Sept. 5, 2009

Sacramento, Calif. - Holding off host Sacramento State three times when serving for match point, Santa Clara came back to defeat the Hornets 3-2 to win the Sac State Invitational with a 3-0 record. Game scores of the five-set match were 23-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-19 and 18-16. Santa Clara moves to 4-2 and Sac State falls to 3-3. Santa Clara returns home next weekend to open its 2009 home slate when it hosts Arizona Thurs., Sept. 10 at 7 pm and then Utah at 7 pm on Sat., Sept. 12.

"Sac State played great - probably as well as they've played all year from what we saw on tape and heard from their coaching staff," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace. "They played great defense. They dug a ton of balls, passed great and always seemed to take really good, aggressive swings on us. They were by far the more aggressive team all night. The gym was very hot and we had to stay focused at the end.

"They served for the match three times. For us to win the match, we made plays when we needed to at the end. We blocked balls, dug balls and transitioned well. Krista was on fire at the end and Lindsy made a couple good stuff blocks to save match point and then give us the add ball to go up on them. We won because we made plays at the end when we needed to make them as a team and stuck together."

On winning the match in that fashion: "We are happy we went through it right now," added Wallace. "Anytime you win a match like this - we won because we stayed together, we believed and we looked to make plays and we did. It will help us with our confidence because we will be in this situation again for sure this season."

"Nobody played well all night or played consistent, but Krista had 22 kills and hit .378. Lexi Williamson came off the bench to relieve Kayla Lommori and had five kills and no errors. She did a good job," said Wallace. "We will take Sunday off and begin getting ready to host Arizona in our practice on Monday. We look forward to playing in our home gym on Thursday night."

Santa Clara hit .269 with 14.0 total team blocks and five aces. Sac State hit .255 with 12 team blocks and three aces, but had nine service errors. Santa Clara had four players in double-figure kills. Krista Kelley had a season-high 22 kills, hitting .378 with 12 digs. Douglas had 16 and Knudsen and Davigeadono picked up 10 kills each. Lexi Williamson hit .714 with five kills. Libby Morrison had a career-high 30 digs. Setting a 6-2 offense, Emily Burke had 27 assists and 12 digs with Alexandria Palmer posting 31 assists with five digs. Tanya Schmidt had seven block assists and three kills.

SCU started off slow early, with Sac State taking an 8-4 lead on three kills by Janelle Currey and a hitting error by SCU. The teams then traded off the next five points before SCU scored three straight, on kills by Kelley and Douglas to bring it to 10-9 Sac State. The two court opponents tied it up three times when SAC put together a 5-0 run to take a 19-14 lead. The Broncos pulled within on, 21-20 SAC, on a kill by Davigeadono and then 22-21 SAC on a SAC error. Continuing to keep it close, Santa Clara finally tied it at 23-23 on two straight SAC errors. After a SAC timeout, the Hornets' Currey knocked down a kill in the middle and won game two on a hitting error by SCU. SCU hit .200 and Sacramento State hit .222. Krista Kelley posted four kills; and Alexandra Palmer had seven assists and Emily Burke three as the two setters once again ran the 6-2 offense tonight. Libby Morrison posted seven digs. LD - 3, Kat 2, Dana 2, Lomorroi 1.

In game two the two teams tied it at 1 and 3 before SCU scored six of the next seven points to take an 9-4 lead. The run was paced by three Davigeadono kills and four SAC errors. After a SAC timeout, the two teams traded points five times with the Broncos lead moving to 14-9 on kills by Knudsen, Kelley (two), Schmidt and Davigeadono; and then a Schmidt kill to make it 15-9 SCU. SAC scored three straight points of its own on two Bronco hitting errors and a kill by Currey. Up 15-12, SCU called timeout. After it the two opponents once again traded points four times each with SCU taking an 19-16 lead. Palmer scored an ace to help SCU to a four-point lead at 20-16 and then Davigeadono and Schmidt teamed up to block the SAC ball, making it 21-17 SCU when SAC called timeout. Santa Clara then won four of the next seven points to win game two 25-20. The Broncos closed out game two with kills by Knudsen and Lommori and a service ace by Burke. SCU hit .250 in game two and SAC .189. Davigeadono collected five kills and Kelley three. Palmer posted nine assists and Morrison posted five digs.

In game three, SAC took an 8-3 lead, scoring six of seven points. SCU stopped the rally with a Knudsen kill, but SAC scored two of the next three points to make it 10-4 SAC. SCU scored four of the next six points to get within three at 12-9 SAC. Two Kelley kills made it 13-11 SAC; and then SAC scored four straight to take a 17-11 lead when Wallace called a timeout to rally his Bronco squad. SCU scored four straight points on a kill by Douglas, an ace by Schmidt, a kill by Knudsen and another kill by Douglas, but SAC scored two points of its own to take a 19-15. SAC scored six of the next nine points to take game three 25-18, including winning the last four points of the game. SCU hit .147 in game three and Sac State hit .378.

In game four the teams knotted it at 2-2 before SCU took the lead on a Knudsen kill. Santa Clara went on a 6-1 run to take a 8-3 lead on a kill by Williamson and two kills by Kelley. SCU pushed its lead to 11-5 on a kill by Kelley and a Hornet attack error. SAC rallied and pulled within two to make it 12-10 SCU. A Douglas kill led to SCU scoring four straight to take a 16-10 lead when the Hornets called a timeout, but SCU continued its strong play to push its lead to 22-13 on a kill by Knudsen, two by Williamson and an ace by Palmer. SAC scored four of the next five points before SCU called timeout, up 23-17. A kill in the middle by Schmidt and kill by Douglas and SCU had game four, finishing off SAC 25-19. SCU hit .405 in game four and SAC hit .222.

Playing its three straight game-five match of the tournament, Sac State went up 4-1 in game five before Santa Clara called timeout. Sac State went up 5-3 after Kelley and Douglas knocked down kills. SAC scored four of the next five points to take a 9-4 lead when Wallace called the second timeout of the game. SCU scored four of the next six points as SAC was up by three at 11-8 when the Hornets called timeout. Douglas knocked down two straight kills to make it 11-10 SAC. The two teams went back and forth. SAC picked up a service error when serving for the match and then made a hitting error to knot it up at 14-14. Coming out of a SAC timeout, Currey knocked down a kill to take a 15-14 lead before a Kelley kill knotted it up at 15-15. SAC served for the third time for the match and their hitter was blocked by Davigeadono and Knudsen. Douglas knocked down a back row kill to give the game and the match to Santa Clara, 18-16. Santa Clara hit .364 in game five and Sac State hit .273.