Cowgirls battle, but fall to CSU

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

The Wyoming Cowgirls played hard, but fell in three sets to Border War rival Colorado State 26-24, 25-15 and 27-25 Friday night at the UniWyo Sports Complex.

Wyoming, 9-9, has still yet to win a Mountain West Conference match this season (0-4) and has lost four out of its last-five matches overall.

Colorado State 3-0 in MWC play and 12-3 overall, had to earn the win Friday night, as Wyoming gave it all it could handle for two sets.

The first set went back-and-forth with the Cowgirls eventually taking a 24-22 lead, but Colorado State responded, as Wyoming failed to get the match point, the Lady Rams would get the last four to win 26-24.

The loss in the first set seemed to take the wind out of the Cowgirls sails a bit, while Colorado State came out fired up and Wyoming could not match its intensity.

It was a different story in the third set, though, as Wyoming head coach Carrie Yerty had her team pumped up after the break. The final set was also a hard-fought battle with the home crowd seeing the Cowgirls tie the game at 24 apiece after trailing by two. Both teams would match each other on their next possessions, but Wyoming could not answer after that and the Lady Rams took the final set by two.

“CSU is a great team,” Yerty said. “I think our team came ready to play and we competed and had opportunities in both games one and three and we just couldn’t put it away, but I’m really pleased with the effort my kids gave. I’m pleased with how aggressive they played, I think Dani (Bedore) had a tremendous match for us; she pretty much took their outside out of their entire offensive scheme, which is great. We just have to keep getting better and keep working on staying composed.”

Bedore had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs, while teammate Jodi Purdy also had 11 kills and came away with seven digs. Danielle Minch led the way for Colorado State, racking up 15 kills and six digs with fellow Lady Ram Katelin Batten recording a team high 17 digs.

Wyoming will be on the road again, as they face MWC foe Air Force Thursday in Colorado Springs, Colo., at 7 p.m.