Behind the stellar play in the middle of freshman Natasha Calkins, Santa Clara got back on track on Saturday morning, beating Northern Illinois 3-0 in its second round of the UC Santa Barbara / Cal Poly Invitational. Set scores were 25-17, 25-15 and 25-22.  Santa Clara is 9-3 and Northern Illinois is 7-5.

The Broncos now travel to Cal Poly for their final non-conference match of the year Saturday night at 8 pm.

Calkins hit a match-high .750 with nine kills (0 3, 12 att.).  She also added a couple blocks.  Nikki Hess collected 15 kills and seven digs, hitting .364 (3 e, 33 att.).  Sabrina Clayton scored 10 kills, with Kaity Edwards and Taylor Milton adding nine.  Milton added eight digs and Edwards had one block solo and four block assists.  Kirsten Mead had 42 assists.  Danielle Rottman had 24 digs.

Santa Clara hit .363 with 53 kills (12 e, 113 att.). The Broncos collected 47 assists, three aces, 11 service errrors, 51 digs and 7.0 team blocks.

Santa Clara hit .306 with 17 kills in the first set (6 e, 36 att.). The Broncos hit .370 with 20 kills in the second set (3 e, 46 att.).  In the final set, the Broncos hit .419 with 16 kills (3 e, 31 att.).

NIU hit .300 with 39 kills (9 e, 100 att.). The Gauchos collected 37 assists, five service aces, two service errors, 50 digs and 12 team blocks.

NIU hit .062 with 7 kills in the first set (5 e, 32 att.).  NIU hit .174 in the second set with 11 kills (3 e, 46 att.).  In the final set NIU hit .172 with 11 kills (6 e, 29 att.).

Mary Grace Kelly had 11 kills, with Mackenzie Roddy added nine kills and seven digs.  Alexis Gonzalez had 22 assists and four digs.  Anna Brereton had 13 digs.