HONOLULU, Hawai’i The 2008 Boise State volleyball season came to a close on Thursday night at the Western Athletic Conference tournament when the No. 7 seeded Broncos fell, 3-0, to the No. 2 seed and host team Hawai’i. The Rainbow Wahine improved to 24-3 on the season while the Broncos dropped to 9-19 on the season in the 25-15, 25-16, 25-17 match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Hawai’i was dominant in set one, earning a 10 point win after recording 20 kills and a .452 hitting percentage. The Broncos were only able to notch seven kills and a .067 hitting percentage.

Set two was a bit more even most of the way through with Hawai’i jumping ahead in the later third of the set. The Rainbow Wahine tallied 16 kills for a .257 percentage while the Broncos hit a .100 percentage with seven kills.

Set three began in an exciting fashion with Boise State jumping to an 8-0 lead. Thanks to attacking errors on Hawai’i as well as five block assists by freshman Lydia Blaha, sophomore Alisha King and senior Maren Ericson, the Broncos built to a 10-1 lead. From there, Hawai’i went on a 13-4 run to tie the set at 14-14. Hawai’i continued their run with an 11-3 finish to clinch the match and advance to the tournament semifinals.

Senior Jeanette Jenkins and sophomore Sadie Maughan, who was named to the All-WAC second team on Wednesday, led the Broncos in kills with five each while Maughan added four block assists as well. Blaha led the match in blocks with six (one solo) while King added five block assists and five digs. Junior Jeanene Rose led the Broncos with six digs and sophomore Lauren Hamm had five while senior Mandy Klein added 15 set assists.

The Rainbow Wahine were led by Jamie Houston and Kanani Danielson with 12 kills each. Danielson also earned a .476 hitting percentage and led the team with three blocks (two solo). Stephanie Brandt tallied 45 set assists while Tara Hittle led the backcourt efforts with 17 digs. Aneli Cubi-Otineru recorded the only double-double of the match with 10 kills and 11 digs while also adding one service ace and one block assist.

Boise State notched 20 kills and a .067 hitting percentage while Hawai’i had 51 kills and a .288 percentage; however, the Broncos out-blocked the Wahine 10-7.

The WAC tournament semifinals begin at 8 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Friday with No. 1 seeded New Mexico State taking on No. 5 seeded San Jose State. Hawai’i will face No. 3 seeded Idaho in a 10:30 p.m. (MT) match. The finals are set for 6 p.m. (MT) on Sunday afternoon.