AKRON, Ohio (Sept. 6, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team improved to 4-0 on the young season thanks to a pair of wins Friday in Ohio at the Akron and Cleveland State dual tournament. After sweeping past UTRGV to open play Friday, the Cowgirls rallied to win their second road match of the season Friday afternoon with a come-from-behind, five-set victory at Akron. Set scores against UTRGV went 25-19, 25-23 and 25-15. Against Akron, UW rallied 27-29, 25-21, 20-25, 26-24 and 15-11.

Wyoming (3-0) controlled the better part of the first and third sets Friday morning. The Cowgirls trailed just once in set one, 11-10 and closed the frame on a 7-2 run to jump out to an early 1-0 lead. The second set saw UTRGV jump out to an early lead at 8-3. However, the Cowgirls would slowly real the Vaqueros in to knot the set up at 14-14. After a back-and-forth exchange through the latter stages of the set, Wyoming broke away finally, scoring three of the final four points in the second to go from tied at 22-22, to winning 25-23. In the third, the Cowgirls never trailed after scoring the first four points of the set.

Paige Lauterwasser led the Cowgirl offense with 12 kills in the win. Kayla Mazzocca, in a return to her home area, recorded seven kills and was one shy of her career-high with eight blocks. Sarah Holcomb and Emma Winter added six kills each and both hit .364. Sonte Stewart tallied five kills and hit .455 in her first-career action at Wyoming.

Kasia Partyka had a strong all-around match as she tallied 35 assists and had six total blocks in the victory. Partyka also had a pair of service aces while Skylar Erickson led the way with a trio of aces. In the back row, Sierra Grizzle led the match with 12 digs.

Overall, the Cowgirls hit .264 in the morning contest while holding UTRGV to a .128 clip. Wyoming was also dominant at the net, tallying 11 total blocks to UTRGV's two. UW also had a 7-to-1 advantage at the service line.

Against Akron in the night cap, the match started with a back-and-forth tussle that went to extra points, in which the Zips came out on top late to take an early 1-0 lead in the match. After the Cowgirls and the Zips controlled the second and third sets, respectively, Wyoming held on in the fourth, which also went to extra points, 26-24, to force a decisive fifth set.

In the fifth, the Cowgirls never trailed, despite Akron tying the set up a couple of times. UW took control late, breaking a 9-9 tie by ending the match on a 6-2 run. Grizzle ended the match for Wyoming with back-to-back aces.

Lauterwasser led the way on the Wyoming attack with a career-high 20 kills and also set a career-best with 13 digs. Holcomb also tallied a career-best as well with 15 kills and hit .406. Winter and Stewart also finished in double figures in kills with 12 and 10, respectively. The 10 kills was a career-best for Stewart.

Defensively, Mazzocca once again led the Cowgirls with another eight blocks in the win while Holcomb had six and Stewart notched four. Grizzle led a bevy of Cowgirls with 10-plus digs in the win with 28. Grizzle also recorded her first-career double-double as she tallied a career-best 10 assists.

Partyka had 16 digs in the match while Skylar Erickson and Kendal Rivera had 11 each. Partyka also went for 50 assists for the first time this season with her season high. Erickson and Partyka also had an ace on the day.

Wyoming hit .240 in the win and held the Zips to a .168 team hitting percentage. Blocks were 15-11 in edge to the Cowgirls. Akron had six aces to Wyoming's four on the day.

The Cowgirls now shift their focus to a 10 a.m., contest Saturday at Cleveland State to close-out the tournament.