SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara volleyball is off to its best start since 2006 following a 9-25, 25-12, 25-23, 25-20 victory over Gonzaga Saturday afternoon in the Leavey Center. The Broncos are on a season-long four-match winning streak as part of their fifth West Coast Conference contest in nine days.
After two weeks of WCC action, the Broncos stand alone atop the conference with a 4-1 record.
"Today was a great match. Our team developed some grit in the middle of the match; it's hard to do that," head coach Jon Wallace said. "Our team came back after the first game and made Gonzaga fight for everything — that's a great team over there."
The Broncos (13-4, 4-1 WCC) took control of a 7-7 second set by going on a 5-1 run, which included two flips for kills by Kirsten Mead against the Bulldogs (11-6, 2-2 WCC). Santa Clara won three straight points with blocks during a 6-0 run that helped the Broncos pull away and tie up the match. Jensen Cunningham was involved in all three blocks and had five block assists for the set. Anna McCreadie had four kills and hit .500 while the team hit .455 in the second stanza.
Sabrina Clayton led all players with 13 kills and added 13 digs for her second double-double of the season. Nikki Hess had 10 kills alongside 12 digs for a double-double. McCreadie tied her career-best mark with 12 kills and tallied a new career-high seven block assists. Mead topped 40 assists for the sixth consecutive match by finishing with 41 and Danielle Rottman tied for a match-leading 19 digs.
"I was really impressed with the leadership and play from Dani Rottman tonight. She was the spark defensively that gave this team a backbone and the confidence to fight going forward," Wallace said.
Following the break, Santa Clara and Gonzaga played out the closest set of the match. The Broncos took a 13-8 lead and the Bulldogs went on a 7-2 run to tie the third set at 15. Neither team led by more than three points the rest of the way and the Broncos broke a 23-23 tie on an ace by Mead and a kill by Hess to win the set. Hess and Clayton each had six kills in the third frame.
Clayton's fourth-set kill put the Broncos in front 10-6 and spurred a 4-0 run to give Santa Clara a seven-point edge. The Broncos led by at least three points for the remainder of the set, which Lacey Maas closed out with a kill.
"Kirsten Mead played excellent volleyball tonight, and Sabrina Clayton in game four was the best I've seen her this year," Wallace said. "She had a lot of big kills for us."
