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Bronco volleyball wraps up regular season
Brendan Sherry, Journalist
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NIK BJURSTROM/THE ARBITER Freshman Liz Harden goes for a kill shot earlier in the season against Northern Arizona
When Boise State women’s volleyball coach Shawn Garus took over before the 2009 season, he wanted his team to be the most improved squad by the end of the year. As the Broncos wrap up their season, it is fair to say they have reached Garus’ goal.
After a sluggish start the Broncos have battled back into contention and are prepared to take on the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Broncos can credit the work ethic and the player’s never-die attitude to this season’s resurgence. This year the Broncos continued to fight even when things weren’t going their way and the new coaching staff can take some of that credit.
“Things have been a lot more stable this year,” senior defensive specialist Kati Lewis said. “We are a lot more structured as a team.”
The Broncos could have given in and blamed new faces and a new system to their slow start at the beginning of the year. Instead, they put their time in at the gym and continued to improve every week, despite starting the season off with 11 straight losses. Although they had a conference win against San Jose State University, it wasn’t until the home win against the University of Idaho when the Broncos began to see the results of their hard work.
“Beating Idaho here was really a turning point for us,” Garus said. “We came out and played a really good match against a solid Idaho team. I think that it gave everybody the confidence that what we were doing day-in and day-out was working, and if we stuck to it, we would start winning matches.”
Following the win against Idaho, the Broncos began playing like a completely different team. They started playing better as a squad and displayed a desire to win.
“We started getting wins and dominating,” senior libero Jeanene Rose said. “We were taking people out in three games and were able to keep it up and build our confidence.”
The Broncos have been able to maintain that confidence through the rest of the season. Heading into Thursday’s rematch against the University of Idaho, Boise State is fourth in the WAC. Depending on how things play out this week, the Broncos could go into the tournament as high as a four seed, or as low as a sixth seed.
For a team that was picked to finish near the bottom of the conference at beginning of the year, a birth to the WAC Championship Tournament is a notable accomplishment. However, the Broncos – especially the seniors – don’t want to settle with what they have already accomplished.
“I don’t want our team to settle, I would rather go out with a bang,” Rose said.