Cowgirls sweep Aztecs to begin series

LARAMIE -- The Wyoming volleyball team started off its weekend series with San Diego State strongly, winning Friday night in straight sets, 25-19, 26-24 and 25-22. The win was the Cowgirls’ third sweep at home this season and improved to 6-3 overall on the season.

For the second match in a row, Emersen Cyza led the Cowgirls in kills and had another strong match as she tallied a match-high 18 kills while hitting a very strong .567 in the sweep. Cyza also added five digs and had one of UW’s two service aces on the night.

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Jackie McBride added eight kills while Hailey Zuroske chipped in with seven and had the other ace for Wyoming. McBride once again led the way at the net defensively for UW as she and Faith Waitsman each had three total blocks to lead the Cowgirls. Abby Olsen led the way with 35 assists in the win while in the back row, Erika Jones led the way with 11 digs.

Statistically, both teams had six blocks and the Cowgirls had a slight edge in kills (43-41) and service aces (2-1) However, the Cowgirls hit .282 on the night, including hitting over .400 in sets one and three while SDSU (3-6) hit .215 for the match and also committed 12 serving errors.

Wyoming jumped out early on the Aztecs to begin the night, leading from start-to-finish in the first set after opening the match with a 5-1 lead. SDSU would climb its way back into the set, cutting the Cowgirl deficit down to 8-7, but from there, the Cowgirls responded and had a comfortable margin most of the set, including leading by as many as seven points, twice.

The second set was very competitive, as the Aztecs jumped out to a 14-10 lead before a 7-1 run from the Cowgirls pushed them in front at 17-15. From that point, Wyoming wouldn’t relinquish the lead, however, leading at set point, 24-20, SDSU would rally with four consecutive points to tie the set at 24-24 forcing a pair of Wyoming timeouts along the way.

But, UW secured the set victory thanks to back-to-back attack errors from SDSU following the Wyoming timeout.

The final set was also extremely tight, as neither team could get control as the set featured 13 ties in it. Wyoming was finally able to snag control of the third after three consecutive points broke an 18-18 tie and made it 21-18 Cowgirls. After SDSU cut the lead down to 22-21, the Cowgirls got back-to-back points from Zuroske, a kill and ace and then closed the set with a kill from Waitsman.

Wyoming now looks for the sweep over the Aztecs as the two teams will have a short turnaround to close the two-match series as Saturday’s first serve is set for noon at the UniWyo Sports Complex.

* University of Wyoming press release