San Diego State answered one lost set with two controlled ones. Behind double-doubles from Ella Schabort, Layla Austin and Kendall Mairs, the Aztecs beat Boise State 25-17, 19-25, 25-17, 25-16 Thursday at Bronco Gym for their second straight victory and second Pac-12 win.
Schabort supplied the heaviest volume, finishing with a match-high 18 kills and a season-best 14 digs. Austin was nearly as productive and more efficient: 17 kills, 11 digs and a .406 hitting percentage. Mairs connected those swings, setting a career high with 50 assists and adding 10 digs for her own double-double.
The first set established the difference in attack. SDSU hit .324 while holding Boise State to .051, winning the kill count 16-9. After seven early ties, the Aztecs broke an 8-8 score with a 7-3 run. Taelyn Bentley terminated the last point of the 25-17 frame after contributing four kills on five error-free attempts.
Boise State's block changed the second. The Broncos recorded six team blocks and benefited from four unforced SDSU attack errors. They built a 16-9 lead, absorbed two Aztec pushes that cut the margin to three and closed 25-19. SDSU still held a 16-12 edge in kills, but volume could not overcome the lost points at the net.
The Aztecs reset rather than carrying those errors forward. They took the third set by the same 25-17 margin as the first, then accelerated through the fourth 25-16. Bentley finished with nine kills and a .438 percentage. Tessa Schouten added seven kills and a team-high five blocks, while Zara Stewart steadied the back row with nine digs.
SDSU lost the blocking total 11-8 and won almost everything around it. The Aztecs produced 65 kills to Boise State's 39, outhit the Broncos .278 to .178 and held a 60-44 advantage in digs. Those gaps show a team surviving one clear weakness because first contact, setting and terminal swings remained consistent across four sets.
The distribution kept Boise State from loading its defense toward one pin. Schabort and Austin combined for 35 kills, but Bentley and Schouten added 16 more on efficient nights. Mairs also scored with a kill and worked into the block. When the Broncos slowed one route in the second set, SDSU still had enough alternatives to reopen the floor in the third.
Serve pressure helped the Aztecs finish runs rather than merely trade sideouts. Nazare Judd and Stewart delivered first-set aces, and the defense converted extended rallies into another swing for the attack. Boise State's 11 blocks created the clearest counter, yet the Broncos could not sustain that net control once SDSU reduced its unforced errors.
The result moved SDSU to 7-6 overall and 2-1 in conference play. Boise State fell to 9-6 and 1-1. It also gave the Aztecs a second consecutive win in Boise, but the more immediate value is the road response: they lost momentum in the second set and rebuilt it before the match reached a fifth.
Another road test comes quickly. SDSU visits Washington State on Saturday. The Boise performance provides a useful formula—multiple attackers above pressure, Mairs distributing at career-high volume and enough floor defense to extend rallies. The block can improve. The offense already showed it can win a match without owning every category.