage to as many as six points at 20-14. The Aztecs fought back to get within a pair at 21-19 behind kills by Pearson and Oni Lattin plus a pair of service aces by Kristi Jackels, but that's as close as they would get as the Rams closed out the set and match on a kill by Cranston.
San Diego State now moves on to Laramie where they will face conference foe Wyoming on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 7:00 p.m. at the UniWyo Sports Complex.