Rams cross border for conference match up

he Rams volleyball will ride north Friday to battle the Cowgirls

in the famous Border War in Laramie, Wyo., at 7 p.m. The Rams take

their 4-0 league record (13-4 overall) and put it on the line again

this time against Wyoming (13-6, 2-2 Mountain West) who enters the

game with high hopes.

Last weekend the Cowgirls beat SDSU and UNLV, and the most

recent win for the Cowgirls was Monday night against the Creighton

Blue Jays. They hope to give the Rams their first conference loss

of the season. Coach Jim Barnes and his team know this won’t be an

easy task, but they are up for the challenge.

“We need to have a couple of good practices over the next

several days and start preparing for Colorado State,” Barnes said

shortly after the win against Creighton. The Cowgirls will be

looking to MWC player of the week Jill Roslund to lead the charge

against the Rams. But the Rams have been doing some charging of

their own, as they continue to climb the USA Today/AVACA Division I

Coaches Top 25. The Rams previously owned the 25th rank but have

since moved to 22nd in the polls.

“It is good to be ranked with the big dogs,” said junior libero

Lindsey Kerr. “It’s going to be hard to move up in the polls

because our opponents aren’t ranked. But one thing that we can do

is keep on winning.”

The team hasn’t had a problem with winning so far, as the Rams

also come off an impressive weekend, beating both UNLV and SDSU.

The Rams game looks good thus far, but they won’t overlook the

Cowgirls.

“Wyoming is a big game for us,” said junior setter Melissa

Courtney. “They are playing really well right now and they always

seem to step their game up a notch when they play us.”

One advantage Wyoming has is the passion of the team’s fans,

which could be the loudest fans in the conference, making for a

very hostile environment. To simulate the environment, coach Tom

Hilbert had his team practice under dim lighting and played a CD at

its highest volume decibel.

“It’s going to be furious,” Kerr said, “But we are just going to

have to stay composed.”

“A lot of us have played there before, so we know what to

expect,” Courtney said.

If the Rams volleyball team could think of anything that would

help win this game, it would be the support of their fans.

“We love the support, and it helps to have big crowds,” Kerr

said.

Rams fans that couldn’t travel to Provo, Utah, for the football

game have the chance to head to the border to watch two teams

battle it out in a Mountain West showdown.

“We’re playing really well, and we’re ranked, and it’s going to

be a lot of fun,” Courtney said.