Broncos Rally From Two Sets Down to Beat St. Mary’s

Friday, September 6

Cedar City, Utah

4:00 p.m. (MT)

Boise State

3-2

Saint Mary's (Calif.)

1-4

Boise State

Saint Mary's (CA)

Broncos Rally From Two Sets Down to Beat St. Mary’s

9/6/2019 9:07:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Final Box Score

Walley, Duffy and Ohlinger combine for 40 kills to lead Boise State.

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

CEDAR CITY, Utah - Boise State's volleyball team rallied from two sets down on Friday afternoon to defeated the Saint Mary's Gaels 3-2 (21-25, 16-25, 25-22, 25-15, 15-9) at the Thunderbird Classic in Cedar City, Utah. Janell Walley, Shae Duffy and Lauren Ohlinger combined for 40 of Boise State's 55 kills to lead the Broncos to the win.

The Broncos have now won three straight games following a 3-1 victory over Middle Tennessee State earlier in the day and are 3-2 overall.

BRONCOS RALLY FROM TWO DOWN to defeat St. Mary's 3-2!
Boise State has won 3 straight to improve to 3-2. Walley led team with 16 kills, 12 digs, 5 blocks and hit 40 percent!#BleedBlue @BroncoSports @MW_OlySports @BoiseStateLive pic.twitter.com/LglEyUrDZO
— Boise State VB (@BroncoSportsVB) September 7, 2019

"Total team effort today versus Saint Mary's," said Boise State head coach Shawn Garus. "We didn't do much right early in the match and our opponent capitalized. But the team was able to refocus and played with more passion in the final three sets for a quality win. Shae Duffy's offense was really good. Jordi (Holdaway) was targeted all match by the SMC servers, but she handled it exceptionally well. I thought Olivia Bradley came in off the bench to give us a spark at middle blocker when we need it."

Boise State struggled to get anything going early in the match and found itself trailing by two sets. Down two, the Broncos regrouped and surged gaining in strength and seized the momentum as the match wore on.

After struggling to hit the ball in the first two periods, the Blue and Orange won the third and fourth by hitting 29.6 percent in each set, then hit 42.9 percent in the fifth. They finished the match at 21.4 percent, while Saint Mary's finished hitting 20.3 percent after being held to 5.9 percent in the fourth and 10 percent in the fifth.

Boise State never trailed in the third set but was tied by the Gaels five times. After Saint Mary's rallied to tie the score for the last time at 21, the Broncos responded with a 4-1 run, led by Walley with a kill and a block solo to secure the three point win.

Set four saw the Blue and Orange lead the entire way. Up 15-12, Boise State kicked it into gear rolling off a 7-1 run to take a 21-13 advantage. Ohlinger sparked the run with a kill followed by a block solo. The Broncos took the set by a decisive 10 points, 25-15.

The final set was Boise State's from the first serve as it raced to a 4-0 lead and never trail. Duffy had four kills to lead the charge with Walley adding two kills and two block assists in the six-point win.

Next up for the Broncos is Southern Utah at 1 p.m. Saturday to close the Thunderbird Classic.

OTHER NOTABLES

Entering the match Boise State had lost 22 straight matches when dropping the first two sets dating back to 2015. The last time the Broncos won after trailing by two was Oct. 29, 2015 at Fresno State 23-25, 22-25, 27-25, 25-20, 20-18. Since that time the Broncos were 0-6 in 2016, 0-9 in 2017, 0-5 in 2018 and 0-2 in 2019.
Janell Walley earned her second double-double of the season and 10th of her career on 16 points and 12 digs, she was one of three Broncos with double-doubles ... Walley also hit a team-best 40 percent versus SMC.
Freshman Lauren Ohlinger recorded her second double-double of the season on 10 kills and 13 digs, she also had three blocks (one solo).
Sophomore setter Danielle Boss was the third Bronco with a double-double versus the Gaels on 36 assists and 10 digs, the fifth of her career.
The Blue Wall came through for the Broncos late as Boise State recorded only one block solo in the first two sets combined, then tallied 10 blocks in the last three sets.
Janell Walley recorded five block assists in the match and had five earlier against Middle Tennessee State to give her 23 on the year.
Jessica Donahue had five blocks against the Gaels to match Walley ... she also had six versus MTSU in the first match of the day and now has 20 in 2019.
Shae Duffy had a solid day for the Blue and Orange, after setting a career high for kills with 15 versus MTSU in the first match, she added a team-second-best 14 against Saint Mary's.
Senior Cassedi Simon recorded six assists against Saint Mary's moving her to within seven of 1,000 in her career.
Boise State is now 3-2 all-time versus Saint Mary's and 39-49 against the current members (all-time) of the West Coast Conference.