Sept. 1, 2006
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The No. 6 Santa Clara women's volleyball team continued its season-opening winning streak Friday morning as they swept their way to another 3-0 win, this time a 30-20, 30-13, 30-21 triumph over the Valparaiso Crusaders. Kim McGiven and Anna Cmaylo paced the Broncos with 10 kills apiece while Crystal Matich dished out 37 assists as the Broncos hit .423 as a team.
Santa Clara (4-0) closes out weekend action Sunday afternoon for a 12 p.m. PT battle with host No. 21 Notre Dame.
"I don't think that we played very well today, we weren't very smooth and we developed some bad habits," said head coach Jon Wallace. "We were moving slowly and were not focused on what we were trying to do, and we are going to have to improve on this before Sunday's game against Notre Dame."
Despite the effort, the Broncos did receive strong performances from Cmaylo, who continued her dominant hitting with a 10-kill, .769 performance, making zero attack errors for the second straight match. She also paced the squad with four blocks, while fellow middle blocker Megan Pura and Lindsy Evans added three of their own.
Wallace was also pleased with the play of freshman Nina Sevastopoulos, who notched nine kills and hit .615 for the match. The Saratoga native also made a dig and a block to complete her solid outing.
"Nina played really well. She came in, was very aggressive and swung very smart and hard for us," said Wallace.
The Broncos were never seriously threatened during the match, as the Crusaders (3-1) made 25 errors and hit a feeble .040 on the day. In the opening game, SCU benefited from three Valparaiso errors in building a 9-3 advantage. The Crusaders never got within less than five the rest of the way, and a kill and ace by McGiven followed by two more Crusader errors extended a 23-17 lead to 27-17, and from there the Broncos closed things out with a Matich ace.
Game two started off as a close affair, with the teams trading paint as the Broncos held on to a slim 10-8 lead. But from that point, an attack sequence highlighted by a pair of kills from Annalisa Muratore helped SCU reel off seven consecutive points to take a commanding 17-8 advantage. Later on, with a 19-11 lead, the Broncos ripped off another seven-point run, featuring three kills by Sevastopoulos and a pair by Evans that helped carry SCU to an easy game two victory.
Santa Clara never trailed in the third and final frame, getting a pair of blocks right out of the gate as Pura assisted both times. Sevastopoulos had six kills in this third game while Pura, Evans, and Cmaylo each notched a pair of blocks as the Broncos cruised to the victory and improved their mark to 4-0.
