Broncos Rally Past GCU in MW Opener

Thursday, September 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Boise State

9-3,1-0Mountain West

Grand Canyon

8-4,0-1Mountain West

Boise St.

Grand Canyon

Eliza Sharp smashes the kill past the Idaho State wall for a point.

9/25/2025 10:34:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: Courtesy: Boise State Athletics

PHOENIX – Boise State volleyball used a balanced offense with four Broncos reaching double-digit kills as they battled back from a set down to defeat Grand Canyon 3-1 (23-25, 29-27, 25-17, 25-15) in the Mountain West opener for both teams. The victory in Phoenix improved Boise State's overall record to a league-best 9-3 and its conference record to 1-0. GCU moved to 8-4 and 0-1.

The first two sets were battles that saw the Broncos rally from big deficits to earn a split. Set one, Boise State rallied from seven down, 15-8, to go up 22-20, only to see GCU regroup with a 5-1 run to take it 25-23.

In set two, Boise State rallied from nine down at 18-9 with an 11-2 run to tie the score at 20, then fought off two Grand Canyon set points down the stretch to win it in extra points, 29-27.

The final two sets saw the Broncos pull away early and race to an eight-point win in the third, followed by a 10-point win in the fourth to clinch the match.

Quotables

Shawn Garus, head coach
"I'm so proud of how the team responded after a slow start on the road, in front of a good crowd...getting a comeback win was great."
"Defense was the key tonight. Layla (Smith) was a huge part of that with her blocking, and Bre (Mitchell) made some great defensive plays."

Notables

Boise State is now 8-7 in MW conference openers and 5-6 on the road in those matches…since 1980, the Broncos are 31-15 in conference openers, 11-2 at home, and 20-13 on the road.
Layla Smith led the Broncos with team highs for kills with 13 and blocks with nine…it was her third match with nine or more blocks…she also moved into the team lead for total blocks with 62; she entered the match second on the team, third in the MW, and 45th nationally.
Eliza Sharp finished with 12 kills while hitting .391, to go with four blocks…she entered the night ranked second in the MW and 28th nationally for total blocks; she now has 59 on the year.
Arianna Bilby recorded 11 kills, one service ace and nine digs…it was her eighth match with double-digit kills.
Sydney Dreves tallied 10 kills, nine digs and three blocks…her fifth contest with double-figure kills.
Bre Mitchell reached the 100 career service aces milestone as a Bronco tonight with two against the Lopes, giving her 100.
Mitchell, the MW digs leader, added 23 more to give her a season total of 200…she is two short of reaching the 1,000 career digs milestone as a Bronco, sitting at 998...she surpassed the 1,500 collegiate career digs total, hitting 1,511 tonight – this includes one year (513) at CSUN.
Lilli Etter finished with a team-high 27 assists.
Giselle Paedon had a season-high five blocks.
Boise State entered the match as the MW leader and ranked eighth nationally for team blocks; the 13 tonight against GCU moved the total to 134 on the year.
Boise State was leading the MW in total digs entering tonight's contest; it recorded an impressive 77 to increase its total to 743 on the year.

What's Next

The Broncos will continue the opening weekend of conference play at Albuquerque, New Mexico, against the UNM Lobos at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The match will be streamed live on the MW Network.