Cowgirl volleyball looks to make a move

Richard Anderson photos
Cowgirl volleyball coach Carrie Yerty (top, center) begins her second year at the helm.

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Cowgirl soccer to host Hartford
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By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The transition year is over for Carrie Yerty and the Wyoming volleyball program.

Now in her second season as head coach, it was a struggle at times, as the Cowgirls finished just 5-20 on the season and 4-12 in Mountain West Conference play. But with a solid corps of veterans back and one of the more talented recruiting classes in recent history, Wyoming looks to begin the climb back to volleyball respectability.

Yerry said she looks for this team to compete in every match because they have a more athletic team than last year.

“Last year we were a very different team. We focused on making the experience as positive as possible and really providing the girls with the freedom just to play and enjoy their experience,” Yerty said. “We’re getting down to business right now. We know as a group that our goal is win matches and to really elevate the University of Wyoming as a team that can compete in in our conference and out of conference. For us, we’re coming to play.”

The Cowgirls will get that chance to play on Friday when they host the first of two straight preseason tournaments -- the UniWyo Cowgirl Classic. Also competing will be Rutgers, Idaho State and South Dakota State. Next week, Wyoming will host the UniWyo Cowgirl Invite that also includes Montana State, North Dakota and Fresno State.

Wyoming takes on Rutgers Friday at 10 a.m. and South Dakota State at 7 p.m., before closing the tournament on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Idaho State.

“We’re really excited to open up at home,” Yerty said. “We’re excited to play back-to-back at home, which is nice. That allows our new kids to feel more comfortable in their home environment. It allows them the opportunity to get adjusted at school prior to heading out on the road."

The Cowgirls return three starters from last season -- all juniors -- opposite hitter Dani Bedore (3.06 kills per game), middle blocker JennaRae jester (1.88 kpg) and outside hitter Lauren Whitney (2.90 kpg). Also back is senior libero Jessica Kagarise.

Wyoming’s talented recruiting class includes junior transfer setter Barbara Lasic and nine freshmen. They include red shirt freshman libero Nikky Sapp and true freshmen Makenzie Bartsch (middle blocker), Camille Coffman (middle blocker, opposite hitter), Brianna Crowe (libero), Calli Miller (outside hitter), Jodi Purdy (outside hitter), Emily Roehrkasse (middle blocker) and Jadranka Tramosljanin (outside hitter).

Without giving away any early secrets, Yerty said they will rely on some of their newcomers to contribute in this tournament, as well as their veterans being the corps of the team.

“We have a lot talent with this young crew,” Yerty said. “We have been really focusing on meshing, getting them comfortable on offense and getting them comfortable with our defense and our passing. That’s huge, so we have also been focusing on communicating. When you have a young crew or you have a lot of new players, not only are they a little bit timid, they don’t know exactly what to say. We’re starting from the ground up and we’re just talking about the kinds of things that they need to be talking about and really need to go back to where you need to be and what kind of things will be coming at them.”

Just what does Yerty expect from her tough team in this first tournament?

“They just need to play their butts off,” Yerty said. “I believe that they are going to do that and they have trained really hard this off-season. They are injury free, which is a great way to start off the year. They are in great shape. I totally expect us to compete to win matches. Ideally, we want to win this tournament. That would be a great challenge for us. I also want to see our team start to mesh and play as a unity versus six people out on the court trying to figure it out.”
　
Building to the conference season, Yerty said their ultimate goal is to win every match and every tournament that they play in. Reality, however, will sink in and she added that they will win some matches and lose some matches along the way.

“It is a priority to win, that is why they brought me here and that is why we recruit the kids that we have,” she said. “We want to put a team out there that can compete to win. But we have 10 new players, so getting them comfortable and getting experience prior to our conference season, that will be critical.

“We have some very good athletes on our team who have played volleyball at a high level. Putting it together is going to be like finding the right pieces of the end product,.”