Broncos Outlast Cowgirls in Five-Set Battle

Winter leads Cowgirls with career-high 19 kills 

BOISE, Idaho (Nov. 7, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirls came up short Thursday night in a five-set battle on the road at Boise State. The match was tight all night as set scores went 23-25, 25-23, 23-25, 27-25 and 15-10. Thursday featured a total of 47 ties and 23 lead changes in the five sets.

The Cowgirls (14-10, 6-8 MW) showed resiliency in their first and third set victories as they looked as if they may take the win on the road. Wyoming ended the first set on a 6-1 run, turning a 22-19 deficit late in the set into the 25-23 comeback win. Set one had eight different ties and four lead changes.

Set two was tightly-contested as well, featuring 10 ties and four lead changes that saw Boise State (16-8, 8-5 MW) return the favor in a 25-23 win to tie the match at one set each. In the third, the Cowgirls reclaimed the match lead with another strong performance down the stretch. The back-and-forth third, that had 12 ties and seven lead changes, saw Wyoming trailing 23-20 late, before a five-point scoring run gave the Cowgirls another 25-23 win.

UW had an early lead in the fourth and eventually took a 13-10 lead partway through the set. However, the Broncos responded from there and eventually took a 24-22 lead. The Cowgirls staved off three set points before Boise got back-to-back points after a 25-25 tie to win the fourth and force a winner-take-all fifth. In the fifth, again the Cowgirls jumped out early, taking a 4-1 lead before Boise State would push out in front. The Broncos rattled off four consecutive points to turn a 9-9 tie into a 13-9 advantage and closed on a 6-1 run down the stretch to take the set and the match.

Boise State had a slight edge in team hitting at .241 to .237. The Broncos edged the Cowgirls 11-10 in team blocking and had 10 service aces to UW’s six. Boise State, the league’s top serving team, had just one ace in the two teams’ first five-set meeting back in October.

Emma Winter and Paige Lauterwasser led the Cowgirl attack with 19 and 15 kills, respectively. The 19 kills are a new career-high for Winter as she also hit .318 on the night. Lauterwasser tied a career-best with 14 digs in the loss

Kasia Partyka and Kayla Mazzocca had eight kills each while Sarah Holcomb added seven and hit .357. Partyka had a stellar all-around match as she hit .412, tallied 49 assists, had 13 digs, two aces and a pair of blocks. Holcomb and Mazzocca led the Cowgirls with five total blocks each while Claire Wagstaff added four. Sierra Grizzle led the back row with 18 digs on the night and also had two aces. Skylar Erickson had a season-best 15 digs.

Wyoming, having already played earlier this week on Tuesday, will be off Saturday as it enjoys the Saturday bye.