The Wyoming Cowgirls volleyball team defeated the Nevada Wolf Pack Thursday night at the UniWyo Sports Complex in Laramie.
Wyoming beat Nevada in three straight games by scores of 25-18, 25-22 and 25-19. After this win, Wyoming improves to 10-9 on the season and 5-2 in conference play.
Wyoming ended the night with 39 kills and 36 assists offensively along with three aces. Defensively the Cowgirls ended with 44 digs and 11 blocks.
Wyoming was led by Emily Lewis and Tara Traphagan who each had 10 kills over the three games. Marissa Harmon added 30 assists to the match. Madi Fields, Jackie McBride and Harmon each had an ace during the match. Defensively the Cowgirls Fields had 17 digs while Reed Copeland had eight blocks.
Nevada ended the day with 33 kills and 30 assists. Defensively Nevada had 42 digs and three total team blocks.
The Wolf Pack was led by Ayla Fresenius with 10 kills and Dalyn Burns had 18 assists. Defensively Kayla Afoa led the way with 15 digs.
Following the game head coach Chad Callihan said, “We are beginning to build confidence.”
First Set.
After trading points back and forth Wyoming slowly built a six-point lead midway through the first set with a score of 15-9. Nevada fought its way back and eventually pulled within three points with UW leading 18-15. From there the Cowgirls would go on a 7-3 run and end the set with a score of 25-18.
Wyoming was led by Emily Lewis who had four kills in the set while Harmon added 10 assists. Defensively, Fields had seven digs to help out the Cowgirls.
Wyoming had 13 kills, 13 assists, 17 digs and a block in the first set. Wyoming would commit six total errors in the set.
Nevada was led by Fresenius who had five kills in the set and Burns had seven assists and added three digs defensively.
Nevada had 11 kills, 10 assists and 10 digs in the set. Nevada committed 11 errors.
Second Set.
Wyoming got out to a rocky start in the second set. Wyoming and Nevada were tied nine different times in the set. Wyoming had the lead the majority of the time for the first 30 points of the game. After being tied at 15, Nevada took the advantage until the teams tied at 21. From there the Cowgirls were able to string together a couple of points winning the set 25-22.
“It was nice to see us respond after we got down… We knew Nevada would not go away, they are scrappy team… It was nice to see us be able to grind out a win when we are not playing our best volleyball,” Callihan said.
McArdle led Wyoming with 3 kills. Harmon added eight assists to her total. Fields had five more digs in the second set.
Wyoming had 10 kills, nine assists, six blocks and 13 digs. Wyoming had seven more errors.
Nevada was led by Fresenius again with four kills. Burns added 6 more assists. Afoa had nine digs defensively for the Wolf Pack.
Nevada had 13 kills, 11 assists, 21 digs and a block during the second set. Nevada also committed 11 errors.
Third Set
After a couple early mistakes Wyoming cruised to a 25-19 victory. After winning this set, Wyoming ended the match and took home the victory.
Traphagan led the Cowgirls with six kills while Harmon added 12 assists. Fields added five more digs defensively.
Wyoming had 13 kills, 14 assists, 14 digs and four blocks in the final set. They committed seven errors also.
Nevada was led by Jamila Minor who had three kills and Burns had five assists. Afoa had four digs defensively.
The Wolf Pack had nine kills, nine assists, 11 digs and two blocks in the final set and they also committed eight errors.
On the early mistakes in the third Callihan said, “We just got to be crisper overall.”
Wyoming will be back in action at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, to face the San Jose State Spartans at the UniWyo Sports complex on the UW campus in Laramie.
“We are going to have to play better than we did tonight, that’s a good team,” Callihan said.
In the current conference standings, Wyoming is in second and San Jose is right behind them in third place.
