LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 12, 2019) – The Wyoming volleyball team plays its final regular season home matches of 2019 this week as the Cowgirls host Boise State and Utah State Thursday and Friday at 6:30 p.m. The USU match was moved up a day due to UW hosting the Wyoming State Football Championships.
The Cowgirls (17-8, 12-2 MW) are coming off a pair of road-match victories last week, sweeping San Diego State Thursday before winning in four sets at Fresno State Saturday. For the week, the Cowgirls hit .342 as a team in the two wins.
Tara Traphagan led the way with 25 kills (3.57 per set) last week and hit an incredible .533 in the two wins. Mackeznie Coates orchestrated the offense, averaging 12.2 assists per set while Jackie McBride led UW with 16 total blocks (2.29 per set). Madi Fields averaged 5.14 digs per set for the week. For their efforts, Fields and Traphagan were named the Mountain West's Defensive and Offensive Players of the Week, respectively. It was the third honor of the season for Fields and the sixth of her career while Traphagan honored her first-career accolade.
Friday's match will be Senior Night at Wyoming as four Cowgirls, Fields, Halie McArdle, Traphagan and Kiahlei Yaste will be honored prior to the match as the four will be playing in their final regular season home matches for the Brown and Gold.
Boise State (16-9, 8-6 MW) has a pair of student-athletes that rank in the top-10 in the league in hitting percentage during Mountain West play. Janell Walley ranks sixth (.343) and Jessica Donahue is ninth (3.15). Lauren Ohlinger meanwhile ranks 10th in the conference averaging 3.62 points per set in 2019. Donahue is the league leader in blocks per set during MW play, averaging 1.77 per. Danielle Boss is fifth in the league averaging 9.66 assists per set. The Broncos lead the league during conference play with an incredible 3.13 blocks per set as a team.
The Aggies (2-24, 2-12 MW) are also a prolific team at the net, ranking second in the league averaging 2.79 blocks per set during MW play. Utah State has three that rank in the top-10 in blocks per set are led by Corinne Larsen's 1.39 per. Hailey Cuff and Bailey Downing lead the Aggies with 147 and 143 kills, respectively. Grace DuBay leads the team averaging 3.14 digs per set while Heidi Carpenter's 5.33 assists a set leads the way.
Fields is now just 44 digs from setting the all-time program record for digs in a career. Fields is at 1,640 for her career. This season, Fields' 428 digs are lead the Mountain West and are the sixth-most for a single season in school history. Fields is averaging 17.12 digs per match in 2019 and would need to average 11 per to reach the career milestone.
With her 16 blocks last week, McBride has now moved into the top-10 in program history for career blocks with 385. McBride surpassed Shelley Marlyst's (1984-87) 369 last week and is now in ninth on the all-time list.
Both this week's matches will be streamed live on the Mountain West Digital Network and can also be followed via live stats. For coverage links, fans can go to gowyo.com/coverage.
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