Santa Clara volleyball hosts one home match this week and it's a big one! The Broncos welcome Bay Area rival, San Francisco, at 6 pm on Thurs., Nov. 20 in the Leavey Center. Santa Clara will be looking to avenge its 3-0 loss to the Dons on Sept. 26 in San Francisco.
"Our team will be very fired up to play USF," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace. "We did not like our result last time we played up in the city. Our girls were very upset after the match, and they will be ready for this match."
USF is 12-16 and 5-11 in the WCC. The Dons are 1-10 in away matches, including 1-7 in the WCC. They have lost seven of their last eight matches. Valentina Zaloznik leads USF in hitting at .319, collecting 3.03 kpg. Katarina Pilepic scores 3.34 kpg and Kiara McKibben collects 9.09 apg and 2.29 dpg.
"We spent a lot of time on putting in our scouting report on USF," Wallace added. "They have some really nice players that can do great things. We need to get comfortable on the right spots on the court. We have talked about how we are going to defend them and with us in terms of our own offense, we are going to compete a lot more in practice this week with just one match. This week isn't just about winning - it's about competing as hard as we can and getting back into that mode."
Nikki Hess leads the Broncos with 3.66 kpg and is second in digs with 2.19 dpg. Sabrina Clayton is No. 2 with 3.36 kpg and leads the team with .43 sapg. Kirsten Mead is also one of the nation's leaders in assists, sitting only behind the Stanford setter with 11.8 apg. Danielle Rottman collects 4.63 dpg and is second on the team with .35 sapg.
With just one home match this week, Wallace said the plan this week in practice is to turn it up a notch competitively. "It's been a long year and our young team is kind of worn down a little bit, but we will go hard the first few days this week, but go shorter and get in some rest both mentally and physically."
Santa Clara lost both home matches last week, falling 3-0 to LMU on Nov. 13 and then 3-1 to Pepperdine on Nov. 15. While the team was disappointed with its results, Wallace said last week was tough on a lot of teams. "Washington, who was undefeated lost twice, Florida State, who was undefeated, lost twice. It happens this time of year and I think what we need to do is learn from it and get better from it, get tougher from it, and carry on. So it's okay that there weren't too many bright spots from the weekend, as long as we come in this week with great focus and determination to get better."
