LARAMIE – Kaylee Prigge has a lot of confidence in her 2025 Cowgirls.
 
That's why Wyoming's third-year head volleyball coach put together a non-conference slate that includes four Power 4 programs, including two teams ranked in the preseason AVCA poll.
 
UW will host Colorado (Big 12) on Aug. 31 in the Arena-Auditorium to conclude the three-day Rumble in the Rockies tournament. The Cowgirls also play Mississippi (SEC) on Sept. 6 in Brookings, S.D.

On Sept. 11 in Fort Worth, Texas, Prigge's squad will test itself with a doubleheader against No. 17 Missouri and No. 25 TCU.
 
"It's time to really see where we're at and this team has been building over the last two and a half years towards a tougher and tougher schedule every year," Prigge said. "They've earned the right to do that so we're going to see where we're at."
 
The deeper Cowgirls are led by all-Mountain West outside hitter Paige Lauterwasser and senior middle blocker Sarah Holcomb.
 
Lauterwasser ranked eighth in the MW in points per set (3.65) and ninth in kills (3.31) per set. She tallied 404 kills and 445 points while playing in every set during her sophomore campaign. Holcomb, an honorable mention all-MW selection in 2024, led the conference in blocks (167) and was second on the team with 371 points last season.
 
The other returners with starting experience are Skylar Erickson, Emma Winter and Claire Wagstaff. Maddy Stucky, a redshirt freshman from Laramie, will have a chance to help fill the void of losing all-MW setter Kasia Partyka to graduation. Rya Fingerlin is also ready to have a role after redshirting as a freshman.
 
Sophomore Addy Thorington of Powell and freshman Addy Cook performed well during the Brown and Gold scrimmage. Prigge is excited about all five of the true freshmen signed after UW said goodbye to five seniors who led the program to back-to-back postseason appearances in the NIVC.
 
"This year we're definitely looking for more consistency. We had a lot of injuries last year, so we've been doing a lot more off the court in the weight room to help prevent that early on. I think this year will be smoother and more consistent overall," Lauterwasser said. "Our freshmen class is very talented. I'm looking forward to seeing them hopefully get some playing time this year. We also have a strong returning group, so I'm excited to see how that plays out in preseason and then conference."
 
UW, which finished seventh in the MW in each of Prigge's first two seasons as head coach, was picked to finish tied for sixth with UNLV in the conference's preseason coaches poll. The top six teams in the regular season advance to the conference tournament.
 
The Cowgirls have been able to knock off power conference teams like Texas Tech and CU during fast starts the past two seasons. But competing for a MW championship in November is the long-term goal.
 
"Kudos to Kaylee for giving us such a hard schedule," Lauterwasser. "It definitely puts us in a lot of positions and situations that are going to be difficult and challenging but it will prepare us really well for conference. We're all really excited to be playing these tough teams because it gives us a shot. We always go into every game treating everyone the exact same, so it doesn't matter the name on their chest because we have the same one on ours. We're excited to play whoever is across the net."
 
The Cowgirls will play an exhibition match against Denver at 3 p.m. Saturday at Laramie County Community College. UW played exhibition matches in Green River (2024) and Cody (2023) to start the past two seasons.
 
"Part of the reason we're going to Cheyenne is every year we try to play our exhibition match somewhere else in Wyoming," Prigge said. "We always do a free youth clinic when we're there and we've had multiple times where later on in the season someone shows up at a match that was at camp or at that free youth clinic.
 
"One of the reasons we're in this is to set an example for the younger generation and we hope that the Cowgirls are people that young girls in our community can look up to."
 
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
 
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