Cowgirl volleyball to open MWC at Vegas

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

An ambitious preseason that saw the Wyoming volleyball team play in four tournaments is now history, as the Cowgirls begin Mountain West Conference play Tuesday night at UNLV.

Wyoming, 8-5 overall, takes on the Rebels at 8 p.m. in Las Vegas.

Flying straight to Las Vegas from a tournament in New Hampshire over the weekend, Wyoming head coach Carrie Yerty was in the process of beginning a Monday practice in Vegas by proclaiming that she was ready for the MWC season to begin.

“I’m always ready,” Yerty said. “I think we definitely had a successful preseason. I think we’ve seen improvement in terms of team chemistry, just meshing together and feeling comfortable on the court, as well as picking up experience.”

Another young team that can put two or three freshmen on the court at once, the Cowgirls played an extra tournament this year, including two at home and two on the road.

Just the extra time on the court has Yerty thinking that her young players are not as shell-shocked as they might have been early on.

“My young kids transitioned from a very difficult preseason in terms of three-a-days and two-a-days. They go immediately into school without travel and then they transitioned to school and travel and now school, travel and Mountain West,” she said. “They all know what the Mountain West means, in terms of the matches and competing.”

The last couple of weeks have prepared the Cowgirls for the MWC schedule, Yerty added.

“Every time we stepped into a gym on the road for the last two weekends, we prepared exactly the way we wanted to prepare for the Mountain West season,” she said. “I feel like the more comfortable and adjusted I can have my team, they’ll be in terms of being relaxed on the court and ready to play. We do a tremendous amount of film and scouting as a staff that we incorporate into our practices, that we feel our young squad can handle. We still focus a lot of taking care of our self.”

The Rebels are off to a slow start, losing their first league match and standing 1-7 on the season. They are off to a slow start, Yerty said, just because they have had a tough preseason.

“They played Florida, UCLA, Idaho, Oregon State … they’ve played some real solid competition,” she said. “For us, we don’t think there is a team in the Mountain West that is an easy win. We take each team seriously. I feel that this year the Mountain West is going to be stronger than it was last year, from top to bottom. The best team that night is going to win.”

The Rebels are led by 6-foot-2 middle blocker Cursty Jackson, who is averaging 2.50 kills and almost one dig per set. They return four starters and 12 letterwinners to a team that went 16-14 overall and 9-7 in the MWC a year ago.

“We need to stop their middles. Erin Greenway, she is a senior and 6-4. We need to slow her down. They have another middle, Samantha Noland, 6-3 and a senior,” Yerty said. “We need to also take care of the ball and we need to serve aggressively in the court and continue to eliminate errors on our side of the court."

The Cowgirls are led by freshman outside hitter Jodi Purdy, who is averaging 3.48 kills and 2.50 digs per set. She is followed by junior outside hitters Lauren Whitney and Dani Bedore. Whitney is averaging 2.28 kills, while Bedore is adding 2.16 kills and 1.70 digs per set.

The Cowgirls will be right back at it this week at home, as they host TCU on Thursday and New Mexico on Saturday. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. in the UniWyo Sports Complex.