Cowgirls Set to Host NIVC

Idaho State, Utah Valley and Washington State come to town

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Dec. 3, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball team will play in its second consecutive postseason this week with a trip to the NIVC. The Cowgirls will host a four-team pod at the UniWyo Sports Complex Thursday and Friday. UW will face Idaho State at 7 p.m. Utah Valley and Washington State will play the match before Wyoming’s at 4 p.m. The winners of Thursday’s matches will face-off Friday at 6 p.m.

The Cowgirls (15-12) have been off since the regular season finale against Nevada November 23. Wyoming absolutely dominated the final hour-plus of the match, allowing Nevada to score just 29 points in the final three sets. Wyoming hit .252 on the day while holding Nevada to just a .064 clip.

The Wyoming offense was led by Paige Lauterwasser’s 20 kills while she hit .375. Claire Wagstaff also finished in double figures with 10 kills and hit .353. Sarah Holcomb and Kayla Mazzocca were terrors at the net defensively, combining for 22 total blocks between the two. Holcomb recorded a career-high 14 blocks in the win while Mazzocca had eight. Wagstaff tallied a career-best with nine total blocks. Wyoming dominated at the net, recording 23 total team blocks. Which is just half a block shy of tying the program record for most team blocks in a five-set match. For her efforts the last week of the season, Holcomb was named the Mountain West’s Defensive Player of the Week. Marking the second consecutive season Holcomb has received the honor the last week of the year.

Last week, a trio of Cowgirls received All-Mountain West accolades as Lauterwasser and Kasia Partyka were named to the All-Mountain West Team. It was the second consecutive season where Partyka was named to the team. Holcomb, meanwhile, was named Honorable Mention All-MW.

Lauterwasser closed the season seventh in the league in kills per set at 3.44 while her 3.76 points per set ranked eighth best in the MW. Lauterwasser had a dozen matches with 10-or-more kills, including three with 20-plus. The sophomore had six double-doubles during league play while averaging 2.07 digs per set. Lauterwasser hit .235 in conference and also had 20 total blocks while appearing in all 68 sets.

Holcomb was just a tenth of a block per set off the league lead for the second season in a row. Holcomb averaged 1.41 blocks per set, just behind UNLV’s Rheanna Deen-Jackson’s 1.42. Holcomb, who averaged 2.07 kills per set, was fifth in the league with a .376 hitting percentage on the season while averaging better than three points per set on the league year and tallying 96 total blocks.

Thursday marks the fifth time in program history that the Cowgirls will play in the NIVC.

Idaho State is led by a trio of All-Big Sky performers in Aliyah Sopo'aga, Jamie Streit and Jaydin Watts. Sopo'aga and Watts were both First Team selections while Streit was a Second Team honoree for the second season in a row. Sopo'aga is averaging 9.73 assists per set this season and orchestrates an impressive Bengal offense that is hitting .253 as a team this season. Watts is second on the team with 227 kills (1.96 per set) and 156 (1.34) blocks in 2024 while hitting .326. Streit, meanwhile, led Idaho State with 348 kills, averaging 2.95 per set. The Bengals went 8-3 this season in true road matches this season.