LARMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 19, 2019) – Wyoming closes the 2019 regular season with a pair of road matches this week as the Cowgirls travel to face Nevada at 7 p.m., Thursday Nov. 21 and face San Jose State in a 3 p.m., contest Saturday Nov. 23. UW swept both the Wolf Pack and the Spartans earlier this season in Laramie.
Wyoming (19-8, 14-2 MW) is coming off a pair of sweeps in its final home matches of the regular season, defeating Boise State and Utah State on Senior Night. With the two victories, the Cowgirls have set the single-season program record for most conference wins with 14. With a win this weekend, the Cowgirls will have their fifth 20-win season under Head Coach Chad Callihan. Prior to Callihan's arrival in Laramie, UW had seven 20-win seasons in program history.
KC McMahon led the way with 22 kills (3.67 per set) last week in the two wins while Jackie McBride added 19 kills and hit a team-best .441 while also adding 24 total points (4 per set). For her efforts, McBride was named the Mountain West's Offensive Player of the Week Monday. It is the second consecutive week a Cowgirl has taken home the honor (Tara Traphagan) and it was the third career accolade for McBride.
Madi Fields tallied 40 digs in the two sweeps, averaging an impressive 6.67 digs per set. With her performance, Fields is now just four digs shy of breaking the program record for most career digs. Fields has 1,680 career digs. Becky Stewart (2010-13) has the current program record with 1,683 digs.
Kayla Afoa leads Nevada and ranks eighth in the Mountain West averaging 3.12 kills per set during league play. Afoa also ranks ninth in the conference averaging 3.61 points per. Sydney Petersen's .297 hitting percentage ranks ninth in the MW, while her 1.22 blocks per during league play ranks seventh. Dalyn Burns ranks fourth in the MW averaging 9.65 assists per set. As a team, the Wolf Pack ranks third in the league in digs at 14.55 per set.
The Cowgirls are looking for their fifth-straight win over Nevada, however, UW has lost 2-of-3 in Reno, having won in 2018.
San Jose Staet ranks third in the Mountain West in opponent hitting percentage, holding opponents to a .199 clip in 2019. The Spartans are tops in the league in digs per set with 15.34 and are led by Sarah Smevog's 4.71 digs per, which ranks second in the MW. Mamie Garard (7.04) and Kaitlynn Zdroik (6.60) rank eighth and ninth, respectively in the league in assists per set during conference play.
Wyoming has won seven consecutive matches against SJSU and is looking for its fifth-straight victory on the road against the Spartans.
As always, fans can follow this week's matches live via the Mountain West Digital Network and live stats links. Fans can access the links via gowyo.com/coverage or on the volleyball schedule page.
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