Saturday, November 15, 2008

Cowgirls stop Aztecs in four


Richard Anderson photo
The Cowgirls celebrate a big defensive play Saturday in the win over San Diego State

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

This time the Cowgirls finished the job.

Wyoming closed strong in three of the four games and downed San Diego State to send the three Cowgirl seniors out a winner in their final home matches of their careers. The Cowgirls (4-10 in the MWC, 5-18 overall) prevailed 26-24, 25-21, 20-25 and 25-19.

After out-playing the Aztecs (5-10, 8-17) in the end of the first two sets, the Cowgirls stumbled out of the block before making it close at the end in the third game. Not wanting to chance another five-set match, Wyoming came out and took control in the fourth game and never really let up.

The Cowgirls are 0-7 this season in five-set matches, including Thursday in a disappointing loss to UNLV.

Saturday, the Cowgirls had something to hang their hats on.

“It’s a great win for our seniors, it’s a great win for our program. Any win is a great win,” Wyoming coach Carrie Yerty said. “It’s nice to see at the end of the season, when you’re going five with teams, to be able to get a team in four.”

Saturday’s match was the final home contest for setter Tasha Weishahn, libero Carissa Lee and outside hitter Samantha Eley. Wyoming honored the three seniors before the match with flowers and a yellow flag with Steamboat on it in which they draped over their backs after they were introduced. At the end of the match, Cowgirl fans were invited down to the court where a slide show was presented with pictures of all three seniors throughout their careers.

“These seniors have been the foundation builders for the future of our program. For the first year as the Cowgirl coach, I couldn’t ask for better people to be on my team leading them,” Yerty said.

While the night belonged to the three seniors, four sophomores led the way offensively in the win. Outside hitter Lauren Whitney had a match-high 18 kills, followed by outside hitters Jenna Arneson and Dani Bedore with 14 and 13 kills respectively and middle blocker JennaRae Jester with 11 kills.

Weishahn had 50 assists in the match and is currently third all-time in assists with 4,138, with Lee adding to her UW-leading digs mark with 17 on Saturday. She now has 1,127 digs in her career. Eley is now ninth all time in digs with 888.

“I’m really proud of this team. We have another weekend and we’re excited to take on Utah and BYU,” Yerty said.

San Diego State was paced by Kyley Sexton with 12 kills.

Wyoming will face Utah Thursday in Salt Lake City before taking on BYU Saturday in Provo. Wyoming split with the two teams in Laramie, shocking the No. 23 Utes in three games. While UW traditionally hasn’t fared well on this trip, Yerty said they are not going to back down.

“We’re going to go after a win, like we do every time,” Yerty said.

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