LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 2, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirls officially tip-off the 2024-25 season Monday night in Laramie as the Cowgirls welcome in Colorado for a 5:30 contest to begin the regular season.
Monday's contest, which is a doubleheader along with the Cowboy men's team, will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network and can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call.
ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
Wyoming hosted Chadron State Friday evening in an exhibition contest and came away with a 78-39 victory over the Eagles. All available Cowgirls for the exhibition played in the game. Wyoming will be entering its third season under Head Coach Heather Ezell. The Cowgirls, who finished third in the Mountain West a season ago and advanced to the Great 8 Round of the WNIT in 2023-24, returns all five starters from that squad. UW went 18-15 last season and was picked to finish second this season in the Preseason Mountain West Poll.
The Cowgirls return a pair of All-Mountain West performers from last season in Allyson Fertig and Emily Mellema. Fertig, who was named to the All-Mountain West Team for the second consecutive season in 2023-24, was named the league's Preseason Co-Player of the Year earlier this month. Fertig has also been named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Watchlist, as well as the Lisa Leslie Award Watchlist. Last season, Fertig averaged 14.3 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.64 blocks per game and set a school record with a 60.8-percent shooting percentage. Mellema, meanwhile, was named to the league's All-Defensive Team last year after leading the Cowgirls with 43 steals. Mellema also led the way with 103 assists and ranked fifth in the Mountain West with a 1.75 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Wyoming also welcomes back starters Tess Barnes, Malene Pedersen and Ola Ustowska. Barnes averaged nearly nine points per game last season and led the team with 60 made 3-pointers. Pedersen's 11 points per game ranked second-best on the squad. Pedersen shot 90-percent from the free-throw line. Ustowska led the Cowgirls in conference play with 64 assists and was second on the team with 97 assists in all games. Ustowska had eight games last season with five-plus assists.
Also returning to the squad for 2024-25 are McKinley Dickerson, a 2021-22 All-Mountain West honoree, Mikyn Hamlin, Joslin Igo, Kati Ollilainen and Madi Symons. The Cowgirls welcome in six newcomers this season, including four freshmen in Lana Beslic (Split, Croatia), Heidur Karlsdottir (Laugavellir, Iceland), Karoline Lundin (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Fia Proctor (Bothell, Wash.). Wyoming also has a pair of new transfer student-athletes, Logann Alvar (Casper College) and Payton Muma (Gonzaga).
SCOUTING COLORADO
Colorado went 24-10 a season ago and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament before bowing-out to National Runner-Up Iowa, 89-68. The Buffaloes have a new-look squad this season with 10 newcomers on the roster including six transfers. Tabitha Betson was named the Big 12's Preseason Freshman of the Year. CU returns its third-leading scorer from 2023-24 in Frida Formann who averaged 12.5 points per game last season and led the Buffs with 82 made 3-pointers on 42-percent shooting from 3-point range. Formann started in all 34 games last season. Kindyll Wetta also returns after playing in all 34 contests last year in a mostly reserve role. Wetta averaged six points and 3.4 rebounds per contest in 2023-24 and was second on the team with 131 assists.
The Buffs were a high-octane offense a season ago, averaging over 75 points per game while allowing their opponents to score at just a 64.3-point per game clip. Colorado shot nearly 46-percent from the field as a team and hit over 35-percent of its shots from beyond-the-arc, while making 6.7 3-pointers a game. CU had a 1.33 assist-to-turnover ratio as a team while forcing its opponents to commit nearly 200 more turnovers than assists on the season. Colorado out-rebounded its opponents by nearly five per game in 2023-24.
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST COLORADO
Colorado leads the all-time series with the Cowgirls, 38-13 and won the last meeting in the series, 66-56 in November of 2019 in Laramie. That win for the Buffs snapped a two-game winning streak for Wyoming against the Buffs. The Cowgirls are 9-17 at home in the series with Colorado.
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