Broncos Head to Thunderbird Classic

THUNDERBIRD CLASSIC

Cedar City, Utah | America First Event Center
Sept. 6-7 (Friday-Saturday)

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Match 4: Boise State vs. Middle Tennessee State | Sept. 6 | 10:30 a.m. (Mountain) | Live Stats
Match 5: Boise State vs. Saint Mary's | Sept. 6 | 4 p.m. (Mountain) | Live Stats
Match 6: Boise State at Southern Utah | Sept. 7 | 1 p.m. (Mountain) | Live Stats | PlutoTV
Boise State Notes | Season Stats | Roster | Twitter | Facebook

THIS WEEK

● TOURNAMENT: This week the Broncos are on the road for the Thunderbird Classic hosted by Southern Utah at Cedar City, Utah.
● THE FIELD: Boise State will face Middle Tennessee State of Conference USA, Saint Mary's of the West Coast Conference and Southern Utah from the Big Sky Conference.
● VERSUS THE FIELD: Boise State is a combined 4-2 all-time versus the three schools: Middle Tennessee State (0-0), Saint Mary's (2-2) and Southern Utah (2-0).
● FRIDAY SCHEDULE: Boise State will face two on Friday beginning with Middle Tennessee State at 10:30 a.m. (Mountain), followed by Saint Mary's (Calif.) at 4 p.m.
● SATURDAY SCHEDULE: The Broncos will close out the tournament versus their host Southern Utah at 1 p.m. Saturday.
● FACILITY: All matches this weekend will be played at the America First Event Center on the Southern Utah campus.
● LIVE STREAM: Of the three Boise State contests this weekend Only the one against Southern Utah on Saturday will be live streamed.
● LIVE STATS: You can follow the live stats of each match by going to the links on the volleyball schedule page at BroncoSports.com.

HEAD COACH NOTES

HEAD COACH SHAWN GARUS
● Coach Garus entered his 11th season at Boise State and 19th overall just 14 wins shy of 300 career wins at 286 ... he is now 13 short.
● Garus is 287-253 overall in his 19th year as a collegiate head coach.
● He is currently 179-134 at Boise State in his 11th season.
● At Boise State, Garus is a two-time MW Coach of the Year (2015, 2016), as well as the 2016 AVCA Region Coach of the Year.
● Garus ranks second in total wins in program history, out of 10 coaches all-time.
● He has recorded eight winning seasons overall, including an active streak of five straight.
● His Boise State teams have recorded three seasons (2010, 2015, 2016) with 20-plus wins.

BOISE STATE STORYLINES

THE BLUE WALL
● Last week the Broncos were strong at the net collecting 26 blocks as a team to average 2.6 per set.
● Redshirt-freshman Alyssa Wissinger led the charge for the Broncos with a team-high 16 (1.6 bps).
● Senior Janell Walley was second with 13 (1.3 bps).
● In all, eight Broncos recorded at least one block in Provo.
● Last year, Jessica Donahue led the Broncos with 135 blocks to rank 14th in a season all-time at Boise State ... she had nine blocks last weekend.

SIMON LOOKING FOR 1,000TH ASSIST
● Senior setter Cassedi Simon is looking for 13 assists to reach 1,000 in her career.
● When Simon does, she will be the 17th Bronco to reach the milestone in program history.
● She enters the year ranked 17th all-time in career assists.

WALLEY NAMED TO ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
● Senior Janell Walley was named to the BYU Nike Invitational All-Tournament Team last weekend after tallying 34 kills, three service aces, 26 digs and 13 blocks ... she also hit 32.6 percent.

FOUR STARTERS RETURN
● The Broncos return four starters from 2018 in senior outside hitter Janell Walley (2.18 kps, 2.81 dps, 0.66 bps), junior outside hitter Kiley Lewis (2.03 kps, 0.56 bps), sophomore middle blocker Jessica Donahue (2.05 kps, 1.42 bps) and sophomore setter Danielle Boss (7.49 aps, 1.65 digs, 0.41 bps).

VETERANS RETURNING
● Boise State returns eight letter winners and one redshirt-freshman from 2018. In addition to the four starters, other letterwinners back include: senior setter Cassedi Simon (13 starts, 7.73 aps, 1.7 dps, 0.35 bps), senior middle blocker Celine Christensen (0.42 kps, 0.71 bps), sophomore outside hitter Shae Duffy (0.87 kps, 0.47 bps) and sophomore outside hitter Carly Moreno (0.67 kps, 0.79 dps, 0.27 bps).

POSTSEASON HONOREES RETURNING
● The Broncos have two individuals returning who were honored during the 2018 campaign by the Mountain West Conference.
● Senior Janell Walley was named to the All-MW Team for the second straight season.
● Meanwhile, sophomore Jessica Donahue played through an injury riddled campaign to be named the MW Freshman of the Year.

TALLEST TEAM IN HISTORY
● Boise State features its tallest team in history with 10 of 16 players measuring 6 feet or taller.
● Three come in at 6-foot-3: Christensen, Donahue and Ohlinger.
● Four are 6-foot-2: Duffy, Howe, Lewis and Wissinger.
● Three measure 6-foot-1: Bradley, Kaminski and Moreno.

MATCH PREVIEWS

MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE PREVIEW
● Boise State will meet Middle Tennessee State for the first time in volleyball when the two play Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. (MT) at the Thunderbird Classic.
● Last weekend the Blue Raiders went 0-3 at the Marica E. Hamilton Classic at St. Louis, Mo.
● Middle Tennessee fell to Saint Louis (3-1), Portland State (3-1) and Southern Illinois (3-1).
● MTSU was picked to place 12th of 13 in the Conference USA coaches poll.
● Boise State is 31-11 all-time versus the current membership of CUSA.

SAINT MARY'S PREVIEW
● The Broncos will close Friday at 4 p.m. (MT) with an encounter against the Saint Mary's Gaels of the West Coast Conference.
● The Gaels enter the weekend at 1-2 following last week's Utah Classic in Salt Lake City.
● Saint Mary's fell to Utah (3-0) and No. 7 Kentucky (3-0), but defeated No. 23 Cal Poly (3-0).
● The Gaels and Broncos have met four times before with the series tied at 2-2.
● The last time they met was on Sept. 1, 2012 at the Sacramento State Invitational were SMC won 3-0.
● The Broncos are 38-49 all-time against the current membership of the WCC.
● Saint Mary's did advance to the 2018 NCAA Championships last fall where they fell in the opening round to Washington (3-1).
● Saint Mary's was picked to placed fifth out of 10 in the WCC 2019 race.

SOUTHERN UTAH PREVIEW
● Boise State will close its Thunderbird Classic participation Saturday against its host Southern Utah at 1 p.m. (MT).
● The Thunderbirds swept their way to the Utah State Invitational title last week in Logan where they defeated Xavier (3-0), Eastern Michigan (3-0) and Utah State (3-2).
● Boise State and SUU have met twice before with the Broncos winning both, the last was at Boise in 2012 by a 3-0 score line.
● The Broncos are 191-188 all-time against the current membership of the Big Sky Conference.
● Southern Utah was picked to place 10th of 11 in this year's Big Sky race.

THUNDERBIRD CLASSIC

Cedar City, Utah | America First Event Center
Sept. 6-7 (Friday-Saturday)

THIS WEEK

HEAD COACH NOTES

BOISE STATE STORYLINES

MATCH PREVIEWS

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Danielle Boss

Celine Christensen

Jessica Donahue

Shae Duffy

Kiley Lewis

Carly Moreno

Cassedi Simon

Janell Walley

Alyssa Wissinger