This past Thursday, the Wyoming Cowgirls volleyball team ended their four game home stand on a high note with a sweeping set win (25-9, 25-15, 25-8) against Fresno State. The Cowgirls are now 14-5 on the season and 3-3 in Mountain West conference play. They also went 3-1 during this home stretch.
Wyoming began the first set with a 14-0 lead with three aces from serves. Zana Bowens for the Bulldogs did end Wyoming’s 14-point run with a kill, but it was not enough to stop the Cowgirls. Wyoming won the match 25-9 and didn’t allow Fresno State to come within ten points.
The second set would be closest of the day, but still had the same result in the end. It was an 8-5 Wyoming lead before the Cowgirls started to heat up. Wyoming then had point runs of 4-1 and 7-2 that would lead to a Wyoming set win. Sophomore Kayla Slofkiss led the team with five kills and six points during the match.
The third and final match was more of the same for the Cowgirls. Wyoming had an 8-3 advantage before Fresno State had to take a timeout to regroup. Wyoming ended the set with a 12-1 run and ultimately winning the match 3-0.
This match dropped the Fresno State volleyball team to 6-13 overall and 1-4 in Mountain West conference play.
“Tonight was a great performance,” head coach Chad Callihan said. “This could have been a tough match after Tuesday night’s match against CSU because of our performance. We could have come in to tonight with a bit of a hangover and not been in it mentally.”
Wyoming had an attacking percentage of .441 and was able to hold Fresno State to -.124. Kayla Sloffkis and Junior Bridget Shanahan both led the team with nine kills for the match and both were in double-digit points as well. Fresno State didn’t have a player that had more than seven points and none in double-digit points. Sophomore Laura Beach and Senior Erin Kirby both had six block assists for Wyoming as well.
Wyoming now sits sixth in the Mountain West standings and is only half of a game out of second place. Wyoming has four players at the moments that have over 200 points and Bridget Shanahan leads them with 266. The Cowgirls also have five players that are in the triple digits in kills.
The Cowgirls will be on the road for their next two matches beginning Thursday Oct 16 when they head down to Colorado Springs to play the Air Force Falcons. They will then head to Albuquerque to play the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday.
