Oct. 19, 2002
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked Santa Clara University volleyball team never appeared to be in sync Friday night as the 12th-ranked Pepperdine Waves handed the Broncos a 3-0 loss in front of 1,021 fans in the Leavey Center.
Early on things looked good for Santa Clara (16-3, 5-1 WCC) who had a 16-13 lead in game one before Stacy Rouwenhorst served the Waves (12-6, 5-0 WCC) into command of the match with 10-straight points. Pepperdine never looked back as they went on to win game one by a 30-25 score. Games two and three continued much of the same way that game one ended, with Pepperdine winning those games by scores of 30-20 and 30-21.
Katie Wilkins had a dominant match for Pepperdine, posting 29 kills on 44 attempts with only three errors for a .591 hitting percentage. Paola Rodriguez posted a match-high 58 assists on the night while Brie Harris was the only other Pepperdine player in double-digit kills with 15.
The Broncos struggled all night offensively, posting their third lowest hitting percentage as a team this year with their .193 mark. Alyssa Lantz led all Broncos with her nine kills while Kelli Sousa posted 30 assists and Chrissy Hirsch registered 11 digs.
Overall on the night, Santa Clara had 32 fewer kills, 33 fewer assists and 27 fewer digs, but did manage to out-block the Waves by a 9-5 margin.
Santa Clara will return to action next weekend at home as they play host to Bay Area rival San Francisco Friday night at 7 p.m. in the Leavey Center.