Cowgirl Volleyball Again Receives AVCA Team Academic Award

LEXINGTON, Ky., – Those spikers are smart cookies.

For the 18th consecutive season, the Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball program earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2025-26 academic year.

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Along with 1,431 other institutions around the country -- both college and high school -- UW's roster maintained a team GPA of 3.30 or higher. Those digits reached 3.51 for last year's Cowgirls, in large part thanks to Paige Lauterwasser, who was named to the CSC Academic All-District Team. A dozen other players landed on the Academic All-Mountain West Team.

Wyoming reports to fall camp July 29 with the first day of practice slated for the following day. The Cowgirls officially kick off the season Aug. 28 at 6:30 p.m., inside the Arena-Auditorium as the Texas Tech Red Raiders pay a visit to Laramie to kick off the annual Rumble in the Rockies Tournament.

Extra Points

Three of Wyoming's first four opponents on the 2026 volleyball schedule punched their tickets last winter to the NCAA Tournament.

The University of St. Thomas (Minn.), fresh off a 3-2 setback against Iowa State in the first round of the field of 64, pays a visit to the high plains as part of the Cowgirls' annual Rumble in the Rockies. That tilt will take place Aug. 30 inside the UniWyo Sports Complex, just two days after the season opener versus Texas Tech.

Wyoming will then travel to Salt Lake City, taking on homestanding Utah followed by a date with Eastern Illinois. Both fell in the opening round of the tourney last December.

Kaylee Prigge's squad opens Mountain West action Sept. 24 at home against new conference foe UTEP. The Miners also failed to reach the second round, falling 3-1 to North Carolina.

The Cowgirls' final warm up of the preseason also features an exhibition match against a Northern Colorado program that won the Big Sky Conference tournament title and battled No. 3 seed Creighton to a 3-2 loss in Omaha.

Colorado State, despite moving to the reimagined Pac-12 this July, also remains on the schedule. The Border War will take place Sept. 12 in Laramie. Boise State, Wyoming's former league mate, will meet Wyoming in Utah on Sept. 17.

This season during MW play, teams will either host both matchups against a school or will travel to play both contests on the road, except against their travel partner. Wyoming’s travel partner is Air Force.

The Cowgirls’ home “series” this season comes against Hawaii (Oct. 16-17), UNLV (Nov. 5 & 7) and UC Davis (Nov. 12 & 14), in addition to UTEP. Wyoming will split home-and-road contests against Air Force. UW hosts the Falcons Oct. 8 before traveling to the Academy Oct. 10.

The Mountain West Volleyball Championships will be held Nov. 24 and 25 in Las Vegas.

* A UW press release contributed to this report

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