Cowgirl Volleyball Officially Opens Fall Camp
LARAMIE -- Wyoming volleyball Thursday afternoon opened fall camp for the 2026 season, just 29 days ahead of its season opener against Texas Tech in Laramie.
The Cowgirls are entering year four under the tutelage of head coach Kaylee Prigge, who in April came to an agreement on a multi-year contract extension.
The Cowgirls are coming off a 17-13 campaign that included a 13-5 mark in Mountain West play.
Those 13 conference wins are the most for UW since 2019, when it went 16-2. Wyoming also qualified for the Mountain West Volleyball Championships last November for the first time since the league re-introduced the postseason tournament in 2021.
UW is led by two-time All-Mountain West Team performer, Paige Lauterwasser, who enters her senior campaign with the Brown & Gold.
Lauterwasser was one of four Cowgirls a season ago to appear in all 117 sets while leading Wyoming with 314 kills (2.68 per set). Lauterwasser was also second on the squad in 2025, averaging 3.15 digs per set. She tallied 10-or-more kills in 16 matches and had 14 double-doubles on the season.
Last November she was named the league's Defensive Player of the Week after notching a team-best 4.75 digs per set in the two victories over San Jose State and Fresno State. Lauterwasser also added four blocks on the week, helping lead a Wyoming defense that held its opponents to just a .159 hitting percentage.
Joining Lauterwasser as returnees from last season are Rya Fingerlin, Abi Milby, Sara Quigley, Reagan Sharp, Maddy Stucky, Addy Thorington, Evelyn Udezue, Anna Williams and Emma Winter.
Wyoming also welcomes seven newcomers this season, including four freshmen and three transfer student-athletes. Freshmen Kristina Bozovic (Podgorica, Montenegro), Rylee Heinz (Rocklin, Calif.), Ruby Jensen (Prescott, Ariz.) and Emerson Macias (Murrieta, Calif.) will be in their first seasons of collegiate volleyball. Transfers Petyon Carruth (Casper College), Ann Melgren (Houston Christian) and Senna Roberts-Navarro (Seton Hall) will provide UW with more experience.
The Cowgirls will host their annual Brown & Gold Scrimmage Aug. 15 at 1:30 p.m. Wyoming will then face Northern Colorado in a pair of exhibitions Aug. 21 and 22, in Greeley. The exhibition on the 21st is at 6 p.m., and open to the public.
Wyoming officially opens play in 2026 with the first of two home tournaments this season. The Cowgirls will host Texas Tech at 6:30 p.m., Aug. 28 and St. Thomas at 1:30 p.m., Aug. 30. Both matches, as part of the Rumble in the Rockies, will be played in the Arena-Auditorium.
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 article
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