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Playing two top 20 teams in one day, Santa Clara dispatched of the first one, No. 20 Duke in three sets on Saturday morning at the Leavey Center. Game scores were 25-22, 25-22. Santa Clara is 8-1 and Duke is 5-3.
It is Santa Clara's first win over a top 20 team since it defeated then-No. 18 Pepperdine 3-2 on 9/29/12. It is their fourth win over a top 25 team in the last two years. Santa Clara's last win over a non-conference team vs. No. 16 Kansas State in the 2008 NCAA tournament first round on 12-5-08. (3-2).
The Broncos head up the highway later today to Palo Alto to face No. 1 Stanford at 7 pm in their final game of the Stanford Invitational. Stanford defeated Penn 3-0 this morning (25-17, 25-23 and 25-22).
"The schedule this weekend was set up for us to do really well," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace. "The ability to get comfortable on our own court last night vs. Penn really helped us to come in today and play like we have been practicing the last month. The Duke match has been circled on our calendar as the first test against a ranked team this year and we worked to approach it like all the other matches and I thought the girls did a great job in doing that.
Santa Clara hit .268 in the match, collecting 45 kills (15 e, 112 att.). They had 43 assists, 10 service aces, six service errors, eight team blocks and 44 digs.
"Sabrina was the biggest factor in the match," added Wallace. "She had great clutch hitting and her serve was as good as I have seen it. She turned the tide in games one and two when she went on serving runs. She gave Duke some doubt in their serve-receive which allowed the other servers to serve well, too."
Taylor Milton had nine kills, Nikki Hess eight and Kaity Edwards six. Danielle Rottman collected 17 digs and four assists.
Rookie Kirsten Mead scored five kills, hitting .571 with 34 assists and eight digs. She also added an ace and two block assists. "Kirsten set a great match this morning," said Wallace. "She also served real well and was lined up against their best attacker and neutralized them. Her timely attacks not only scored, but kept their block guessing."
Duke hit .222 in the match, collecting 36 kills (14 e, 99 att.). They had 34 assists, seven service aces, two service errors, eight team blocks and 43 digs.
Breanna Atkinson led the team, hitting .318 with 8 kills (1 e, 22 att), eight digs and two block assists. Alyse Whitaker, Emily Sklar and Jordan Tucker each had seven kills. Kelsey Williams collected 25 assists and four digs. Chloe DiPasquale had four aces and four digs. Sasha Karelov had 17 digs.
The teams started the match by feeling each other out, tying it up twice before a Milton kill and a Clayton ace gave SCU a 4-2 lead. The teams tied it up seven more times before Duke went up by three, 13-10. A kill by Clayton and a tip by Hess brought SCU within one, 13-12 DU. Clayton's second ace and a kill by Hess made it 15-13 Broncos. After a Duke sideout, Hess crushed it cross court. An ace by Williams tied it up at 16 all. But Milton answered with a kill cross court and then an ace, 18-16 Broncos. Another kill by Hess, her fifth of the set, and a setting error by the Blue Devils made it 20-17. Timeout Blue Devils.
Duke got the sideout coming out of the timeout. Edwards smacked it down the line for a Bronco sideout, 21-18 SCU. Duke scored a couple points on a service error and a team block. The Broncos whistled for time - up 21-20.
Coming out of the SCU's first timeout, Clayton scored down the line again. Duke called for its second timeout, down 22-20. A team block by Lacey Maas and Clayton and a kill by Milton off the Duke block gave SCU set point, 24-20.
Duke scored twice after long rallies and the Broncos called for time, leading 24-22. Coming out of the timeout. Milton smacked it down in the empty back court to give the Broncos the first set, 25-22. Hess and Clayton both had five kills with SCU hitting .400 and Duke hitting .292. Whitaker lead Duke with five kills as well.
The Broncos rushed out to a 4-0 lead in the second set Clayton's serve. Duke scored twice before Hess tipped it for a kill. Edwards pushed it down the line for her second kill, 6-3 SCU. Mead dumped it into the donut for a kill and Hess scored an ace, 9-4 SCU. Timeout Blue Devils.
Duke scored twice out of the timeout, but Clayton scored again cross court in the empty back row, 10-6 SCU. Duke scored six straight points, including a pair of aces, to take an 12-10. Timeout Broncos.
Duke scored again, but Milton's kill off the block halted the seven-point run by the Blue Devils, 13-11 Duke. Maas and Clayton teamed up for a block, but a kill by Atkinson gave Duke a sideout, 14-12 DU. Clayton hit it cross court for her eighth kill of the match, but Duke scored on a team block for a sideout. The teams traded points on long rallies, 17-15 DU. A sideout and then a Mead dump again in the donut tied the match 17-17. Duke scored a pair of sideouts, but Edwards scored twice on kills off the team block for Bronco sideouts, 19-19. Mead dumped it into the donut again to put SCU up 20-19. Timeout Duke.
Duke scored twice out of its timeout and SCU called for its first timeout, down 21-20.
Clayton scored off the Duke team block for a sideout to tie it up 21-21. Cadie Bates hit it way out for a Bronco point and then Mead served up her first ace, 23-21 Broncos. Atkinson's kill in the middle gave Duke the ball. Clayton's kill off the outstretched arms of Karlov gave SCU the set point, 24-22. Clayton collected an ace to give the Broncos set two, 25-22.
Duke came out of the lockerroom with a spark in the third set, jumping out to a 5-2 lead. A kill by Hess and a couple of Duke errors knotted it up 5-5. Duke scored three straight before committing two straight errors, 8-7 Duke. Duke scored two of the next three on Bronco errors. A Bronco team block and back-to-back aces by Mary Shepherd put SCU up 11-10. The teams tied it up twice before the Broncos scored four straight. Timeout Duke.
Santa Clara scored out of the timeout, but a kill by gave Duke a sideout. Edwards smacked it off the team block for a kill, 18-14 Broncos. Duke scored a couple times, but Hess and Mead laced together kills to make it 20-16 Broncos. Timeout Duke.
Clayton's kill was matched by another dump by Mead, her fifth of the game, 22-16 Broncos. Duke scored three of the next four points and SCU called for time, up 23-19.
Duke scored a pair of points out of it timeout before SCU called for its own, leading 23-21. Clayton smacked her 14th kill, this one off the Duke team block, for match point, 24-21. Duke wouldn't die and Jeme Obeime crushed it cross court. DiPasquale scored an ace, but Milton's ace after a long rally gave SCU a three-set victory, 25-23.
"I really enjoyed watching our team compete this morning," added Wallace. "I especially watching our defense - they played with great discipline and aggressiveness."
Game notes: Attendance was 216.
