BOISE – Allyson Alden had overcame greater odds.
So she didn’t fret down a set against Arizona’s No. 1 tandem with the Boise State beach volleyball team’s four-year home unbeaten streak on the line.
Just two years after thinking her volleyball career was over due to a knee injury, the redshirt senior is now leading the top-seeded Broncos (19-10) into Wednesday’s Southland Conference Beach Volleyball Championships in New Orleans as part of their No. 1 pairing.
“She’s extremely gritty. You see it every day, on and off the court,” said partner and senior Sharli O’Neil. “She is putting 1,000% into the team and to her sport. It’s really inspiring to see what she’s gone through and how much she hasn’t let it affect her play.”
Alden was continuing her family’s legacy at San Jose State.
She started on both of its indoor and beach volleyball teams. During the COVID-19 2020-21 shortened indoor season, Alden posted a remarkable 37.5% hitting percentage—the best on the team, the second-best single-season mark in program history and the highest by any Spartan in nearly 25 years. Her beach volleyball performance was impressive as well, compiling a team-best 6-4 record all as just a freshman.
“I had an amazing time,” Alden said. “I started every single game and I felt like I had a really big impact on the team as a freshman, which was awesome. People liked my ideas, the coaches liked my style of play.”
One that was developed by her mother Gwen, a collegiate standout herself at the University of Missouri way back when. She coached all three of daughters who all followed in her footsteps. Ellie played for the University of Chicago and Ensley is redshirt sophomore at UCLA. The sisters learned the sport in Japan of places. Their father was in the military. So the family moved 13 times by the time Alden was 13. But the family finally settled down in San Marcos California where Alden really fell in love with the sport.
“I actually hated it until my freshman year of high school,” Alden said with a laugh. “I think I did because my sisters played. You know when your siblings do something and you just don’t want to be like them. I think that was the case. But then I realized I was pretty good at it and it became really fun.”
Playing alongside her sisters at San Marcos High, she set school records for both career blocks and single-season blocks while leading the Knights to the 2019 San Diego Section Division I Championship and a runner-up finish in 2017. Her stellar play also earned her All-Avocado West League first-team MVP honors at the 2019 Scripps Ranch Tournament.
But all that promise came to a screeching halt.
In a casual recreational game back home during the summer following her breakout season at San Jose State, a chance collision under the net sent Alden landing awkwardly on her left leg.
“On the ground, I knew it was over,” Alden said.
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But it was worse than even she expected.
Alden had completely blown out her knee with a dislocated knee, a torn ACL and a fractured tibia. Worse yet, her recovery ended up being a nightmare. She was still dealing with persistent pain even years after 2021 surgery.
“People just kept telling me, ‘You’re gonna have pain. You had surgery. You tore her ACL.’ But I knew something was wrong,” Alden said.
Trusting her instincts, she got her own MRI, which validated all of her concerns. It revealed that the patellar graft had failed to heal properly at the top of her kneecap. So an arthroscopy in March 2023 finally brought relief, allowing Alden to walk normally for the first time in two years. The whole ordeal ended up costing her two full seasons and never suiting up for the Spartans again.
“The mental aspect weighed way more heavily than the physical aspect. I was away from the sport that I love to do. I’m not traveling with the team because you can’t take up a travel spot if you can’t play,” Alden said. “What made it harder was that I knew I was an impactful player. My ideas are great and my play is great, but now I can’t do it because of some stupid injury that takes me away from everything that I love.”
Following her graduation from San Jose State, Alden tried to explore transfer options. But the harsh reality became clear – her knee still wasn’t ready for competitive play.
“I came to realize that indoor was going to be pretty hard on my knee – even four years out and it still is. I needed to recover my mental health and I needed to recover my body,” Alden said. “So I just went home because I was in that much pain.
“I kind of gave up on myself.”
But then she received an unexpected lifeline.
