Boise State volleyball upsets No. 10 Utah in 3-1 victory for seventh straight win

After winning against the No. 10 ranked University of Utah on Monday, Sept. 13, the Boise State women’s volleyball team solidified their argument to be ranked in the NCAA top 25.

The Boise State volleyball team defeated Utah in the first, third and fourth sets to secure a 3-1 win, and the biggest upset in program history.

“I’m really proud of our team and how they prepared for this match,” said Head Coach Shawn Garus. “We didn’t prepare like Utah was unbeatable, we prepared like we had a great team coming in and a great opportunity.”

All of the sets in this match were competitive and consisted of both teams constantly exchanging scores and leads throughout.

“You know, we’ve played ranked teams before, but I don’t know if we have beaten anybody as high as [no.] 10,” Garus said. “It’s just confidence building for all the players and it validates all their hard work, and should motivate them to keep working for more.”

In the first set, Boise State started with a 9-8 lead, which progressively increased as the set went on, ultimately giving the Broncos a seven point lead with the final score being 25-18.

Utah took the second set with a final score was 16-25. 

Boise State responded to the second set by securing a 25-20 victory in the third set and a 25-21 victory in the final set.

Junior outside hitter Lauren Ohlinger, sophomore outside opposite Makayla Hansen and redshirt junior middle blocker Alyssa Wissinger led their team to victory with high scoring. 

Throughout the match, Ohlinger had a .353 hitting percentage, team-leading 16 kills, three assists, one service ace, one block assist and scored 17.5 points for the Broncos. 

Hansen had a .276 hitting percentage along with 14 kills, six digs, a team-leading 6 block assists and 17 points.

Wissinger finished off with a team-leading .467 hitting percentage, 10 kills, four blocks and scored 12.5 points.

Ohlinger, Hansen and Wissinger combined for 40 kills and 10 blocks. The team’s final stats include 55 kills and a hitting percentage of .280.

“We were high energy today, we played with great passion,” Hansen said. “Our entire team played well, we passed well and we were focused. I thought [senior setter] Dani [Boss] did an amazing job distributing the ball which allowed us to play great.”

This win improves the team’s win streak to seven games and their season record to 9-1. This record ties for the best season start of all time after 10 matches.

The Boise State volleyball team will play their next game in the Boise State Classic against Santa Clara on Thursday, Sept. 16 and Oregon State on Saturday, Sept. 18.