LAS VEGAS — Three Wyoming Cowgirls earned All-Mountain West honors Sunday, highlighted by a pair of Player of the Year awards. Allyson Fertig was named Mountain West Player of the Year, while Emily Mellema received Defensive Player of the Year honors. Malene Pedersen also earned All-Mountain West recognition, joining Fertig on the all-conference team.
Fertig is the third Cowgirl in Mountain West history to be named Player of the Year, joining Aubrey Vandiver (2011) and Liv Roberts (2018). She is also the fourth player in program history to earn the honor, along with Amy Burnett, who won back-to-back Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year awards in 1994 and 1995.
Fertig led the Mountain West in scoring (19.5 points per game), rebounding (11.5 per game), blocks (2.1 per game) and field goal percentage (58.4%). She is the first player in league history to lead in all four categories in a single season. She also became just the second player to lead the conference in both scoring and rebounding, joining Vandiver.
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With her Player of the Year selection, Fertig earned her third career All-Mountain West honor, becoming the fifth Cowgirl to achieve the feat and the first since Hanna Zavecz in 2007-08. She scored in double figures in every conference game she played, including eight 20-point performances and two games with 30 or more. Fertig also recorded eight double-doubles.
In addition to her all-conference selection, Fertig was named to the Mountain West All-Defensive Team for the first time in her career. She anchored the league’s top scoring defense and tallied 35 blocks in conference play, recording multiple blocks in 11 games.
Mellema played a key role in Wyoming’s defense, which held opponents to 58.4 points per game on 39.5% shooting in conference play. She ranked second in the Mountain West with 2.2 steals per game and finished 16th in total blocks with 12, the third-most among conference guards. She recorded multiple steals in 12 games, including six contests with at least three and two games with six steals.
Mellema became the fourth Cowgirl to earn Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year honors, joining Brenda Pickup (2004), Zavecz (2006, 2008) and Bailee Cotton (2019). She was also named to the All-Defensive Team for the second straight season, becoming the fifth Cowgirl to earn multiple all-defense selections.
Pedersen, earning her first All-Mountain West selection, ranked eighth in the league in scoring with 15.4 points per game. She scored in double figures in 17 of 18 conference games and recorded four 20-point performances. She finished third in the conference in field goal percentage (53%) and shot 44.3% from 3-point range. Pedersen also ranked 17th in 3-pointers made per game and converted 92% of her free throws (34-for-37).
Pedersen finished third on the team and ninth in the Mountain West in assists, averaging 2.9 per game. Her 2.79 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked fourth in the league. She recorded at least four assists in six games this season.
The second-seeded Cowgirls begin their Mountain West Tournament run Monday at 6 p.m. Mountain Time in the quarterfinals against the winner of Air Force and Utah State in Las Vegas.
