Cowgirl Volleyball Team Off To Great Start

The Wyoming Volleyball team (7-0 overall) took home the UniWyo Cowgirl Classic title with a three-set sweep (25-14, 26-24, 25-8) over the Montana Griz (0-6 overall) on Saturday afternoon in Laramie. The Cowgirls have now won a school best 14 matches in a row dating back to last season. It surpasses the 13-match winning streak set by the 1989 team. During that stretch of matches, Wyoming has only dropped seven sets to their opponents.

Three Cowgirls were selected to the All-Tournament team led by junior Bridget Shanahan. She recorded a team high 12 kills and hit .407 (12-1-27) on her way to earning MVP honors. Laura Beach followed with 10 kills and five total blocks and Erin Kirby added six kills and three blocks to garner All-Tournament Team honors. Wyoming hit .344 (43-11-93) for the match and out blocked the Griz 9-5.

Montana had a tough outing as two players, Michelle Robinson and Claire McCown each finished with five kills each. Libero Taylor Chile had a team high 14 kills and Kelsey Schile recorded 12 assists. The Griz hit .095 (25-16-84) for the match.

“We talked that a team seeing you a second time around is going to make adjustments and do things differently, which Montana did today,” head coach Chad Callihan said. “It took us a little while to get in sync and find our rhythm because it was such an emotional match last night. I give Montana a lot of credit to keep us off for a bit. We did a good job of settling in and playing well in the third set.

“We’ve been on a nice run this season and between last season and this year the personnel is completely different. I’m excited about the start we’ve had, didn’t play as well this weekend, but I think playing in front of the crowd we just didn’t manage the emotions as well. It is good for us to learn from it, we still have a fairly young team on the floor.”

Wyoming took the early 4-2 lead to begin the match against Montana which they increased to 7-4. The Griz scored four of the next six to close the gap to one, 9-8. The Cowgirls responded with an 8-1 run including five straight points to pull ahead by eight, 17-9. After a kill by Montana’s Robinson, Wyoming closed out the set out scoring Montana, 8-4, to take it, 25-14. The Cowgirls hit .324 (15-3-37) while Erin Kirby had four kills and hit .800 (4-0-5).

Montana scored first in the second set but three straight kills by Shanahan put Wyoming up 3-1. The score would quickly be evened up at four and then the teams traded scores. With the score 9-8 in favor of the Cowgirls, the Griz ran off four straight to pull ahead 12-9. The Cowgirls clawed their way back into it and evened up the score at 15 all. A kill by McCown ended the Wyoming scoring streak but the teams traded points over the next several scores with neither gaining a real advantage. The Griz earned set point at 24-23 which the Cowgirls answered with two Kayla Henderson kills and a block assist by Henderson and Beach to take set two, 26-24.

The momentum stayed on the side of the Cowgirls to being the third set as they scored the first seven points. After a Montana score, the Cowgirls built the lead to 14-7. From that point, UW scored the next ten straight points before giving the Griz their eighth point of the set. Wyoming would close it out 25-8 and the match 3-0.

Wyoming continues play next weekend at home as they host the UniWyo Wyoming Invite beginning on Friday, Sept. 12. They will host Furman, Gonzaga and Weber State.