Press Release by Central Wyoming College Athletics
Central Wyoming College Volleyball battled in the Crystal Invitational Friday, Sept. 2 and Saturday, Sept. 3 in Salt Lake City. Playing against two more nationally ranked teams in four matches, Central went 1-3. Friday, they battled to five sets in back to back matches. They fell to 4th ranked Western Nebraska in five hard fought sets to start the tournament with scores of 22-25, 24-26, 25-17, 26-24 and 11-15. Alicja Jaryszek had 13 kills; Brinley Smith had 12 kills; Haruka Sugimoto had 25 digs, and Lauryn Arnold had 11 black assists.
Central Wyoming College Volleyball then battled College of Southern Idaho and lost in another five set battle. Scores went: 25-11, 21-25, 25-23, 23-25, 11-21 Jaryszek had 19 kills, Alyssa Anderton had 12 kills and Megan Hardman had 42 assists and Haruka Sugimoto had 26 digs.
After the first day, coach Darshaya Gallard reflected on the first two matches, “We learned a lot, it was a hard couple of losses. We had to play 10 sets back to back. Closing out in the end is so important and this is why we were not as successful as we wanted to be.”
On Saturday, the Lady Rustlers took down Northeastern Junior College (NJC) in three straight sets. NJC defeated the Rustlers for the Region 9 title last November and the win was much needed for the Rustlers. Middle blocker Lauryn Arnold had 14 kills and 5 blocks in the win. Central completed the weekend with a 1-3 effort against 15th ranked Utah State Eastern. Scores went 20-25, 14-25, 26-24, and 19-25. Jaryszek notched a season high 20 kills with 23 digs from Haruka Sugimoto.
Gallard said her team is a work in progress, “We are still developing as a team. We had to make some adjustments with Marin Freeland not making the trip with us. We have what it takes as a team to be successful in the future.”
Central volleyball is now 2-6 on the season. They will travel again this weekend to Twin Falls, Idaho. They’ll compete in the CSI Tournament at the College of Southern Idaho. There they face another high caliber set of teams with all four ranked in the top 14 in the country in last week’s poll.