Boise State Game Balls for week of October 2nd

Hope everyone had a good week. And took in some sports performances from the squads at Boise State. Who did well? Let us find out.

Game Ball One:

Jamie-Lee Bulda (volleyball)

“You have a point! You have a point! EVERYONE GETS A POINT!” Ms. Bulda is an assists machine. Last week the Broncos took on the Air Force Falcons, and the Utah State Aggies. Between the two matches she put up 75 assists. In the Air Force match Ms. Bulda netted 36. Against Utah State she had 39 (which led both teams). And it is not a wonder that the Broncos came away last week without dropping a single set. She is literally setting them up so the other Broncos can knock them down. And knock them down they do.

Congratulations Ms. Bulda on an OBNUG Game Ball!

Game Ball Two:

Janelle Flores (soccer)

Being the goalkeeper is tough. You are, literally, the last line of defense from the other team scoring. Like any other spot on the pitch, you can have a bad day. Unfortunately a bad day for a goalie does result in a goal being scored. At the beginning of the week Air Force managed to score two goals (on eight shots-on-goal from the Falcons) in the Broncos’ first loss in Mountain West Conference play. Ms. Flores was able to shrug that off and withstand a barrage of 25 shots on goal from San Jose State to end the match in a 0-0 tie. You read that right—the Spartans had twenty-five shots on goal. And Ms. Flores saved eleven of them. That is incredible. By comparison, the Broncos only had six shots on goal against the Spartans. That in, and of itself, is a massive effort. And, for that, Ms. Flores gets a Game Bal!

Game Ball Three:

Brett Rypien (football)

It is pretty self-explanatory, and pretty easy. The Broncos had three legitimate players have good enough games for, not only a Game Ball, but the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Mr. Rypien was 21-28 for 391 yards, and five touchdowns. That was good enough for a QB rating 251.2. So somewhere in the neighborhood of “kind of good.” Coming into this game, there were (fair) questions about the offense finally being able to put together a dominant game. The first series notwithstanding (resulted in a punt) the answer to the question is: yes. After that initial punt, the Broncos’ offense put together seven consecutive drives that ended with a touchdown. And it only “faltered” when massive substitutions started happening. So, to Mr. Rypien, goes a Game Ball!

Game Ball Four:

Brittany Aoyama (swimming)

The Broncos’ coaching staff is hauling in verbal commits left and right. And there is a reason. Because the Broncos are going to start hauling in wins left and right. Starting with Ms. Aoyama. During the Chick-Fil-A Invitational Aoyama led the Broncos to an overall team victory (they had 1,002 points to second-place school San Diego State 825.5). And she did that by winning eight events in two days. Swimming is tough and being able to gobble up wins like that over two days? That is impressive. This invitational was just a barometer of where the Broncos are right now. And right now? The forecast is good.

Congratulations Ms. Aoyama!

Game Ball Five:

Sadi Henderson (cross country)

The Broncos were back in Logan, Utah last week for a meet at the Steve T. Reeder Memorial Invitational run. This was an opportunity to get a few more Broncos some experience on a course. So Ms. Henderson led the way for the Broncos and was the top finisher with a seventh-place finish of 18:53.59. This helped the Broncos finish third overall for the meet.

Congratulations Ms. Henderson.

Your Turn

Lot’s to digest on this. And a lot more to come. Who else succeeded last week? Let me know.