LARAMIE, Wyo. (Oct. 12, 2019) – The Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team recorded its second consecutive sweep over the weekend Saturday as the Cowgirls took down Fresno State, 25-14, 28-26 and 27-25 in a very hard-fought three-set victory.
The Cowgirls (10-7, 5-1 MW) had big rallies in both the second and third sets to achieve the sweep. Wyoming trailed by as many as six, 18-12 in the second set before going on a 10-4 run to eventually tie things at 22-22 and have set point at 25-24, 26-25 and 27-26.
In the third set, the Pokes overcame an even bigger deficit, trailing 15-7 partway through. However, the Cowgirls would respond with a 10-0 run to take a 17-15 lead and would eventually fend off the Bulldogs (10-8, 3-3 MW) late, overcoming a pair of set points late in the set.
"I was questioning our composure a little bit at times there in the match, but all of a sudden we just kind of buckled down and really made some good defensive plays, which we were really happy about," said head coach Chad Callihan.
"Hats off to the team for finding a way to kind of grind and never believing that they were out of it."
Defensively, the Cowgirls got the job done Saturday as they out-blocked FSU 13-7 in the win while also holding the Bulldogs to just a .074 hitting percentage on the day. Faith Waitsman led the way at the net for UW, recording two solo blocks and seven block assists for a career-high nine total. Jackie McBride and Kyra Slavik each added four overall while KC McMahon had three total blocks.
"We spent a lot of time on blocking, we talked about it a lot this week during practice," said Callihan.
"We changed some things up, where our hand placement was, things like that. We're just going to continue to work at that piece of the game."
Offensively, Tara Traphagan led the Pokes with 13 kills in the win while hitting a team-high .323. Halie McArdle and McBride each had nine on the day while McMahon chipped in with six.
Hitting wise, the Cowgirls hit .197 as a team and were led by Slavik's 32 assists. Slavik also had eight digs in the match, as did Erika Jones. Madi Fields led UW in the back row with 16 digs, including 10 in the third set alone.
The Cowgirls, who for now sit alone in second place in the Mountain West standings, now face a pair of road tests next week as they travel to face Utah State at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 and Boise State at 2 p.m., Oct. 14.
-WYO-
