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Santa Clara opened its 2014 home slate with a 3-0 victory over the Penn Quakers on Friday night. Game scores were 25-22, 25-12 and 25-19. Santa Clara is 7-1 and Penn is 2-3.
The Broncos host No. 20 Duke Saturday morning at 11 am before heading up the highway to Palo Alto to face No. 1 Stanford at 7 pm in their final game of the Stanford Invitational. The Cardinal defeated the Blue Devils 3-1 on Friday night in Palo Alto.
Santa Clara hit .381 in the match, collecting 45 kills (13 e, 84 att.). They had 39 assists, six service aces, nine service errors, eight team blocks and 31 digs.
Nikki Hess led the team, hitting .579 with 12 kills (1 e, 19 att.). Kaity Edwards 10 kills, hitting .389 (3 e, 18 att.). Sabrina Clayton had nine kills as did Taylor Milton. Kirsten Mead collected 36 assists and two digs. Clayton and Danielle Rottman scored two aces each and Lacey Maas had two block solos and four block assists.
Penn hit .183 in the match, collecting 28 kills (13 e, 82 att). They had 27 assists, one service ace, seven service errors, five team blocks and 24 digs.
Alex Caldwell led the team, hitting .429 with seven kills and 10 assists (1 e, 14 att.). Ronnie Bither had 12 assists and five digs. Emmy Friedler had 10 digs.
Penn started off the match hot, taking a 3-1 lead. A kill by Hess gave SCU a sideout and the Broncos scored three points on consistent Rottman's serve to take a 5-3 lead. Penn scored three straight before Milton crushed it down in the donut. After a Penn sideout, Hess scored two straight kills to tie it up 8-8. Penn scored three of the next four to go up 11-9. After Mead dumped it in the donut, Turner knocked it off the block for a kill, 12-10 Penn. Milton's kill was followed by a Clayton ace. Turner's solo block up Penn up two again, 14-12. Clayton found the open court for a kill. Rottman's ace landed between a pair of players in the back row to tie it up 14-14. The teams knotted it up 16-16 on a Penn ball handling error. A service error on each side tied it up 17-17. The Broncos scored four of the next five to take a 21-18 lead. Timeout Penn.
Clayton smacked it down cross court for a kill out of the timeout, 22-18 Broncos. Penn scored four of the next five to pull within one, 23-22 Broncos. Clayton's kill in the back row gave the Broncos set point and she clinched it with an ace, 25-22 Broncos. Milton and Clayton both had five kills each and Hess had four. The Broncos hit .382 and Penn hit .367.
The Broncos opened the second set with a pair of blocks, including a block solo by Maas, and an ace by Rottman. After the Broncos scored again, Penn called for time, down 4-0.
Out of the timeout, after a long rally, Maas scored another block solo. Clayton crushed it in the back row past a diving libero, 6-0 Broncos. After another Penn error, Rottman served it out, but Penn served its first ball of the second set into the net, sideout Broncos. The teams traded points, 9-2 SCU.
Penn scored two of the next three. Maas and Milton and then Edwards and Hess teamed up for back-to-back team blocks, 12-4 Broncos. Milton scored an ace, 15-5 Broncos.
SCU went up 18-7 on a kill by Edwards. The Broncos raced ahead to take the second set 25-12. The Broncos hit .320 and Penn hit -.069. Maas two block solos and two block assists in the set.
Edwards started the third set with a kill in the middle. The teams tied it up at twice and then Edwards connected down again. Maas scored a kill for a sideout, 5-3 Broncos. A kill by Hess slide off the out-stretched arms of the Penn libero, 7-4 Broncos. Penn scored a couple before Hess smacked it for a kill cross court, 8-6 SCU. Hess scored her 10th kill to push the lead to 11-7. Clayton's kill in the back row made it 15-11 Broncos. Milton and Maas scored a team block, 17-12 Broncos.
Milton served three points to make it 21-14 Broncos. The teams traded sideouts on service errors, 22-15 SCU. A lift was called on Penn but the setter dumped the ball for a kill. Mead was called for a lift and then the Broncos smacked it out of bounds, 23-18 SCU. Edwards kill in the back row gave SCU match point. Chloe Sliger served it into the net, but on the next point, Clayton crushed it in the back row for a 25-19 third set win.
Game notes: Attendance was 203.
