LARAMIE — University of Wyoming volleyball coach Kaylee Prigge couldn’t wait for a crack at Texas-El Paso.

The Miners’ move to the Mountain West ahead of the 2026 volleyball season — despite departures from the league — meant added firepower to a league that Prigge figured could pull multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament.

It wasn’t a friendly first encounter as league foes.

The Mountain West preseason favorites only trailed in the third set and routed the Cowgirls, 25-18, 25-21, 25-19 on Friday at the UniWyo Sports Complex.

UTEP (9-4 overall, 1-0 Mountain West) outkilled UW, 48-34, and limited the Cowgirls to a .132 hitting percentage.

Several similarities showed between the teams’ stats entering Friday, but the differences magnified afterward.

“Really just .50 off of every statistical category (between Wyoming and UTEP),” Prigge said. “I feel like (UTEP) came in prepared for what they needed to do. (For them), it felt like, ‘OK, (Wyoming) is a better digging team than us. We need to outdig them.’ That is exactly what they did.”

UTEP generated 44 digs compared to UW’s 38. The Miners — thanks in part to Luvina Oguntimehin’s match-high 12 kills — hit .353.

Rylee Heinz led UW (7-5, 0-1) with seven kills, while Ruby Jensen and Reagan Sharp added six apiece.

UW’s overall kills leader Paige Lauterwasser finished with five on 24 swings. She needs 11 more to reach 1,000 career kills.

It marked the first match since Sept. 4 that UW did not have a player with double-digit kills.

“What surprised me about (UTEP) is their ability to dig and their defense,” Jensen said. “This is the stuff that we can obviously do against a team.”

Nothing about UTEP’s execution and skill surprised Prigge, she said. The Miners — with two consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances — finished 19th nationally in the 2025 rating percentage index.

Nerves emerged for the Cowgirls.

“I felt like we came in looking a little bit nervous to be ourselves and we have earned being ourselves,” Prigge said. “It just took us way too long to get going in the things that has to be our bread and butter. Serving. Digging.”

UW plays with “very large goals,” Prigge said. Those aspirations contributed to UW’s anxieties, Prigge said.

“When the rubber hits the road in terms of it is conference play and this is the team that is picked to finish No. 1 and you have got to go out and beat them on your home floor,” Prigge said. “Great atmosphere tonight, but for whatever reason, we weren’t quite ourselves until way too late.”

Heinz led with three blocks, while Sara Quigley and Maddy Stucky added 14 assists apiece.

UW didn’t lead until the third set, when it led by as many as three (5-2). A 3-0 UTEP run pushed it in front 11-10. UTEP never relinquished that lead.

“We finally got going in the third set, and you kind of saw in that third set what a dogfight this could be and should be,” Prigge said.

UW will host the Miners at 6 p.m. Saturday.

“Excited about the opportunity to respond tomorrow because one of the things I am worried about in this schedule format is being in the position UTEP is now in.”

Adam Engel covers Laramie High School and University of Wyoming Olympic sports for WyoSports. A Gillette native, Engel can be reached at aengel@wyosports.net. Follow him on X @AdamEngel9.