Beach Volleyball Opens Season at Cactus Classic

Friday, February 21

Tucson, Ariz.

10:00 a.m. MT

Boise State

San Francisco

2/19/2020 3:08:00 PM | Women's Beach Volleyball

Broncos will face No. 15 Arizona and No. 20 Arizona State on Saturday.

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

The Broncos open their seventh season on the road in Tucson, Ariz., at the Cactus Classic on the campus of the University of Arizona.
This is the second year straight that Boise State has opened up at the Cactus Classic going 2-1 there last year after being snowed out on the first day.
The field for this year's tournament includes: No. 15 Arizona, No. 20 Arizona State, Boise State, Missouri State and San Francisco.
The Broncos are a combined 7-8 all-time versus the field of the Cactus Classic.
Boise State will open with San Francisco on Friday, the Broncos are 2-0 all-time versus the Dons. The last meeting between the two was in 2017 by a 5-0 score in favor of the Blue and Orange.
Boise State has never met the Missouri State Bears before in beach volleyball.
The Broncos are 0-5 versus Arizona, the Wildcats beat the Blue and Orange twice last season both by 3-2 scores.
Boise State is 2-3 versus Arizona State, including winning the last two meetings by 3-2 scores at Hawaii in 2018.

This year's schedule will be the longest in program history with 22 contests.
As usual, the Pacific-12 Conference will feature heavily in the Broncos' schedule with at least seven and possibly as many as nine contests against Pac-12 schools.
Boise State will face four new opponents this year in Missouri State (twice), Vanguard, San Diego Mesa and Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

The Blue and Orange will feature a familiar look in 2020 with eight veterans from last year returning in seniors Jensen Allen and Kenna Hanses, juniors Drew Hannemann, Kylee Johnson and Maya Watkins, as well as, sophomores Olivia Bradley, Ellie McDonald and Alyssa Wissinger.
The pairs lineup will look different with only the McDonald and Johnson, and Hanses and Watkins pairs seeing much time in 2019.

Boise State added some new faces to the squad picking up two transfers, one from the University of New Mexico in Joey Benson (So.) and the other Erin Martin (Jr.) from Loyola Marymount.
Freshmen added include Katie Martin, Liz Melita and Cela Chamness.
All should push the veterans for playing time.

The Broncos will add depth to the lineup with the inclusion of six members of Boise State's indoor team.
Bradley and Wissinger were on the roster last season and saw limited time.
The other four are first time members of the beach team and include Danielle Boss, Allison Casillas, Lauren Ohlinger and Shae Duffy.
Four of the six, Bradley (6-1), Wissinger (6-2), Ohlinger (6-3) and Duffy (6-2) are over 6-feet tall.

Allison Buck returns for her second season has the head coach after serving the previous two as the assistant. In her first campaign at the helm of the Broncos, Boise State recorded its best season in program history at 13-6 with notable wins over Oregon, Nebraska and Utah.
Buck is joined this year by Alex Venardos as her new assistant coach. He is a Boise State alumnus who spent is undergraduate career assisting with both the indoor and beach teams.