UW places sixth at MW cross-country championships
Mar. 6—The University of Wyoming men's and women's cross-country teams notched sixth-place finishes Friday at the Mountain West championships.
The races were at Craig Ranch Regional Park in Las Vegas. In the first race of the morning, the Cowgirls competed in a 6-kilometer run and finished with 172 points, tying their mark from the 2019 championships. In the men's 8km race, the Cowboys tallied 155 points.
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"There was mixture of results for us (Friday)," UW head cross-country coach Scott Dahlberg said in a news release. "We had some definite bright spots, but also some rough performances. We know we had more there, but it is encouraging knowing we have every athlete coming back next season."
Cowgirl Katelyn Mitchem was the top finisher for Wyoming with a season-best time of 21 minutes, 4.9 seconds for 25th place. She was followed by Kaylee Bentley (33rd, 21:21.9), Abigail Whitman (44th, 21:42.4), Kaleigh Douglas (47th, 21:53.8) and Victoria Tenpenny (51st, 22:00.8).
Cowboy Albert Steiner was the top finisher for UW men when he placed 24th in 24:36.7. Gus McIntyre placed 27th in 24:41.4. McIntyre was the fifth-best finish for a freshman at the event, while fellow freshman was sixth-best in 32nd at 24:52.7. Josh Rodgers (40th, 25:17.3) and Phillip Henry (41st, 25:17.9) rounded out the Cowboys top five.
"Some of our true freshmen stepped up big and had some of the best races of the day," Dahlberg said. "Abigail Whitman ran super tough and competed great. Gus McIntyre and Mason Norman ran very well, working their way up during the race, gritting out a good finish."
Wyoming soccer wins opener against Utah State
Behind the first career-goal for freshman Nikayla Copenhaver, the UW soccer team (1-0-0) started its 2021 campaign with a 1-0 win over the Utah State Aggies (0-1-0) on Friday afternoon. It was the seventh year in a row that the Cowgirls won their season opener.
"Obviously, the biggest part was getting to play again. It was exciting and managing the nerves was the biggest part for both teams," coach Pete Cuadrado said. "It wasn't the prettiest game overall, but happy with the fight we had. Utah State really battled, very physical and proud of this team on how we handled it."
There were some jitters from both teams in the early going as ten fouls were called in the first 27 minutes of the match. UW would get the first shot on goal by Copenhaver at the 19:08 mark which went wide on goalie Diera Walton. The Aggies saw its first opportunity in the 26th minute by Marli Niederhauser that was picked up by Hannah Lee.
The Cowgirls pushed most of the action on the offensive side of the field for most of the half. Finally in the 31st minute, Copenhaver received the ball across the left of the goal from Jazi Barela to put the Cowgirls up 1-0. There was only one shot from Utah State the remainder of the way after the first 45 minutes.
Despite being outshot 5-1 in the second half, the Cowgirls would hold on to the 1-0 victory.
Copenhaver finished the match with two shots in her 64 minutes of action. Senior Rilee Castilla recorded a shot with one on goal. Lee had two saves in her 45 minutes of action while Daws recorded three saves.
"I thought it was a team effort," Cuadrado said. "Our goal was scrappy. Defending and holding them off late in the game was key. It applies to everyone that stepped on the field today. There were a lot of new faces on the field for us."
The Cowgirls are back on the pitch Sunday against New Mexico. The match is set to begin at 1 p.m. at the Louis S. Madrid Center. Due to COVID and social distancing practices, the capacity of the facility is being limited to 300 fans.
UW volleyball sweeps Aztecs
The UW volleyball team started off its weekend series with San Diego State in dominant fashion, winning Friday night in straight sets 25-19, 26-24 and 25-22. The win was the Cowgirls' third sweep at home this season and.
For the second match in a row, Emersen Cyza led the Cowgirls (6-3) in kills and had another strong match as she tallied a match-high 18 kills while hitting .567 in the sweep. Cyza also added five digs and had one of UW's two service aces on the night.
Jackie McBride added eight kills while Hailey Zuroske chipped in seven. McBride once again led the way at the net defensively for UW, as she and Faith Waitsman each had three total blocks. Abby Olsen led the way with 35 assists in the win while in the back row, Erika Jones led the way with 11 digs.
Wyoming now looks for the sweep over the Aztecs as the two teams will have a short turnaround to close the two-match series as Saturday's first serve is set for noon at the UniWyo Sports Complex.
UW tennis impresses in home debut against Weber State
In their first home tennis match in nearly two years, the UW tennis team treated the home fans to a show as the Cowgirls defeated Weber State 7-0 on Friday. The Cowgirls won all three doubles matches and didn't drop a set during singles play on.
UW (5-4) jumped out early on the Wildcats (2-4) with an impressive display during doubles. At No. 1, the team of Noesjka Brink and Maria Oreshkina won 6-2, at No. 2, Ana Fernandez and Sophie Zehender defeated Megan Davies and Pei-Hsuan Kuo, 6-1 while at the No. 3 spot, the team of Lucia Malinak and Maria Oreshkina won 6-4 to put UW up 1-0 in the match.
On the singles side, the Cowgirls were just as impressive in the six singles victories. At the No. 1 position, Oreshkina battled her way to a 7-5, 6-3 win over Weber State's Yuuna Ukita. At No. 2, Sophie Zehender had a solid 6-4, 6-0 win over Ana Morrett Salas and at the No. 3 spot, Ana Fernandez bested Megan Lombardi 6-3, 6-4. Lucia Malinak made quick work of Kuo of WSU at No. 4, dropping just one game in her 6-0, 6-1 victory as Wyoming built its lead to 5-0 in the match after the first set of singles matches.
The momentum continued for the Cowgirls in the final two singles matches of the day as Brink won 6-4, 6-2 at the fifth position over Megan Davies and rounding things out in singles play was Ida Krause, as she bested Ana Gonzale 7-5 and 6-1 at the No. 6 spot.
"We played pretty good today, but what I think was really good was the intensity that we played with," UW coach Dean Clower said. "We didn't take points off, we were constantly executing our style of tennis, whether we were winning points or not, so I was pretty happy with the attitudes and the style of play.
"I don't think words can express how happy we were to play at home and to be able to play in front of our fans. The girls were tired, they're on the road all the time and this was just like having your favorite pillow. Home is home and it was great. And the crowd, I love our crowd. Best fans in the country, by far."
The Cowgirls and Wildcats meet again today; first serve is set for 10 a.m.
