The Wyoming Cowgirls earned their tenth conference win of the season as they beat the Air Force Falcons in four sets (24-26, 25-23, 28-26, 25-12).
Sophomore Laura Beach had a career high in kills with 17. Beach also had 19 points and had a hitting percentage of .517. Senior Erin Kirby had 15 points, 13 kills and led the Cowgirls with a hitting percentage of .667 during the match.
After the match, head coach Chad Callihan said, “We just have lacked energy and intensity over these last two matches. This wasn’t as much about X’s and O’s but competing. I was pleased with the fourth set minus a couple of service errors we were able to find a nice rhythm.”
The first set began back and forth until Wyoming had an 11-9 lead. A kill by Clement on Air Force then sparked a 9-3 run for the Falcons, where they then found themselves with a four point lead. After a Wyoming timeout the Cowgirls were able to tie it up at 18 all. Wyoming could not finish it off in the end and lost the first set 24-26.
Wyoming began the second set slowly building a lead of 14-7. Air Force took a timeout and then went on a 13-6 run to tie things up at 20-20. The two teams exchanged blows until the score was 23-23. Wyoming scored the next two points to take the second set 25-23 and tied up the match 1-1.
In the third set Wyoming found themselves again with an early lead of 9-7. The Falcons then went on a 6-1 run to take a three point lead. Wyoming scored the next three points that was started with a kill by sophomore Courtney Chacon. The two teams went back and forth until Air Force was able to pull away a little with a two point lead. Wyoming took a timeout and was able to take the lead at 26-25 coming out of it. After the Falcons took a timeout the Cowgirls we able to finish of the set with a score of 28-26.
The fourth and final set began with Wyoming taking another early lead of 11-4 that caused Air Force to take a timeout to try and stop some of the Cowgirls’ momentum. The Cowgirls finished off the set on a 14-8 run and won it 25-12. UW won the match 3-1.
The Cowgirls sit third in the Mountain West. They are four games behind the Colorado State Rams who sit in first place, and rank 12th in the nation.
The Wyoming Cowgirls will play their final match of the season against the Nevada Wolf Pack on Wednesday. The match will begin at 7 p.m. at UniWyo Sports Complex.
