Boise State Comes Up Short in Season Opener at Arizona

Friday, August 30

Tucson, Ariz.

7 p.m. MT

Boise State

0-1,0-0Mountain West

Arizona

1-0,0-0Big 12

Boise St.

Arizona

Anabel Kotzakov goes high to attack the ball during the Blue-Orange scrimmage in August 2024.

Boise State Comes Up Short in Season Opener at Arizona

8/30/2024 10:13:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

TUCSON, Ariz. – Anabel Kotzakov tied her career high for kills with 14, but it was not enough as Boise State volleyball fell 3-1 to Arizona in the season opener Friday night at the McKale Center in Tucson.

Trailing two sets to none, Boise State rallied to claim the third set 26-24 but fell in the fourth as the Wildcats claimed the victory to extend their series lead to 2-0 all-time.

The Broncos struggled in the first set, hitting .000. However, they regrouped and hit .306 in the second, rallying to take a late lead before falling 25-23 to the Wildcats, who claimed the first two sets.

Boise State took a tight third set, hitting .238 to stay alive. Up 23-19, the Broncos saw the advantage disappear, tied at 24-24, before regrouping to take two straight points for the 26-24 win.

Arizona pulled away from the Broncos midway through the fourth to clinch the match with a 25-20 set win.

TOP BRONCOS

Anable Kotzakov led the Broncos with a team-high and career-tying 14 kills while hitting .258.
Paige Bartsch added 12 kills, nine digs and two blocks.
Annie Kaminski hit a team-best .389 for seven kills with two blocks.

NOTABLES

Lilli Etter and Kiki Remensperger both recorded double-doubles in their Boise State debuts; Etter had team-highs of 19 assists and 16 digs, while Remensperger had 17 assists and 14 digs.
Bartsch's 10 kills against Arizona extended her match streak in double-digit kills to 10 straight, dating back to the 2023 campaign when she had double-digit kills in the final nine matches and 28 of 29 contests on the year.
Bartsch's 12 kills give her 1,113 in her career, needing only eight more (1,121) to tie for 10th place in Bronco history for career kills.
Kaminski hit (.389) better than her career percentage of .356, which is third all-time in a career at Boise State.
The loss moved Boise State to 25-21 in season openers since 1979.

QUOTABLES

Shawn Garus, Head Coach

"I saw many great things and a lot of talent on the floor tonight, but not in the first set."
"I thought our freshmen Lilli (Etter) and Kiki (Remensperger) played great defense against Arizona tonight to extend several rallies for us, especially for it being their first collegiate matches."
"Annie (Kaminski) was efficient hitting the ball tonight at .389 percent and did a good job with the opportunities we gave her."
"I was pleased that Anabel Kotzakov took a lot of big swings for us offensively against the Wildcats as we look toward our other two matches here this weekend."

WHAT'S NEXT

Boise State will continue play at the 2024 Cactus Classic on Saturday at 11 a.m. MDT when the Broncos face the Tennessee State Tigers out of the Ohio Valley Conference.