RENO, Nev. — The Wyoming Cowgirls closed their four-match road swing with back-to-back victories over Nevada, sweeping the Wolf Pack on Thursday before outlasting them in a five-set marathon Saturday.
Wyoming opened the series with a 25-21, 25-19, 25-15 sweep. The Cowgirls improved to 11-11 overall and 4-7 in Mountain West play after holding Nevada to a .077 hitting percentage while hitting .200 themselves.
The opening set featured seven ties, but Wyoming never trailed. Nevada pulled even at 18-18 before the Cowgirls closed the set with a 7-3 run. Wyoming led throughout the second set and, after holding a 20-19 advantage, scored the final five points to take a two-set lead.
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The Cowgirls faced an early deficit in the third set as Nevada scored the first eight points. Wyoming responded by outscoring the Wolf Pack 25-7 the rest of the way, using runs of six and nine points to complete the sweep.
Paige Lauterwasser led Wyoming with 10 kills. Addy Thorington added seven, while Ruby Jensen and Emma Winter finished with six apiece. Anna Williams had five kills while hitting .714, and Sara Quigley added four kills while hitting .429. Winter led the Cowgirls with nine digs, while Peyton Carruth recorded eight in her first career start at libero. Williams and Winter each had two block assists, and Anna Melgren and Thorington led Wyoming with two service aces apiece.
Saturday’s match was a much longer battle, with Wyoming rallying for a 26-24, 29-31, 19-25, 25-13, 16-14 victory. The five-set contest featured 50 ties and 25 lead changes and lasted 2 hours, 42 minutes.
Lauterwasser and Quigley each recorded career highs for the second time in as many weeks. Lauterwasser finished with a career-best 26 kills while hitting .490 and added 20 digs. Quigley recorded 62 assists, one shy of a double-double, and added nine digs. Her assist total topped the career-high 61 she set the previous week at Grand Canyon.
Winter also delivered a strong performance with 19 kills and 10 digs for her second double-double of the season. Thorington added 11 kills, while Ruby Jensen and Thorington led Wyoming with two total blocks apiece. Carruth contributed 13 digs and led the Cowgirls with four service aces.
Wyoming hit .302 as a team Saturday, while Nevada hit .282. The Wolf Pack held a 7-4 advantage in blocks and a 7-6 edge in service aces, but committed 11 serving errors compared with nine for the Cowgirls.
The two victories allowed Wyoming to finish its four-match road swing with a 2-2 record. The Cowgirls return to Laramie for their next four matches, beginning with a two-match series against UNLV at the UniWyo Sports Complex. The first match is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5.
