Under the weather Cowgirls to host Adams State

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Easily the busiest time of the season for the Wyoming volleyball team hasn’t come at the best time.

The Cowgirls will get right back to work on Tuesday when the host Adams State (7 p.m.), making it the eighth match in 12 days. Unfortunately for Wyoming, several players are being slowed down with the flu.

“We have a sick group, but we have to adapt,” Wyoming coach Carrie Yerty said on Monday. “What did Clint Eastwood say, ‘Adapt and overcome.’ The show goes on. Come hell and high water, we’re going to put a group out there and they are going to give us 110 percent, like they do every day. We just have another hill to climb.”

It’s been a tough stretch for the Cowgirls, 0-3 in Mountain West Conference play and 8-8 overall. Wyoming has won just two of its last seven matches.

With such a young team, Yerty said they purposely planned to get as many preseason games in as they could to prepare the team for conference. Last Tuesday’s five-game loss to UNLV in Las Vegas was a tough defeat for the team, as some of the illness followed and the Cowgirls fell to TCU in three games on Thursday in Laramie and New Mexico in four games.

“It was really unfortunate that we lost in five games against Vegas, because I think that would have really kick-started our conference season," Yerty said. “The only thing I can do is get the kids to give 100 percent and get them to continue to get better. It didn’t take one year for this program to go from a great program to a not-so-great program, so it is going to take more than one year to go from a not-so-great program to respectable.”

Despite the adversity, Yerty said the Cowgirls have a positive attitude and are eager to play and train.

“Jodi Purdy told me she is playing, period, and so did Barbara (Lasic),” she said. “I don’t have worry about their commitment or dedication. They do feel pretty crappy and we’ll work around it. We have to really take it easy today and then get through Tuesday so we can start getting healthy for CSU.”

The Cowgirls return to MWC play Friday night when they host rival Colorado State.

“We’re certainly not going to have the training session that we would normally have on a Monday,” Yerty added. “We’ll do a walk-through and a video session for Adams State and go out there and give it our best.”

Adams State is 7-6 overall and 4-2 in the RMAC. The Grizzlies are led by Darcy Jennings-Calkins, who is averaging 3.67 kills and 1.29 blocks per set. Adams State returns three starters and nine letterwinners to a team that went 15-13 overall and 11-8 in the RMAC a year ago. This is the first ever meeting between the two schools.

The Cowgirls are Purdy, a freshman outside hitter, at 3.48 kills and 2.48 digs per set. She is followed by juniors Dani Bedore and Lauren Whitney. Bedore is averaging 2.32 kills and 1.74 digs, while Whitney is adding 1.94 kills. As a team, the Cowgirls are hitting .199 (778-355-2128) and averaging 12.35 kills and 13.03 digs per set.