Cowgirls roll past Utes

Richard Anderson photo
The Cowgirls celebrate a point Saturday night in the three-game win over Utah.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

A little confidence goes a long way for the Wyoming Cowgirls these days.

After playing well, but not good enough to beat 24th-ranked Brigham Young on Thursday, the Cowgirls took it a step further with a resounding three-game win over highly regarded Utah Saturday night at the UniWyo Sports Complex.

Wyoming won its first Mountain West Conference match (1-1, 2-9 overall) on the season and the first in head coach Carrie Yerty’s career, with a 25-22, 25-20 and 25-18 victory.

It was also the Cowgirls first win against Utah since 1997 (21 matches, including post-season play).

“I’m excited to go back and see when was the last time we beat Utah in three,” Wyoming coach Carrie Yerty said. “That’s exciting.”

How about since the 1991 season.

Wyoming sophomore middle blocker JennaRae Jester said they finally did what they knew they could do.

“We knew we could compete well enough, but finally we believed in ourselves enough to do it,” Jester said.

Yerty always enjoys what she is doing, she said, but a match like this always makes her job a little more pleasurable when things go your way. Things went the Cowgirls way on Saturday night.

“This team has had two really close ones against two really good teams, so it was nice to see the composure, it was nice to see the execution of our game plan -- it was executed to a T, from the way we served, to how we attacked,” Yerty said.

The Cowgirls came out strong in the match, although they probably stubbed their toes a couple of times between that first point and match point. Utah did lead on a few occasions, but Wyoming always seemed to have an answer.

“Carrie said to make sure you come out hard, make sure your warm-ups are good, because we seemed a little flat in our first games (in each match),” Jester said. “It was our job to come out hard against them and take them down first.”

The key for this young Cowgirls’ team, Yerty said, is to stay composed at the same level of play. That was the big message between the second and third games.

“We do some really good things and then sometimes we will give up a lot of points in a row,” Yerty said. “For us, if we can be consistent with see-saw, back-and-forth play with a team, we’ll be competitive. I said, ‘you don’t have to do anything different than what you have been doing; we don’t have to try harder and we don’t have to be smarter. We just have to continue to execute and we just have to continue to pass the ball.'”

For the second straight match -- actually in about every match this season -- the Cowgirls had to battle against a bigger team.

More heart can take down more height any day, Yerty said.

“We’ve done a lot of things to bond to get ready for this year,” Yerty said. “I don’t know if we are going to win our next match or not, but I do know that the girls are enjoying that experience and they are getting better every time they step out on the floor.”

The Utes might be among the biggest team that they have faced, led by 6-foot-7 Emiliee Toone.

“Our defense did a fabulous job tonight,” Yerty added. “When you are playing against 6-3, 6-5, 6-7 and you have a 5-7 outside hitter and a 5-7 setter in the front row, we really have to execute our blocking schemes. I think we did a really good job of that.”

It might look like the Cowgirl defense is in the right place at the right time, but senior libero Carissa Lee, who had six of the team’s 46 digs, said they have to be mindful about where they are at. And it all starts in practice.

“It’s practice, practice, practice. It’s really nice to see it come out during the game,” said Lee, who added that playing defense is an attitude, a way of life out on the court. “It’s go, go, go, get it up and do the best that you can.”

Offensively, sophomore Dani Bedore led the way with 14 kills, followed by Arneson with 11, sophomore Lauren Whitney with nine and Jester with eight. The Cowgirls hit .305 on the night.

“We were on tonight, it was amazing,” Arneson said. “It’s just the energy, the chemistry, getting excited and brushing off the bad stuff.”

Utah, which fell to 0-2 and 7-5, was led by Toone with 10 kills. The Utes, who lost to CSU in five games on Thursday night, had just 34 kills and hit .131.

Wyoming looks to take this momentum to Fort Collins next Friday with the first annual Border War match with Colorado State.

“We’ll just keep the momentum and keep going to the next game and take on CSU and everyone else in conference,” Arneson said.