OMAHA, Neb. (Aug. 30, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team opened the 2024 campaign with a bang. The Cowgirls rallied for a thrilling five-set victory over Washington State Friday afternoon at the Omaha Invitational. Set scores for the Cowgirls went 25-22, 19-25, 23-25, 25-17 and 15-11.
Wyoming (1-0) jumped out to an early lead behind the strength of its first set win. The Cowgirls trailed 16-14 partway through the first before going on a 4-0 run to claim a lead it wouldn't relinquish at 18-14. Overall, UW closed the set on an 11-6 surge. Things were tied 1-1 after Washington State controlled much of the second set.
In the third, the Cowgirls looked to be well-within control, posting an 18-11 lead. However, Wazzu would respond in a big way going on an 8-0 run to take a 19-18 lead. The Cougs would also score the final four points of the set after falling behind 23-21.
Needing to respond in the fourth to extend the match, the Cowgirls never tried in the set to even things up at 2-2. Wyoming led by five-more-points for most of the fourth and closed things out with a 7-3 run late. The tie-breaking fifth set featured seven ties and four lead changes to begin before a late 4-0 run by the Cowgirls pushed them in front, 11-8. Wyoming wouldn't give up the lead the rest of the way and after Washington State cut the deficit to 12-11, the Cowgirls finished the match with three-straight points, including a pair of kills by Emma Winter in her Wyoming debut.
Winter led the Cowgirls with 14 kills on the day as she saw her first regular season action with the Brown & Gold. Paige Lauterwasser also finished in double figures with 14 kills and tallied her first-career double-double as she notched a career-high 13 digs. Abi Milby added eight kills off the bench while in the middle, Sarah Holcomb and Kayla Mazzocca provided seven kills each.
Defensively, Wyoming was paced by Holcomb's nine total blocks as the 2023 Mountain West leader in rejections had four solo and five assisted at the net. Mazzocca provided five blocks of her own. In the back row, Sierra Grizzle led the match with a career-high 34 digs while Kendal Rivera had 10 and Skylar Erickson added nine. Kasia Partyka finished the match with her 24th career double-double. The Wyoming setter had 39 assists and 12 digs in the victory.
As a team, Washington State out-hit the Cowgirls, .113 to .104. However, UW hit .222 in the fourth and fifth sets, while the Cougars hit just .033 in the final two. Both teams recorded 14 team blocks overall. Wazzu had one more service ace than the Cowgirls (5-4) but committed 13 serving errors to UW's eight.
Wyoming now looks to make it a perfect 2-0 start to the season Saturday as it plays at host Omaha at 3 p.m., Mountain Time. The Cowgirls are looking to go 13-0 in regular season non-conference play under Head Coach Kaylee Prigge.
-WYO-
