Cowgirls Host Second Exhibition Friday Night

Colorado Christian comes to town for 6:30 p.m., tip

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Oct. 29, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowgirls will have one final tune-up before they tip off the regular season next week. Wyoming hosts Colorado Christian at 6:30 p.m., Friday for its second exhibition of 2025. The Cowgirls defeated Fort Lewis in their exhibition last week.

Friday’s game can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call.

ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
Wyoming, who was picked sixth in the Preseason Mountain West Poll that was released last week by the league office, received 194 points in the poll. UNLV was tabbed to repeat as Mountain West favorite and received 19 of the 27 first-place votes. San Diego State was picked second (three first-place votes), Colorado State is third (one), Boise State is fourth (one) while New Mexico (2) rounds-out the top five. Grand Canyon (one), who is in its first season in the league, was picked just behind the Cowgirls in seventh.

Malene Pedersen, who was a 2024-25 All-Mountain West Team member, was picked to the Preseason All-Mountain West squad. Pedersen ranked eighth in Mountain West play in scoring last season averaging 15.6 points per game. Her 53-percent shooting overall from the floor was second-best in the MW. In conference-only contests, Pedersen was sixth in the league with 3.1 assists per game while her 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio was tied for third in the conference. Pedersen, who was also named to last season’s Mountain West Championship All-Tournament Team, for the second time in her career, was 11^th in the league in scoring for all games, averaging 14 points per game and was ninth with 2.9 assists a contest. Pedersen shot 49-percent from the floor overall, made 38.3-percent of her shots from 3-point range and was second on the team with 51 made 3-pointers. Pedersen scored in double figures in 29 contests in 2024-25 and had six games with 20-plus points.

The Cowgirls need to replace four starters off last season’s squad, including the Mountain West Player of the Year (Allyson Fertig) and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year (Emily Mellema). Tess Barnes and Ola Ustowska, who also started in 2024-25, signed professional contracts to play in Europe over the summer, as did Fertig.

In addition to Pedersen, UW returns eight letterwinners from last season in Logann Alvar, Lana Beslic, Mikyn Hamlin, Heidur Karlsdottir, Karoline Lundin, Payton Muma, Kati Ollilainen and Madi Symons. The Cowgirls welcome six newcomers to the 2025-26 squad. Wyoming has four new freshmen in Liv Blomkvist (Stockholm, Sweden), Katie Harrington (Victoria, Australia), Jane Rumpf (Denver, Colo.) and Peyton Wohlford (Smithville, Mo.). The Cowgirls also have a pair of transfers this season in Aurore Eyango (Lille, France – St. Bonaventure) and Henna Sandvik (Helsinki, Finland – Indiana).

SCOUTING COLORADO CHRISTIAN
Colorado Christian, who went 10-18 a season ago, must replace its top six scorers from 2024-25, including a trio of Honorable Mention RMAC performers. Elise Grosdidier is the Cougars’ leading returning scorer. Grosdidier made 24 starts last season and averaged nine points and four rebounds per game. Hayley Luther also returns to this season’s squad. She averaged seven points and nearly four boards per game and was third on the team with 32 steals and 53 assists in 2024-25.

As a team, CCU averaged 65.3 points per game on 39-percent shooting from the floor and 31-percent from beyond-the-arc. Cougar opponents scored nearly 66.6 points per game while shooting 41.6-percent overall and 31-percent from 3-point range. Colorado Christian was outrebounded by a little over one rebound per contest and forced its opponents into nearly 1.5 turnovers per game more. The Cougars were basically automatic at the free-throw line, shooting over 82-percent as a team from the stripe.

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST COLORADO CHRISTIAN
Wyoming is 3-0 in the series against CCU during the regular season. All three contests have come in Laramie. The Cowgirls and Cougars have also met multiple times in exhibition games. Last season, the Cowgirls won 80-54 in the 2024 Education Day Game.