Hitting .444, Santa Clara started off the 2014 season on a high note on Friday with a 3-0 victory over St. Francis Brooklyn in Long Island, N.Y. The Broncos are 1-0 and SFU is 0-2. Santa Clara moves on to play Lafayette on Saturday at 12 pm and then host-Hofstra to close out the tournament at 4:30 pm (both are Pacific time).
The set scores were 25-13, 25-13 and 25-19.
Santa Clara hit .444 with 45 kills (5 e, 82 att.). The Broncos collected 44 assists, six team blocks, 31 digs, eight service aces and eight service errors. St. Francis hit .146 with 31 kills (18 e, 89 att.). They collected 30 assists, one team blocks, 29 digs, one ace and two service errors.
The Broncos were led by Sabrina Clayton, who hit .818 with nine kills on 11 attacks. She also added seven digs. Nikki Hess hit .538 with eight kills, Taylor Milton hit .636 with seven kills and Kaity Edwards was four of five, hitting .800, with two aces. In her first collegiate match, setter Kirsten Mead started off with a bang, collecting 21 assists, a dig and two block assists. Dani Rottman and Gianna Ruggeroli both had four digs and Rottman added four aces as well. Natasha Calkins led the Broncos with three block assists.
St. Francis Brooklyn was led by Niehely, who hit .429 with five kills.
In set one, the Broncos started slowly, but heated up and stayed hot. Kills by Clayton and Hess and an ace by Rottman made it 4-2. Another Clayton kill, a Rottman ace and an attack error by SFBK made it 7-2 Broncos. A kill by Edwards, her first as a Bronco, and another by Hess made it 9-4. An ace by Shepherd and a kill by Clayton, her third of the set, made it 13-5 when SFBK called for time. A dump by Mead, another kill by Clayton and two straight errors by SFBK and they saw enough, down 17-5, whistled for their second timeout. A Bronco error stopped the eight-point SCU run. Lacey Maas started another run with a kill. Milton followed her with another kill and then Mead collected her first collegiate ace to push the lead to 20-6. SFBK rallied to score eight of the next 11 points and trailed 23-13. The Broncos scored the next two to win the first set 25-13. SCU hit .583 and SFBK hit .214. Clayton led all hitters with six kills and Hess and Milton both had three.
Clayton continued her standout play, scoring two kills early to put SCU up 3-1 in the second set. The teams knotted it up at 3, 4 and 5 before a kill by Hess and two SFBK errors pushed the Bronco lead to 8-5. A kill by Milton and another error by SFBK, 10-6 Broncos. SFBK scored two of the next three, 11-8 SCU. The Broncos rallied to score five of the next six points, 16-8 SCU. SFBK scored four of the next seven, 19-12 SCU. Back-to-back kills by Clayton and Maas and an error by SFBK and they whistled for time, down 22-12. Clayton and Maas scored kills between by one by Kelly O'Halloran, 24-13 Broncos. A kill by Milton gave SCU a 25-13 set two victory. SCU hit .615 in set two and SFBK hit .071. Hess had five kills in set two.
In the third set, SCU took a 5-1 lead and then went up 7-3. SFBK pulled within three, 12-8 SCU, before the Broncos rallied to score 10 of the next 15 points to take a 22-13 lead. Madison Dutra scored a kill, but SFBK rallied again to score six of the next eight points before an error ended the set with SCU winning 25-19. SCU hit .312 in the third set and SFBK hit .152.
