Playing its second top 20 team of the day, Santa Clara fell in three sets at No. 1 Stanford on Saturday night. Santa Clara is 8-2 and Stanford is 7-0. Stanford won the Invitational with the Broncos finishing as the runner-up. Set scores were 25-14, 25-15 and 25-11.
Taylor Milton was named to her third straight all-tournament team this season and Kaity Edwards was named to her first.
"We played the best college volleyball team thus far this year tonight in Stanford," said head coach Jon Wallace. "We are disappointed with our results, but we learned some lessons tonight. We will get back to work on Monday and get better for it.
"Overall, it was a really good morning, knocking off Duke, and if we get better next week – it will really have been an even better day," added Wallace.
"Playing two ranked opponents in a span of eight hours in two different cities was really a good test for this young team," added Wallace. "I liked so much of what I saw this morning and know we will continue to get better everyday in practice. This match tonight set a high standard for excellence for us so it was good to play here."
The teams worked to figure each out early in the first set before SU took a 4-1 lead before Milton scored with a kill off the libero's arms. After a SU sideout, Milton scored off a team block. A cross court kill by Hess and a double hit by Stanford pulled SCU within one, 6-5. Stanford scored three straight, but after a long rally Clayton knocked it off the team block for a sideout. Stanford scored two, including an ace, but they were then called in the net, sideout Broncos. Clayton once again scored off the team block and Mead dumped it over to pull SCU within two, 11-9 SU. Stanford scored four of the next five to pull ahead 15-10. Timeout Broncos.
Stanford scored twice out of the timeout, but Lacey Maas stopped the run with a tip to the back, 17-11 SU. The Cardinal scored twice and Wallace called for time.
Edwards scored with a kill in the back row for sideout, but SU quickly got the ball back with a kill by Jordan Burgess. Stanford kept swinging and won set one 25-14. Milton had five kills, but SCU hit .116. Stanford hit .455 with Brittany Howard leading the team with five kills.
The teams started off by tying it up twice in the early going of set two. Stanford went ahead 7-3 on an ace by Morgan Boukather. Edwards scored on the slide for a sideout, 9-4 SU. Stanford scored four of the next six before Clayton scored down the line, 13-6 Stanford. Stanford scored seven of the next nine to pull ahead 20-8. Stanford's attack went wide for a Bronco sideout and Hess scored off the team block. A Stanford team block stopped the Broncos, 21-10 SU. Edwards smacked it off Ajanaku's block for a sideout. Stanford scored five of the next six points to close out set two, 25-15. Stanford hit .625 and the Broncos hit .125.
Stanford collected an ace out of the timeout. Milton's kill off the team block and Natasha Calkins scored two straight kills in the middle for SCU, 19-9 SU. Stanford scored six of the next eight to close out the set and win the match 25-11.
