After playing seven of its first 10 WCC matches on the road, Santa Clara volleyball will return home this weekend to host the league's top two teams. The Broncos host No. 11 BYU on Thurs., Oct. 30 at 6 pm and then continue play at the Leavey Center Sat., Nov. 1 with a 1 pm match vs. No. 30 San Diego. On the bright side, Santa Clara plays six of its last eight conference matches at home.
The Broncos won 3-1 at then-No. 24 San Diego on Oct. 2 and then fell 3-0 at then-No. 10 BYU on Oct. 4. Santa Clara will be looking for its third straight win at home vs. BYU and its third victory in five tries vs. San Diego.
Bronco head coach Jon Wallace knows this week will be a challenge, but one the team is embracing. "We get to play at home for the first time in a long time," said Wallace. "We look at it as a great opportunity for us to go in and play our best against some of the best in our conference. Against BYU we need to attack a certain way. We need to defend a certain way. If we can stay on task, we'll make them have to work real hard to beat us. We are also going to have to play with tremendous grit. They have some athletes that can do some amazing things and we are going to have to get outside of our comfort zone and ask more of ourselves."
Santa Clara is 16-7 this season, including 6-4 in the WCC. Santa Clara is 4-1 this season at home, including a 3-0 victory vs. then-No. 20 Duke on Sept. 13. The Broncos have been one of the top serving teams nationally all season and are No. 7 in aces per set (1.77) and No. 14 in team service aces (145).
The Broncos are led by Nikki Hess (3.46 kpg), Sabrina Clayton (3.40 kpg) and Taylor Milton (2.78 kpg). Kirsten Mead is No. 7 nationally with 11.62 apg. Danielle Rottman leads the team with 4.64 dpg and Milton is second with 2.24 dpg. The Broncos also serve the ball tough with Clayton scoring .41 sapg, Rottman scoring .38 sapg and Mead .37 sapg.
"Watching film over the weekend, Nikki is still playing great volleyball. Sabrina is playing great volleyball as well. Taylor had a little bit of an off weekend, but Monday she had a great practice and she continued that on Tuesday. We are anticipating her getting her legs, her body and her mind right for all of these home matches coming up. Taylor's thrilled to play so many home matches here at the end of her senior year. I'm anticipating really nice things from her."
BYU is 18-3 this year, including 9-1 in the WCC. They are 7-1 on the road as well. Last weekend the Cougars swept LMU 3-0 and then defeated Pepperdine 3-1.They are led by Jennifer Hamson's 3.65 kpg and Alexa Gray is equally as good with 3.49 kpg. Hamson, who also played basketball for the Cougars, is 6-7 and was drafted to play in the WNBA by the LA Sparks.
"BYU has a few special players. Jennifer can dunk a basketball. She's pretty special along with Alexa, who is an incredible athlete. Alexa will probably play for the Canadian National Team sometime here in the future. And they are definitely fun to watch, and our girls get excited to play them."
San Diego enters the weekend at 15-7, including 8-2 in the WCC. They are 3-2 on the road. Alaysa Brown leads the Toreros with 3.76 kpg. They defeated both Pepperdine and LMU 3-0 last weekend at home.
Wallace compared Brown to Gray, saying their styles are similar. "The bottom line is if you go in tentatively against these teams that have some incredible athletes, you'll lose," Wallace added. "You've got to go in aggressively, you've got to go in being really tough and taking your game to them. We have to find out what is going to work tactically against both of these teams and then we need to attack it aggressively."
Last week's win at Saint Mary's was an emotional one for the team. "Our seniors wanted to finish with a win at Saint Mary's so emotionally to come up with a big win, not at full-strength at Saint Mary's, was big for us," Wallace added.
The Broncos then went up to Pacific on Oct. 25 and lost 3-0 quickly. But Wallace said practice has been very good this week and the carry over from the loss on Saturday has been minimal. "This team is able to process through good and bad matches fairly well and be on task Monday to practice well and move on. They know what's at stake. We have eight matches left. They know what they need to do to accomplish our goals. They know they need to get better week in and week out. We are in a good spot this weekend and we are excited to play this weekend. "
Finally, Wallace finished by saying Santa Clara's goals this week have included getting the middles more involved. "We want and need our middles to become more productive. We really want to try to find a way to score out of the middle more this week with Natasha Calkins and Kaity Edwards."
