LARAMIE, Wyo. (Sept. 26, 2017) – Wyoming volleyball closed out a three-match homestand with a straight-set loss (17-25, 21-25, 13-25) to Border War rival Colorado State on Tuesday night. With the setback Wyoming slips to 6-9 overall and 1-2 in Mountain West action, while the 24th-ranked Rams move to 13-2 overall and 3-0 in conference play.
 
"I look at our team and know we have great pieces," Cowgirl head coach Chad Callihan said. "I have to give both teams credit, it was well-played volleyball early on to begin with. We know that we can take an error if we're being aggressive, but I just felt later in the sets we would make a few too many costly mistakes. This was not the best week for us. It was a tough week and with being in the middle of four matches in eight days, there are definitely things that we know we need to stay focused and work on. That is exactly what we'll do."
 
Sophomore Halie McArdle led the Cowgirls with nine kills, while fellow sophomore Tara Traphagan launched seven put-aways of her own, in addition to four blocks. Hitting .300 during the match, junior Reed Copeland added five kills to go with four total blocks. Junior Emily Lewis and freshman Marissa Harmon each recorded four kills for UW. Harmon also added 24 assists, while senior Lily Austin led the team with 12 digs. It was the first match this season Austin posted a team-high in digs. Sophomore Madi Fields chipped in with six digs against CSU as well.
 
CSU outhit the Brown and Gold .297-.154 and also maintained the upper hand in total blocks (8.0-6.0), assists (38-30) and digs (39-31). Austin and senior Marley Taylor each recorded a service ace for Wyoming, but ultimately ten service errors proved to be too costly against Colorado State.
 
Set One
The opening set was a tight contest to begin with. CSU never held more than a one-point lead until after the media timeout. From that point on, the Rams offense took over. Colorado State would take eight of the last ten points to take the set, 25-17. McArdle, Traphagan and Harmon each posted two kills for Wyoming.
 
Set Two
Again a close match to start, which featured ten ties before the media timeout. Copeland had two kills to swing momentum towards Wyoming and keep CSU from distancing themselves. CSU called timeout down one, 18-19, before a 6-3 run gave them the set, 25-21. McArdle had a team-high four kills to go with three digs in the second stanza, as Austin recorded eight.
 
Set Three
The final set unfortunately got out of hand quickly for Wyoming. The Cowgirls called a timeout down 9-3 before CSU used five kills of their own and five attacking errors from UW in part of an 11-5 run. Two kills each from Traphagan and McArdle kept the Brown and Gold around, but CSU took the set 25-13 and the three-set sweep.
 
Up Next
The Cowgirls will hit the road for a Thursday night matchup at Air Force before traveling to Utah State and Boise State next week. The contest with Air Force is set for 6:30 p.m. MT.