Santa Clara's sand volleyball team finished the weekend with a 2-1 record at the Stanford Invitational, finishing in third place. The No. 18 Broncos defeated USF 3-2, lost a close one to No. 12 Stanford, 2-3, and came back an hour later to defeat No. 7 Saint Mary's 3-2. The Broncos also competed well in the pairs competition Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
Santa Clara opened the weekend with a 3-2 victory over USF on Friday. The teams of Kaity Edwards and Mary Shepherd and GiGi Cresto and Jensen Cunningham won their opening matches.
Tied 2-2, SCU's No. 1 team of Nikki Hess and Kirsten Mead were still working hard on their court. At 13-13, Mead got the sideout and followed up with an ace to seal the individual and team victory for Santa Clara.
"Overall, it was our first opportunity to compete against another school and we were able to get into the flow of the game as our matches went on," said Bronco head sand coach Aaron Mansfield. "The team showed great composure throughout their matches on Friday and gained some confidence going into Saturday."
With the 3-2 win over USF, Santa Clara advanced to play Stanford on Saturday morning. "The team was pumped to play Stanford in the morning. We came into this tournament wanting to play the best competition and we got just that," said Mansfield.
Shepherd and Edwards and Katrina Inch and Sarah Vaccaro opened the match with victories on their courts. While Mead and Hess and Sabrina Clayton and Danielle Rottman had great battles with Stanford's top two teams, each team lost by two points.
"It was a disappointing loss, but the experience still infused our team with more confidence knowing they could play with and potentially beat a team where their indoor athletes just made a run to the Final Four," added Mansfield.
Less than an hour later, Santa Clara was back on the court to play Saint Mary's, who opened the preseason ranked No. 7 nationally.
"We know they are well-trained and our team showed great resilience in how we bounced back and competed against the Gaels," said Mansfield.
Shepard and Edwards continued their strong play and opened up with another victory while Inch and Vacarro won a close match.
Hess and Mead battled hard with Saint Mary's No. 1 team, but came up short, falling 18-16 in the third game. With a convincing win from Rottman and Clayton, the Broncos clinched a 3-2 victory over the Gaels.
"We were very pleased with how mentally tough our team was after the Stanford loss to come back and play at a high level against a very good Saint Mary's team," said Mansfield.
Santa Clara then went on to play in a pairs competition at Stanford Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. "Each team had their own unique experience," said Mansfield. "We had teams that won all their matches and a couple teams who only won 1 match. But each team learned a lot about how to compete and what it takes to win matches at this level. We also played teams that had very different styles of play. Our ability to adapt to those styles and alter our game to get wins was very good at times, but at other times it was too little too late. Our girls love the team competition as we are able to watch and support one another while we are competing. We have five girls who are injured, but they were there all weekend showing support. That's the commitment we expect and our group needs in order to accomplish our goals."
Mansfield said the biggest difference with the team competition and the pairs competition was the venue change. The team competition was held on one set of courts and the pairs competitions were held in three different locations. "Saturday afternoon we were a little discombobulated since we were literally all over the place," said Mansfield.
Shepherd and Edwards made it to the finals, falling to Pacific's team 2-0. Clayton and Rottman also lost in the final, falling to Pacific 2-0 as well. Hess and Mead finished third.
Mansfield praised the play of the Broncos' 5th team of Edwards and Shepherd for their solid play all weekend. They won four of their five matches in the decisive third set. "Kaity was great from the service line all weekend, she set Mary very well and was constantly communicating with her partner," said Mansfield. "Mary kept at it all weekend. She was served 90% of the balls and she just kept battling and finding ways to rally with the opponent and sideout. Mary was also very good from the service line. This team communicates very well with each other and will continue to improve."
The 4th team of Inch and Vaccaro posted a 2-2 record on the weekend and really settled into their game. They posted a 2-1 record in the team competition, but lost their opening match in the pairs tournament which knocked them out of Sunday's competition.
Mansfield felt like Inch has gotten better with every practice session. "Her sideout game was solid all weekend. She set Sara well, and had some very timely blocks. She continues to gain confidence from these matches and we look for her to do big things going forward."
Mansfield praised Vaccaro as solid all weekend as well. "She possesses a very high sand volleyball IQ and she communicates extremely well during the play. Sara continued to find ways to sideout all weekend and played very good defense in the back court."
The third team, Cresto and Cunningham, were 1-3 on the weekend. After opening up with a win on Friday against USF, they had a tough time finding their sideout rhythm Saturday. They dropped their matches against Stanford and Saint Mary's and lost in the first round of the pairs tournament which dropped them out of the competition for Sunday.
Cunningham is new to the beach game and saw a lot of serves. "Jensen will learn how to handle this load mentally once she competes in this environment more," said Mansfield. "Sand is very different in that respect from indoor. The responsibilities are greater on the sand and she is just figuring that out."
Mansfield praised the service of Cresto as she continues to read the game better and move more efficiently in the sand defensively. "This team didn't play their best ball this weekend, but is extremely talented and posses great skills to be very competitive and win more matches at the 3 spot," added Mansfield.
The second team of Rottman and Clayton finished 4-3. After dropping their opener against USF, and losing a close battle to Stanford, they found their rhythm, winning their next four matches. "This team defends the court very well and both are good from the service line," said Mansfield. "Once they tighten up their sideout game they can play with any team in the country."
Mansfield believes Rottman is probably the fastest athlete on the sand out of all the teams as she continues to learn how to turn digs into points. "She had a good offensive tournament and had very consistent stretches where she set Sabrina very well," said Mansfield.
Clayton saw a majority of the serves and battled very well in serve receive. "Sabrina can hit all the shots in the book, and is most successful when she has an attack first mentality," added Mansfield. "We are very pleased with how this team competed together. There is a lot of room for improvement."
The No. 1 team of Hess and Mead finished the weekend at 3-3. They clinched the USF team match with their victory and then lost two close matches in the team competition to Stanford and Saint Mary's. They had a very impressive win over Stanford's 2nd team in the pairs tournament before falling to the eventual winner UOP in the semis.
Siding out is this team's strength as they are very efficient offensively, and both possess great offensive tools. Defensively they both put pressure on teams with their serve and are scrappy on defense. "Nikki is an explosive attacker, who also set Kirsten all weekend. She is getting better at reading the game defensively and using her athleticism to her advantage," said Mansfield. "Kirsten has a very high sand IQ. She is seasoned for just being a freshman and will continue to gain confidence offensively as she plays more matches."
