The University of Wyoming Cowgirls volleyball team beat the Arizona State Sun Devils 3-1 on Friday at the UniWyo Sports Complex in Laramie.
Sophomore Jackie McBride leads the Cowgirls in kills with 13; followed by senior Reed Copeland and junior Halie McArdle, who both had 11 kills.
“I thought we played well,” head coach of the Cowgirls Chad Callihan said. “The girls did a nice job coming out and setting a tone for the match.”
The Cowgirls won the first set 25-20 with 14 kills and four blocks. Arizona State also had 14 kills in the first set.
The Cowgirls took their momentum from the first set into the second, beating Arizona 25-16 with 13 kills. Arizona, however, had 15 kills in the second set but it was not enough to beat the Cowgirls.
“We were up 14-10 in the third and I kind of thought we got a little relaxed and I think that brought ASU back into it a little bit,” Callihan said. “When you’re playing a good team, and they are a good team, I don’t think you can allow the team to hang around and we did that a little bit.”
The Cowgirls lost the third set 25-20 with 14 kills, as opposed to Arizona’s 13 kills.
However, the Cowgirls were able to turn it around in the fourth set.
“Nice to see us kind of bounce back there in the fourth set,” Callihan said. “I never thought we played fantastic there, but I did think we were effective offensively and just did what we had to do to squeak out that last one.”
This was the Cowgirls’ second win at the UniWyo invite. They bested Binghamton earlier on Friday and have one more game on Saturday against Murray State University.
“I think that that is the challenge, just coming back and making sure that we are ready to go tomorrow,” coach Callihan said. “This match will be pretty diminished if we don’t come in and compete tomorrow.”
The Cowgirls are set to play Murray State Saturday at 1:00 p.m. MST in the UniWyo Sports Complex.
