Broncos Buck Off Cowgirls
Nathan Forest
nforest@uwyo.edu
Cowgirl volleyball fell in four sets to the Boise State Broncos on Saturday in a fiercely contested four set match at Bronco Gym.
The Cowgirls lost 25-19, 23-25, 27-25, 25-15 to bring them to 16-6 on the season and 6-4 in the Mountain West. The Broncos move up to 15-7 overall and 7-3 in the Mountain West.
In the first set the Broncos opened up late and got out to a 24-14 lead. But the Cowgirls went on a five-point run to bring the final to 25-19.
The second set was an absolute battle with few leads over two points. This set had 14 tie scores and six lead changes.
The third set was also a fierce competition that resulted in eight tie scores and led to extra points to decide a winner.
The Cowgirls got off to a poor start in the fourth, which led to their two timeouts being used early. However, they ran into problems and Boise ran up point differentials of up to 11.
Kayla Slofkiss led the Cowgirl offense with 12 points and had Laura Beach close behind with 11.5 points. Reed Copeland also put down nine points and had five blocks for the Cowgirls.
Allison Waldvogel held the Cowgirl defense with 25 of the team’s 51 digs. This was her sixth match this year with at least 20 digs.
Courtney Chacon had the next most digs at seven, Chacon also put up a team high of 26 assists. This was Chacon’s fifth match over 25 assists, and her 10th match with at least 20 assists.
Cori Aafedt was close behind Chacon with 15 assists. Aafedt also had a run of back-to-back service aces.
But Sierra Nobley of the Broncos stole the show with 25.5 points to her name as well as 11 digs. Maddy O’Donnel followed Nobley with 13.5 points on the night.
Maddi Osburn led the Broncos defense with six assists in addition to her 20 digs. Sarah Baugh was also a mainstay in the defense with 12 digs and 51 of her team’s 62 assists.
The Cowgirls had a slight edge on the Broncos defensively, putting up nine blocks to the Broncos six.
The Cowgirls have struggled all season with road games, but they return to the UniWyo Sports Complex Thursday evening when they play Nevada. Following that game, the Cowgirls will take on San Diego State on Saturday afternoon.
