Down 1-0 at No. 24 San Diego, Santa Clara came charging back to defeat the Toreros 3-1 on Thursday night.  Set scores were 23-25, 25-19, 25-23 and 25-23.  The Broncos move to 12-4 and 2-1 in the WCC and San Diego falls to 9-7 and 2-2 in the WCC.

"Our middles had a great match tonight," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace.  "They were really good.  Kaity and Natasha both hit .562 and they were really on. Kaity took some really big swings at the end of the match!"

Natasha Calkins had nine kills, hitting .562 with four block assists.  Kaity Edwards also hit .562, adding 10 kills and seven block assists.

Nikki Hess had a season-high 21 kills with nine digs, a block solo and three block assists.  "Nikki took some really big swings in games three and four.  She helped us win both games three and four with her play at the end of each set.  She is really maturing to be one of the best in our league and she was really dialed in tonight," added Wallace.

Sabrina Clayton scored 12 kills with nine digs and three block assists. Playing in her hometown for the last time in a WCC match, Taylor Milton had nine kills and 13 digs.  Kirsten Mead added 57 assists, 10 digs, three aces, a block solo and three block assists.  "Kirsten set a really good match and got a huge block in set four that was really big for our team."

Danielle Rottman collected 23 digs and two aces. 

The Broncos hit .277 with 65 kills (22 e, 155 att.).  They collected 62 assists, nine aces, six service errors, 66 digs and 13 team blocks.

Sandra Lozic had a team-high 12 kills for USD, but hit just .106.  She also had 11 digs.  Alaysia Brown had 10 kills and Jayden Kennedy added nine.  Setters Kriste Gengenbach and Jianna Bonomi had 25 and 26 assists, respectively, with Bonomi adding 12 digs.

"San Diego is a really, really talented team," said Wallace.  "We had a chance to take care of them in the first set and didn't.  Our passing tonight kept USD off balance all night. It also helped Kirsten set a strong match and we were able to really keep Lozic and Brown off their game because they are two of the best in our league."

Santa Clara hit .143 with 16 kills in the first set (10 e, 42 att.).  They scored 17 kills, hitting .389 in the second set (3 e, 36 att.).  The Broncos had 15 kills in the third set, hitting .278 (5 e, 36 att.).  In the final set SCU hit .317 with 17 kills (4 e, 41 att.).

San Diego hit .121 with 10 kills in the first set (5 e, 33 att.). They hit .250 in the second set, scoring 14 kills (5 e, 36 att.).  They had 14 kills in the third set, hitting .175 (7 e, 40 att.).  And in the final set, USD hit .349 with 18 kills (3 e, 43 att.).