Cowgirls ride into town to face No. 7 CSU

The CSU women’s volleyball team looks to lasso the Wyoming

Cowgirls at 7 p.m. at Moby Arena.

The ever-eventful Border War between the two Mountain West

Conference rivals features a nationally ranked team in No. 7 CSU

(12-1,4-0 MWC) and young team looking to prove itself in

Wyoming.

Wyoming (8-7, 2-2) has been good at times but is still looking

to find consistent play among its young players.

“We’re still young enough we don’t worry about the opponent a

whole lot,” said Wyoming head coach Pat Stangle. “We’re still

spending a lot of time on our side of the net.”

Wyoming has five freshmen with starting positions and two

seniors. Despite the new players, the Cowgirls are still a game

over .500. Stangle is also new, as he is in his first year as

Wyoming head coach. Stangle was an assistant with Washington State

when he faced CSU in the NCAA regional finals in 2000.

“I know they’re big and they’re physical,” Stangle said of CSU.

“You can’t be timid against a team like that.”

Freshman middle blocker Shelby Heggie leads the team with a .346

hitting percentage with 2.34 kills per game and is second on the

team with .71 blocks per game and four solo blocks. Fellow freshman

blocker Lauren Scott also has four solo blocks, 1.28 per game, with

a .292 hitting percentage. Senior outside hitter Sara Maytorena has

a .298 hitting record and has hit a total of 221 kills on the year,

3.38 per game.

“Including our libero, we start five freshman,” Stangle said.

“We’ve had to resign ourselves that we’re going to be good at times

and not good at times.”

As a team, the Cowgirls are hitting .265 with 15.21 kills per

game to the Rams .294 and 17.38. On the road, Wyoming has a 1-4

record, while the Rams are 7-1 at home. In their last road game,

the Cowgirls lost in five games to UNLV. Though they won game one

30-26, the Cowgirls lost game four 30-8.

“Wyoming is always a scrappy team,” said CSU senior outside

hitter Becky Sarauer. “It’s a pretty good rivalry I would say.

They’re going to be a different team than in the past.”

Junior outside hitter Tess Rogers is leading the team with 3.55

kills per game hitting .228. Rogers also has nine solo blocks to

lead the Rams.

“It’s the Border War,” Rogers said. “We got to do our best and

go out and compete against them.”

Wyoming head coach Stangle said he expects CSU to be tough.

“They’re ranked No. 7 in the country,” he said. “And they are

every bit deserving of it. They’re one of the best teams in the

country and that’s where we’d like to be some day. We’re going to

see where we stand.”