RENO, Nev. - For the first time this season the University of Nevada (7-12, 3-3 WAC) volleyball has won two matches in a row after knocking off Boise State (2-17, 2-5 WAC) in a Western Athletic Conference match played at the Virginia Street Gym Thursday night. The Wolf Pack lost the first set 21-25 but responded with three consecutive victories by scores of 25-19, 25-19 and 25-11. With the victory the Pack improved to 7-12 on the season and evened their WAC mark at 3-3. The Broncos fell to 2-17 on the year and 2-5 in conference play.
Nevada returns to action on Saturday night hosting Idaho at 7:00 p.m. Saturday evening is Susan Komen Breast Cancer Awareness Night and all fans who wear pink will be admitted free to the match.
BSU took control of set one early jumping to a 5-1 advantage and never trailed the rest of the way to win 25-21. Nevada hit well at .278 but the Broncos were much better at .394.
There were four ties and two lead changes before Nevada prevailed 25-19 in set two. The Pack put together an 8-1 run to break an 8-8 tie and were never challenged the rest of the set. Sophomore setter Tatiana Santiago served five of the points in the run. Nevada's attack percentage slipped to .200 but BSU's dropped all the way to .100 for the set.
Following the break the Pack continued their winning ways taking set three 25-19. Nevada led 6-2 and BSU was unable to recover as they dropped the set and fell behind 2-1 in the match. Both team's attack percentage fell once again as the Pack hit .152 and held the Broncos to a negative .069.
Nevada produced its most dominate performance in the final set as they led 9-2 and increased the advantage to 12 points at 20-8 on the way to the easy 25-11 set four victory to take the match 3-1. The Pack had its best hitting set of the night at .314 and held the Broncos in the negative for the second consecutive set as the posted a negative .026 attack percentage in set four.
Freshman Elissa Ji led the Pack with a match-high 14 kills and junior Lindsay Baldwin totaled 12. Junior libero Nicole Link finished with a match-high 22 digs while fellow junior Kylie Harrington added 10. The Pack's two setters Santiago and Sonnie Sei dished out 21 and 18 assists respectively.
Sadie Maughan topped BSU with 13 kills and setter Breann Nesselhuf finished with a match-high 35 assists. Nesselhuf added 11 digs to record a double-double. Lauren Hamm and Amanda Remy tallied 14 and 12 digs for the Broncos.
In the match Nevada hit .237 and held BSU to an attack percentage of .100. The Broncos totaled nine blocks compared to seven for the Pack. Maughan had nine blocks for BSU and Baldwin led Nevada with five.
