Spartans Push Broncos To Five SetsSpartans Push Broncos To Five Sets

Spartans Push Broncos To Five Sets

Box Score

BOISE, Idaho—Morgan Graves, Lolo Fonua and Mariana Buchanan combined to hit .354 Thursday night as the San José State volleyball team nearly pulled off the reverse sweep of Boise State before falling 3-2 (16-25, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19, 9-15) in a road Mountain West match.

  • Graves led the Spartans with 18 kills and recorded four digs.
  • Fonua hit .316 for the match, adding 16 kills on a season-high 38 attempts and only four errors.
  • Buchanan hit a blistering .632 to lead the Spartans. She recorded a career-high 13 kills on 19 attempts and only one hitting error in three sets played.  
  • This was the seventh match this season that three Spartans recorded double-digit kills. In total, 10 of the 15 Spartans who saw action on the court recorded at least one kill.
  • The Spartans got contributions from everyone on the floor, from a back-row kill from Randilyn Reeves to Alyssa Bjork with three digs in a rally in the fourth set.
  • Fatimah Hall recorded her seventh double-double of the season and 13th of her collegiate career with career bests of 47 assists and 18 digs.
  • Talita Gonçalves led the Spartan defense with 19 digs and was one assist short of a double-double with nine.
  • Reeves had a stat line of a career-best two kills, two assists and seven digs.
  • Ava Hewitt-Smith led the blocking attack with one solo and four assists.
  • Nazare Judd added 11 digs, while Katie O’Sullivan had eight digs as the Spartans recorded a season-high 75 digs in the match.
  • After dropping the first two sets, the Spartans trailed 21-19 before scoring six of the final eight points to win the third set 25-23 on a Graves kill.
  • The fourth set was tied at 12-12, and the Spartans slowly extended their lead, including a 5-0 run to take a 20-14 lead, before winning 25-19 on a Bronco hitting error and forcing a fifth set.
  • A quirky fact – The Spartans scored the first point in four of the five sets, just not the fourth set, but took the lead at 2-1 in the set and never trailed again.
  • The Spartans tied the fifth set at 4-4 on a Buchanan kill, but Boise State used an 8-1 run to open up the set. SJSU fought off three Bronco match points before falling 15-9.

UP NEXT – The Spartans return home for three matches over the next nine days, beginning with this Saturday against Fresno State at 1 p.m. The match is designated at the Pink Meet for breast cancer awareness. Fans unable to attend can watch on NBC Sports Bay Area or on the Mountain West Network. San José State also hosts Grand Canyon on the 23rd at 6 p.m., and New Mexico on the 25th at noon. All home matches are played at Spartan Gym, inside the YUH Complex on the corner of Fourth and San Carlos. Admission is free.

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