Cowgirls look to balance pleasure and competition in Hawaii
The Cowgirl volleyball team says aloha from Hawaii. That's nice of them.
The Cowgirls are in Honolulu competing in the Honolulu Advertiser Volleyball Challenge. The tournament gets underway for UW Thursday night when the Cowgirls face Cincinnati at 9 p.m. (MT). They'll also face Host Hawaii Friday at 11 p.m. and Minnesota on Saturday at 6 p.m.
I know what you are thinking: Must be rough. The Cowgirls, however, are there to play volleyball and the quality of opposition attests to that. Hawaii is ranked 11th in the country, with Minnesota 12th. The other team -- Cincinnati -- just happens to be 3-0 on the season.
This is far from a vacation, although if you have to spend four or five days away from Laramie in September, it might as well be in Hawaii.
The very young Cowgirls, 0-3 on the season, will likely have to play above its ability and experience to come away from the tournament with a win. Yet, first-year head coach Carrie Yerty said they aren't going to back down against the competition.
“Anytime you see teams that are competing to win a national championship, and I would say that anybody in the Top 10, you are in position to be playing the very best. Win or lose, you are still seeing a faster game with better athletes or more experienced athletes. For our team to be able to experience that, it's great, because that is the direction we want to go."
The Wyoming roster had been set except for one player and the schedule was already completed before Yerty took over the job. Yerty said they are dealing with the hand that they were dealt with and she is OK with that.
"Every opportunity presents a challenge," she said. "For us, we're just working every day to grow and get better. That's what we're doing."
Yerty isn't too worried about the team keeping its focus in Hawaii. "Our ops director and our assistant ops direction have put together a pretty balanced schedule. We'll have some entertainment, as well as some practices and competition. I feel like we're going to do a good job of letting the girls experience Hawaii a little bit without really interrupting their competitive schedule. That should be what college athletics is all about. College athletics shouldn't just be about competition. It should be an opportunity to see the country, it should be the opportunity to face new challenges and to prepare you for the rest of your life. I think that is what we have done."
The season as a whole will be a challenge for Yerty, who came to Wyoming after several successful seasons at Memphis. Wyoming's starting lineup features one senior -- setter Tasha Weishahn -- and five sophomores.
Wyoming opened the season last weekend with three losses -- two close defeats -- at the Corvallis Invitational in Corvallis, Ore. Yerty called the experience a starting point for her young team.
She said there were plenty of positives and negatives to break down.
"I think there were a ton of positives," Yerty said. "The girls never quit competing. It didn't matter if we were playing Oregon State, with their 6-5 outside hitter or College of Charleston, who won their conference last year and went to the NCAA Tournament. They stayed focused the entire time. Just being competitive and staying focused was a positive. I think our team did a really good job of facing adversity and really focusing on our side of the net.
"On the negative side, we have to be more disciplined with our serving. We have to really work on our confidence level and we have to continue to address training so that our student athletes can be prepared for whatever they face in competition. I don't believe that players lose games. I feel that coaches lose games, so it is our job to train these players to prepare, to help build their confidence and to provide them with an experience to allow them to be successful."
The Cowgirls will be home for the first time next week when they host the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic.
The Cowgirls are in Honolulu competing in the Honolulu Advertiser Volleyball Challenge. The tournament gets underway for UW Thursday night when the Cowgirls face Cincinnati at 9 p.m. (MT). They'll also face Host Hawaii Friday at 11 p.m. and Minnesota on Saturday at 6 p.m.
I know what you are thinking: Must be rough. The Cowgirls, however, are there to play volleyball and the quality of opposition attests to that. Hawaii is ranked 11th in the country, with Minnesota 12th. The other team -- Cincinnati -- just happens to be 3-0 on the season.
This is far from a vacation, although if you have to spend four or five days away from Laramie in September, it might as well be in Hawaii.
The very young Cowgirls, 0-3 on the season, will likely have to play above its ability and experience to come away from the tournament with a win. Yet, first-year head coach Carrie Yerty said they aren't going to back down against the competition.
“Anytime you see teams that are competing to win a national championship, and I would say that anybody in the Top 10, you are in position to be playing the very best. Win or lose, you are still seeing a faster game with better athletes or more experienced athletes. For our team to be able to experience that, it's great, because that is the direction we want to go."
The Wyoming roster had been set except for one player and the schedule was already completed before Yerty took over the job. Yerty said they are dealing with the hand that they were dealt with and she is OK with that.
"Every opportunity presents a challenge," she said. "For us, we're just working every day to grow and get better. That's what we're doing."
Yerty isn't too worried about the team keeping its focus in Hawaii. "Our ops director and our assistant ops direction have put together a pretty balanced schedule. We'll have some entertainment, as well as some practices and competition. I feel like we're going to do a good job of letting the girls experience Hawaii a little bit without really interrupting their competitive schedule. That should be what college athletics is all about. College athletics shouldn't just be about competition. It should be an opportunity to see the country, it should be the opportunity to face new challenges and to prepare you for the rest of your life. I think that is what we have done."
The season as a whole will be a challenge for Yerty, who came to Wyoming after several successful seasons at Memphis. Wyoming's starting lineup features one senior -- setter Tasha Weishahn -- and five sophomores.
Wyoming opened the season last weekend with three losses -- two close defeats -- at the Corvallis Invitational in Corvallis, Ore. Yerty called the experience a starting point for her young team.
She said there were plenty of positives and negatives to break down.
"I think there were a ton of positives," Yerty said. "The girls never quit competing. It didn't matter if we were playing Oregon State, with their 6-5 outside hitter or College of Charleston, who won their conference last year and went to the NCAA Tournament. They stayed focused the entire time. Just being competitive and staying focused was a positive. I think our team did a really good job of facing adversity and really focusing on our side of the net.
"On the negative side, we have to be more disciplined with our serving. We have to really work on our confidence level and we have to continue to address training so that our student athletes can be prepared for whatever they face in competition. I don't believe that players lose games. I feel that coaches lose games, so it is our job to train these players to prepare, to help build their confidence and to provide them with an experience to allow them to be successful."
The Cowgirls will be home for the first time next week when they host the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic.
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