LARAMIE, Wyo. (Aug. 17, 2022) – The Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team is ramping up in preparation for the season and will host a pair of exhibition contests this weekend. The Cowgirls will play their annual Brown and Gold Scrimmage at 6 p.m., Friday and will host CSU Pueblo at 5 p.m., Saturday. Both contests are free and open to the public.
UW was picked to finish seventh in the Preseason Mountain West Poll released Wednesday as voted on by the league's head coaches. Defending co-champion Colorado State was picked to win the league with a total of 93 points and received six first-place votes. Utah State was selected second with 91 points while Wyoming received a total of 47 points.
This weekend will be the Cowgirls' final live action before hosting the season-opening tournament August 26 and 27 as No. 18 Creighton, Iowa State and Wichita State come to Laramie for the Rumble in the Rockies.
The Cowgirls, who are entering year 10 under Head Coach Chad Callihan, returns eight student-athletes from last season's squad that went 16-14 overall and 8-10 in league play. 2019 All-Mountain West performer KC McMahon returns for her Covid-Senior season after leading UW last year with 316 kills and 358 points. McMahon was 10th in league play last season averaging 3.01 kills and 3.45 points per set. Joining McMahon on the attack is Naya Shimé, who averaged a team-best 2.99 kills per set in 2021, which ranked 10th-best in the Mounatin West. Shimé also finished the conference season fourth in the league averaging 3.55 kills per set last season.
Corin Carruth, Teresa Garza, Lydeke King, Kayla Mazzocca, Zoee Smith and Hailey Zuroske all return in 2022 as well, after seeing significant action in 2021. Garza and King played in 47 and 71 sets, respectively a season ago while Zuroske was one of four Cowgirls to break 100 sets played in 2021. Zuroske, who has been a fixture in the UW lineup each of the last three seasons, has appeared in 74 matches during her career. Last season, Zuroske continued to be Wyoming's jack-of-all-trades, as she was fourth on the team with 158 kills, ranked second with 223 digs (2.17 per set) and had 30 service aces, which ranked second on the squad as well.
Macey Boggs and Kasia Partyka, who joined the Cowgirls in the Spring, will both contend for the open setter spot for UW. Boggs spent her first two seasons at Western Nebraska CC, where she was the Region IX Setter of the Year and named to the South All-Region Team. Boggs was also an Academic All-American at Western. Partyka, meanwhile, spent 2021 at Long Beach State where she appeared in 11 matches with eight starts while averaging nearly eight assists per set, tallying 279 for the season. Partyka also added 21 kills and 1.51 digs per set at LBSU.
Ashton Reese (Colorado Mesa) and Kendal Rivera (South Carolina State) also transferred in this season. Joining the transfers are freshmen newcomers, Tierney Barlow (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Skylar Erickson (Caldwell, Idaho), Sarah Holcomb (Murphy, Texas) and Rylee Schulz (Carlsbad, Calif.).
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