by staff–16 Feb ’21
The Wyoming Cowgirls have swept this week’s Mountain West Player of the Week awards, announced Monday by the league office as Jackie McBride was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Week and Kaitlyn Gehler was the Defensive Player of the Week honoree.
The duo received the honors after Wyoming’s perfect weekend at home against New Mexico as the Cowgirls swept the Lobos in both matches. McBride, who received her fourth career offensive honor, led the Cowgirls with 20 kills in the two wins, averaging 3.33 kills per set and hitting an outstanding .600.
McBride opened the weekend with a match-high 12 kills while hitting .611 in the Friday night win and followed that performance up
with another eight kills and .583 hitting percentage-day in Saturday’s victory. McBride tallied a team-leading 26 points (4.33 per set) in the sweep over UNM.
Gehler meanwhile anchored a back row that helped UW hold the Lobos to a .000 hitting percentage in the two matches. For the weekend, Gehler averaged 4.83 digs per set, tallying 29 in total. In Friday’s win, Gehler tallied a match-high 16 digs and then added another 13 Saturday.
It marks the third time since the league moved to honoring both an offensive and defensive player of the week, back in 2015, that Wyoming has swept the weekly honors. The Cowgirls are 4-0 thus far on the season and have recorded three sweeps in 2021 and next travel to face Boise State February 19 and 20.
