The Santa Clara sand volleyball team finished a successful weekend in Santa Cruz with a strong showing at the Santa Cruz Collegiate Pairs competition on Sunday. The Broncos next match is at Sacramento State on April 1.
"In our Pairs tournament on Sunday, we had a really good finish from our fourth team. They lost in the finals after beating Hawaii's No. 3 team in the semi-finals," said Bronco head sand coach Aaron Mansfield. "Our 2s team made it to the semi-finals of their bracket losing to Hawaii's No 2 team and they played them tough. We learned how to take care of ourselves throughout the day in order to compete at our best and we're going to need that for Hermosa."
Santa Clara's No. 1s, Nikki Hess and Kirsten Mead, won their first match of the morning vs. the Bakersfield pair, 2-1. They lost their quarterfinal match 2-0 vs. USF to finish play in the bracket.
Sabrina Clayton and Danielle Rottman, SCU's No. 2s, won their quarterfinal match 2-0 vs. USF. They were then defeated in the semi-finals by Hawaii's No. 2, 2-0, to finish play in the bracket.
GiGi Cresto and Jensen Cunningham, playing as SCU's No. 3s, lost 2-1 to Bakersfield in their first match on Sunday. The Bronco duo defeated Cal 2-1 in the consolation bracket.
Playing in the 3s and 4s bracket, SCU's No. 4s Katrina Inch and Sarah Vaccaro won 2-1 in the quarterfinals vs. Cal in the same bracket as Cresto and Cunningham. They defeated Hawaii's 4s pair 2-0 to advance to the finals where they fell to Hawaii's No. 3, 2-0.
Finally, playing in the 5s bracket, Kaity Edwards and Mary Shepherd lost 2-0 to Bakersfield in the semi-finals.
