Cowgirls Host UNLV in Saturday Matinee
* University of Wyoming press release
LARAMIE -- The Wyoming Cowgirls host their first home conference match of the season Saturday as UW welcomes in UNLV to the UniWyo Sports Complex for a 1 p.m., contest.
Wyoming (4-9, 0-1 MW) is coming off a Mountain West-opening loss Tuesday night at Colorado State, dropping the contest with the Rams in four sets. Corin Carruth led the Cowgirls in the loss with eight kills while the trio of Tierney Barlow, Teresa Garza and KC McMahon had seven each at CSU. Garza also added a career-high 10 digs on the night while Kendal Rivera had a team-best three service aces.
Barlow enters Saturday’s contest ranking fourth in the league in hitting percentage, hitting at a clip of .340 to begin her Cowgirl career. Other Cowgirls ranking in the top-10 of the conference is setter Kasia Partyka, who ranks sixth in the league with 9.24 assists per set while Hailey Zuroske’s 3.78 digs per set ranks fifth-best. Kayla Mazzocca is eighth in the MW at just under one block per set.
Head coach Chad Callihan enters Saturday’s contest with 399 wins in his career, with previous stops at Radford, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern prior to Wyoming. Callihan has 172 of those victories at UW, 103 of which are Mountain West victories. Both marks are the best for a head coach in program history.
UNLV opens league play Thursday night at Colorado State before traveling to Laramie for Saturday's contest. The Lady Rebels are 2-2 in true road matches in 2022. UNLV is led by a pair of attackers with more than 160 kills so far this season. Isabel Martin has a team-high 182 kills while Gabrielle Arretche-Ramos has 161. Setter Jhenna Gabriel orchestrates an offensive that is hitting .236 this season and is averaging a team-best 10.14 assists per set, individually.
Defensively, Jordyn Freeman and Chloe Thomas lead the Lady Rebels with 37 and 36 blocks, respectively. In the back row, Maya Sands is averaging over four digs per set in 2022. Head Coach Dawn Sullivan is in her fifth season leading UNLV.