Over the weekend the Wyoming Cowgirl’s volleyball team won the UniWyo Wyoming invite going (2-1) during it.
The invite started for Wyoming Friday where they fell to Gonzaga in sets of (22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 26-24, 9-15). The Cowgirls lost the first two sets but won two straight to force a fifth and ultimately lost. This loss ended a 14 game winning streak that the Cowgirls had since the end of last season.
Even though the match ended in a loss the Wyoming faithful still showed up strong. “The fans have been fantastic,” head coach Chad Callihan stated.
Savannah Blinn of the Bulldogs was giving the Cowgirls problems for the whole match. Blinn had an incredible 32 kills, compared to the highest number of kills on the Cowgirls, 16.
Head Coach Chad Callihan said of her, “Blinn was a player we knew could have some solid numbers. What we were hoping for was when she rotated to back row, we would be able to go on some runs and we weren’t efficient at all tonight. I don’t know if it was how we practiced this week or everyone talking about how good we were, but we didn’t come prepared tonight. We did a good job of coming back and grinding away at the deficit. I like the never die attitude, just wish we could have sustained it.”
Saturday was much better for the Cowgirls as they began the day winning against Weber State in four sets (25-17, 25-19, 29-27, 25-9).
Coach Callihan said, “We just weren’t great [Friday] night and I give Gonzaga a ton of credit. They had a lot of big blocks on us, stressed us early and we never recovered from it. [Saturday] morning against Weber State, we were still a little bit timid, sluggish maybe a hangover from [Friday] night and we weren’t sure what we were going to get [Saturday night].”
The Cowgirls were led by Sophomore Kayla Slofkiss who had 11.5 points for the match with Junior Bridget Shanahan not far behind with 11 points.
The second match on Saturday was also a win for the Cowgirls against Ferman winning in sets of (25-17, 25-19, 27-29, 25-9). Wyoming played well in the sets they won and only had a bit of a hiccup in the third set in which they lost.
Four Cowgirls had double figures in points with Kayla Slofkiss yet again leading the charge with 18.
“I loved our performance it was one of our best blocking matches of the season. Once we get that going, our offense seems to do pretty well. We swung smarter and had good pace on the ball, but it was the right shot and what was open. It was just a good all-around effort and I’m proud of the group,” Coach Callihan said of the match against Ferman.
Senior Erin Kirby and Sophomore Laura Beach got all-tournament honors with Kayla Slofkiss winning tournament MVP.
The Cowgirl’s record on the season is now 9-1 on the season. They will head down to Greeley, Colorado to play in the Hampton Inn and Suites UNC Classic where they will play three sets beginning Friday.
