Cowgirls look to play their game on the road

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Dani Bedore, left, and Jenna Arneson look to block a ball in a recent home match.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Earlier in the season, the Cowgirls struggled with their serve game in disappointing three-game losses to TCU and New Mexico at the UniWyo Sports Complex.

The Wyoming volleyball team has shown improvement in that area and if that continues, looks to chip away at both the Frogs and Lobos home court advantages. Wyoming takes on TCU Thursday night at 6 p.m. in Fort Worth, before taking on New Mexico Saturday at 1 p.m. in Albuquerque.

Wyoming head coach Carrie Yerty said they have a pretty simple game plan: “Slow down both teams’ slide attack and serve them off the court.”

Against the two teams earlier, the Cowgirls had a combined 23 service errors to just five aces. On the season, Wyoming has 65 aces to 187 serving errors. Last week in the four-game win over Air Force, Wyoming had six aces and eight serving errors.

“We’re actually are a very good serving team; we just have a hard time under pressure, serving the ball on the court,” Yerty said. “We’ve been working hard this year on that, but that is something that is going to take time to transition from. At this level, if we serve a free ball, we’re going to see it back at us pretty hard. We’re working on not just serving aggressively, but hitting a certain target or zone on the floor aggressively.”

To be expected, the young Cowgirl (4-15 overall, 3-7 in MWC) squad has played well at times, but doesn’t always perform at its best in big-game situations.

Yerty said her players have a lot of pressure on them because they are asked to do things out of their realm, out of their comfort zone.

“When your thinking about what your job is and it incorporates six different facets instead of two that you should have, then there is a lot of things to deal with and think about,” Yerty said. “That’s not their fault, it just means the staff has to get better at training them so they are prepared.”

To pick up a road win or two this weekend, Yerty said they have to follow the game play and play to the best of their ability.

“We’re going to focus on what we are doing versus what the score is and the wins and losses,” she said. “I have said all year that our record isn’t indicative of the effort and the ability these kids have. We don’t have any type of backup bench, and that makes it difficult for a team to have to sustain a really high level of play every night and every day of practice.

“We’re going to go out and we’re going to put our best foot forward and we’re going to play hard. I have absolutely no regrets and I have absolutely nothing but pride and positive things to say about this team. They have really worked through a lot of adversity and change.”

The Cowgirls are led by sophomore rightside hitter Dani Bedore, who is averaging 3.07 kills, which is sixth in the MWC, and 1.56 digs per set. She is followed by sophomore outside hitter Lauren Whitney, who is adding 2.80 kills and almost one dig per set.

The Frogs enter the week with a 17-8 overall and 6-6 in MWC play. They are led by Lauren Otto, who is averaging 3.04 kills and 2.49 digs per set, while Kourtney Edwards is adding 2.30 kills and 1.19 blocks per .

The Lobos are 18-5 overall, 8-4 in MWC play and will take on Colorado State before facing the Cowgirls. They are led by Jeanne Fairchild, who is averaging 4.89 kills and one dig per set, while Anna Lehne is adding 2.18 kills and 1.34 blocks per set.