No. 16 Santa Clara won 4-1 at Sacramento State on Wednesday. The Broncos are off until next weekend when they compete in the Hermosa Open in Southern California. The Broncos move to 6-2 with the win.
Bronco head sand coach Aaron Mansfield said the quick turnarond was challenging for the Broncos, after playing down in Santa Cruz all weekend, but a challenge the team responded to well. "Anytime you can go on the road and win it's a good thing. It was a long van ride to Sacramento, but the girls did a good job getting into their routine before the match and were prepared to play."
"We opened up with two wins from our 4 and our 5 team," said Mansfield. "Kaity and Mary continued to play very steady, and are able to beat their opponents most of the time. Katrina and Sarah struggled a bit at first with some ball control things, but once they got dialed in, they caught the rhythm and took care of the team that they played so it's always nice going up 2-0.
"GiGi and Jensen had a tough match," added Mansfield "They played two smaller ball control players that were able to side-out a little bit more consistently than we were. Dani and Sabrina served really tough and sided-out very consistently to beat their opponents pretty good in the 2 spot. Nikki and Kirsten really played with a lot of grit in the third game and found a way to win. Nikki made a lot of good scramble plays late in the third game and Kirsten did a good job siding out towards the end of the match and eventually ended up with an ace to win."
The Broncos No. 1s, Kirsten Mead and Nikki Hess, won 2-1 vs. the Hornets' Kayla Beal and Sloan Lovett. No. 2s Danielle Rottman and Sabrina Clayton, No. 4s Sarah Vaccaro and Katrina Inch and No. 5s Mary Shepherd and Kaity Edwards all won 2-0.
Santa Clara 4 Sacramento State 1
1. Kirsten Mead/Nikki Hess (SCU) def. Kayla Beal/Sloan Lovett (SAC), 21-14, 15-21, 20-18
2. Danielle Rottman/Sabrina Clayton (SCU) def. Madeline Cannon/Morgan Stanley (SAC), 21-13, 21-16
3. Shannon Boyle/Lexie Skalbeck (SAC) def. GiGi Cresto/Jensen Cunningham (SCU), 21-18, 21-16
4. Sarah Vaccaro/Katrina Inch (SCU) def. Lauren Aikels/Hannah Meadows (SAC), 23-21, 21-16
5. Mary Shepherd/Kaity Edwards (SCU) def. Brigitte Murdock/Kennedy Kurtz (SAC), 21-10, 21-16
