The Wyoming Cowgirls are looking to build off the success of last season, and retained a good chunk of their roster to repeat that success.
The Cowgirls went 23-11 overall and 13-5 in conference play last year to finish second in the conference play where they made a deep run to the finals in the Mountain West conference tournament, falling just short to UNLV.
The Cowgirls competed in post-season play last season as well, competing in the WNIT. The Cowgirls took down Texas A&M Corpus-Christi at home in the first round but then fell to Kansas State in Manhattan, KS.
The Cowgirls are excited to bring back a good amount of last year’s roster as well as welcoming in some new players, but lost two important senior leaders in Quinn Weidemann and Tommi Olson.
“Our toughest thing that we’re working on is trying to figure out who’s going to be our leaders, who’s gonna be that person on the court when things aren’t going well,” head coach Heather Ezell said in wake of the loss of her two senior leaders last season, “right now, we’ve got a little bit of leadership by committee, which isn’t a bad thing, but we got to get a couple of people to just step up.”
The Cowgirls return center Allyson Fertig, who recently was picked to the preseason All-Mountain West team. Fertig nearly averaged a double-double last season and will likely lead the Cowgirls in points and rebounds.
Malene Pederson, last year’s Mountain West freshman of the year, returns for the Cowgirls and will hope to make a big jump from what was a very successful freshman season.
The Cowgirls also welcome back McKinley Dickerson, previously McKinley Bradshaw as she missed last season due to serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Dickerson was an All-Mountain West team selection for the 2021-2022 season and should bring back a great boost to this Cowgirls team.
The Cowgirls also return guards Emily Mellema, Grace Moyers, Ola Ustowska and Bailey Wilborn as well as forwards Tess Barnes, Paula Salazar and Marta Savic. Some of the Cowgirls new additions include guards Mikyn Hamlin, Joslin Igo, Maren McKenna and Kati Ollilainen, along with forward Madi Symons.
This year’s Cowgirl team believes they can make a big jump from last year and want to take a step up from the WNIT and be competing in the NCAA tournament come March.
“I feel like we really want it this season,” Tess Barnes had said, “we performed really well last year and honestly with the team we have, I think we could do the same.”
Emily Mellema mentions they have a good schedule this season that will certainly help buff their tournament resume if they win. “We have some good non-conference games scheduled,” she said, “it’s just about learning from those and getting us ready for conference.”
The Cowgirls’ most notable non-conference games include home tilts against Nebraska, BYU and Creighton along with road games against Gonzaga and Oklahoma State, games that will certainly give the Cowgirls a chance to impress before their conference schedule.
The Cowgirls open their season at home on Nov. 6th, taking on the North Dakota Fighting Hawks with the game set to tip off at 6:30 p.m.
