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2000 Cowgirl Volleyball Informational Press Release And Game Notes
Sept. 25, 2000 LARAMIE, Wyo. - Complete Release in PDF Format
Probable Starters: Here are the probable starters for this week's matches: Cowgirls Host First Conference Matches: The Wyoming Cowgirl Volleyball team will host the Utah Utes and Brigham Young Cougars in their first home conference games of the season. They will play Utah on Friday night at 7:00 p.m., and BYU on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
About Last Week: The Wyoming Cowgirl Volleyball Team opened up the 2000 Mountain West Conference season with a three game loss to the nationally ranked Colorado State Rams, on Wednesday night in Ft. Collins. The fourth ranked Rams dominated game one to open up the match, scoring the first eight points. The Cowgirls could only manage to come up with four points to fall, 15-4. The Cowgirls showed some promise in game two scoring some points early. With the score at 6-4, the Rams would score the next four points and open the game up. When the Cowgirls seemed to be out of it at 14-8, they would hold off three game points and score four unanswered. Unfortunately, they couldn't hold off a fourth, and would go down 15-12 and 0-2 in the match. A change in the match seemed to come about in the third game with the Cowgirls jumping out to a 6-1 lead. A lead which the Cowgirls couldn't hold onto, as the Rams would win the game 15-7 and take the match 3-0. The Rams run their record to an impressive 12-1 and 1-0 on the conference season. They were led by Courtney Cox, who finished the night with 16 kills and 12 digs. Junior Angela Knopf also added 14 kills and six block assists. Freshman Michele Rauter led the way for the Cowgirls with 11 kills and five digs. As a team, the Cowgirls only hit .125 on the night and finished with five team blocks. The Cowgirls opened up the Golden Dome Invitational with a three game loss to the 24th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, on Friday night in South Bend, Ind. The Cowgirls would score the opening point of the game, but failed to score another falling 15-1 in game one to the Irish. The second game didn't fair much better for Wyoming, as they continued to struggle and Notre Dame stayed hot. They would lose the game 15-5 to go down 0-2 in the match. A fight was put up in the third game, as the Cowgirls managed to score eight points, but the opponent was too tough. The Irish would take the game 15-8 and the match 3-0. Notre Dame was led by Malinda Goralski, who finished the night with ten kills, six block assists and hit .833. The Irish dominated the Cowgirls with a .400 hitting percentage and ten team blocks. Seniors Jamie Burke and Barbie Bragg seemed to be the bright spot for Wyoming. Burke finished the night with nine kills and four digs, while Bragg added four kills and a .333 hitting percentage. The Cowgirls were once again plagued by eight service errors and a poor hitting percentage. For the third consecutive match, the Wyoming Volleyball Team faced a Top 25 opponent. The Cowgirls fell to the 22nd ranked, Loyola-Marymount Lions, 15-3, 15-12, 15-6 to close out the Golden Dome Invitational on Saturday night. The Cowgirls struggles to score points throughout game one. Despite showing some strong hitting, they could only manage to score three points to fall 15-3. They would rebound in the second game despite falling behind 7-2. A 5-0 run by Loyola seemed to put the game out of reach at 13-6, but the Cowgirls didn't give up scoring six unanswered. That's as close as it would get, and the Lions would take the 2-0 lead in the match. Game three started very similar to the previous two, with Wyoming falling behind. Loyola-Marymount was just too tough, as they took the game 15-6 and the match 3-0. Overall, the Cowgirls hit .211 as a team and finished with ten total team blocks. Senior Jamie Burke led the way for the Cowgirls with 11 kills and six digs.
About Utah: The Cowgirls will host the 18th ranked Utah Utes on Friday night. They head into this match with a 10-1 overall record and 2-0 in the conference, with their only loss coming against Arizona. The Utes are led by McKelle Stilson, who is averaging 3.31 kills per game and hitting .322. This is the 42nd meeting between the two schools, Wyoming leads the series 21-20. The Utes are coached by Beth Launiere, who is in her 11th season.
About Brigham Young: Wyoming will play the Brigham Young Cougars to finish out the weekend on Saturday night. They are currently 9-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference coming into the weekend. Brigham Young enters the weekend ranked 15th in the USA/AVCA Coaches Poll. Junior Nina Puikkonen is averaging 3.86 kills and 1.89 blocks per game to lead the Cougars. This is the 44th meeting between the two schools, Wyoming trails 3-40. Brigham Young is coached by Elaine Michaelis, who is in her 31st season.
2000 Record A Year Ago
Wyoming 6-10 (0-1) 9-21 (3-11)
Utah 10-1 (2-0) 22-10 (10-4)
Brigham Young 9-3 (2-0) 28-5 (13-1)
**For complete weekly release, contact the UW
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