BOISE, Idaho – San Diego State volleyball (4-14, 2-3 Mountain West) earned its first road win of the season and extended its winning streak to three on Thursday night, earning a hard-fought five-set (18-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-25, 15-11) win at Boise State (10-6, 2-3 MW) at Bronco Court.
After the Aztecs started the match slowly with just a .100 hitting percentage in the first set, SDSU used a pair of strong offensive performances to take a 2-1 lead, hitting .407 and .269 in the second and third sets, respectively.
In the second set, the Aztecs faced a sizeable 20-14 deficit, but used a 6-0 scoring run featuring a pair of Victoria O'Sullivan kills, two scores by Ashlynn Dunbar, and two Bronco attack errors to tie the game at 20-20. From that point, the Aztecs and Broncos went point-for-point until the set was tied at 24-24. The Aztecs sealed the second-set win with kills by Dunbar and Deja Harris ending the set at 26-24.
SDSU won by the minimum margin again in the third set, and overcame another formidable deficit with the Broncos leading 17-12. Very similar to the second set, SDSU used a 6-1 scoring run including kills by Dunbar and Harris to tie the set at 18-18. SDSU took a late-set 23-22 lead after a Bronco service error and closed the game with Dunbar's fifth kill of the second set to claim a 25-23 win and a 2-1 lead.
SDSU recorded an uncharacteristic .000 hitting percentage in the fourth set, allowing the Broncos to take a 25-15 fourth-set win and force the fifth set.
Harris, Dunbar, and Hannah Turnlund all provided key offensive points in the fifth set with two kills apiece. With the match-determining fifth-set tied at 11-11, SDSU closed the match on a 4-0 scoring run to finish off the Broncos and record their third consecutive victory. Delaney Taylor's sixth kill of the night provided SDSU with a 13-11 lead, and the set was later finished off by Turnlund, who capitalized on a set from Taylor to finish off the fifth-set win.
Harris led the Aztecs in both kills (14) and hitting percentage (.458). Dunbar recorded 13 kills to compliment Harris' performance and Taylor set up the offense with 36 assists in the match. The defensive effort for the Aztecs was led by Loren Teter, who logged a career-high 19 digs, and Harris, who recorded eight blocks. SDSU out-blocked Boise State 11-5 in the match.
NOTES
- San Diego State takes an 8-7 lead in the all-time series with tonight's win.
- Tonight was SDSU's first win in Boise since sweeping the Broncos at Bronco Gym on Oct. 26, 2013. The win snaps a four-match losing streak in Boise.
- SDSU's five-set win is the team's second consecutive conference win that has gone the distance. The last time SDSU has won back-to-back conference matches in five sets happened on Oct. 4 and Oct. 7, 2012, with wins against Fresno State and UNLV, respectively.
- Tonight's match featured 32 ties and 11 lead changes.
UP NEXT
SDSU finishes the weekend with a road contest at Utah State, scheduled for Saturday at 1pm MT.
VB Earns Five-Set Win at Boise State