Andrew Bennet, who had coached Ensley in club volleyball, had just taken the reins of the beach volleyball program at MiraCosta College, a junior college just 10 miles from Alden’s home. He offered her a spot on the roster. So for the first time in three years, Alden was playing volleyball again. She didn’t miss a step, claiming the No. 1 position and guiding the Spartans to a 17-9 record, a runner-up conference finish and third place at the state championship.
“It definitely reinvigorated me,” Alden said. “It was awesome to get the opportunity to play again. I viewed it as my recovery and rehab season, just getting back into the swing of things. It was awesome to be a leader of a team with a new coach, someone that I trusted and someone who trusted me.”
So much so that he introduced her to Boise State assistant coach Alex Venardos. Several Broncos, including junior Ava Anderson, who earned All-Southland Conference second-team honors last season, played for Bennett’s Tamarack Beach Volleyball Club. So Boise State’s coaching staff was eager to see what Alden had to offer.
They witnessed it first hand at a tournament in Huntington, California last season. It resulted in them offering her scholarship – surprisingly, the only Division I one she received.
“When I first saw her, she was still getting used to playing beach. The transition from indoor to beach is a pretty big transition. But I saw her raw talent. She is super athletic and is able to block really, really well. And at the time, we were looking for a blocker,” Boise State head coach Allison Voigt said. “But for me, it was more seeing, if she gets attacked, what’s that going to look like. And I only needed to see a couple balls before I said, ‘Yeah, she’s really good. We sure can use her in our program.”
Alden proved just that against the Wildcats, who were receiving votes in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll, at the Boise State Classic on April 13.
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The Broncos’ impressive 19-match home winning streak rested squarely on Alden and O’Neil. It only intensified when they dropped the opening set 15-21 to Arizona’s Annika Stammberger and Emily Wood. But in a moment that mirrored Alden’s own journey back from a career-threatening knee injury, the duo refused to quit. They orchestrated a masterful reversal, controlling the second set 21-12 before cruising 15-8 in the third for the improbable come-from-behind win.
“Her resilience is insane,” Voigt said. “It was really impressive to me that she moved to beach and found her love of volleyball again. When she first got here in the fall, we talked about what each person’s why. And for her it was the ability to play again. She had all of this taken away from her when she wasn’t ready. So now that she has this opportunity, she’s taking advantage of it. So it’s very impressive how mature she is and how grateful she is for this experience.”
Alden’s storybook season has also included a 19-9 record with O’Neil – the best on the team. They just recently became the Broncos’ No. 1 team after spending most of this spring and the fall at the No. 2 spot. The two were the Southland Conference Pair of the Week twice, All-SLC first-team selections and on Tuesday, Alden was named the Southland Conference’s Newcomer of the Year.
It’s all helped propel Boise State to a historic season.
The Broncos won their first-ever conference championship by going a perfect 6-0 at the Southland Conference Midseason Tournament on March 23. It’s part of a 15-1 record over their last 16 matches that have them as the favorites at this week’s Southland Conference Beach Volleyball Championships that run through Friday. A win there would give Boise State the automatic bid to the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships, which would also be a first.
“It’s crazy,” O’Neil said. “When I got here my freshman year, we weren’t even in a conference. We were just playing to play. Which now is a crazy concept to think about, not really having much to work up to. So it’s filled my heart with so much love and happiness, seeing how much everything’s grown. People want to come here and really compete for us, which is super awesome.”
As for Alden, the comeback may not be over just yet.
She plans to seek an additional medical hardship waiver that would grant her one final year of eligibility with the Broncos. Yet, regardless of the NCAA’s decision, her story already stands as an extraordinary testament to perseverance.
“I’m just so thankful for the journey that I’ve had. It’s been really, really hard, but I wouldn’t change it because I’ve met so many people and I’m here,” Alden said. “I can’t reiterate how thankful I am to have an opportunity to play again, which is insane, and just show people that I am capable of doing what I know I can do. I’m still showing people that I can do a lot more than they ever expected me to do, especially after my injury.”
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