LOS ANGELES — Santa Clara volleyball won the first two sets by two points apiece against LMU, and dropped the next three frames in a 25-23, 29-27, 20-25, 22-25, 9-15 loss Saturday afternoon at Gersten Pavilion. Three sets were decided by three points or less in a contest that lasted two hours and 43 minutes — the longest of 20 matches for the Broncos in 2015.
Santa Clara saw its season long six-match winning streak come to an end as part of the West Coast Conference defeat.
In the opening set, the Broncos (15-5, 6-2 WCC) and Lions (14-6, 5-3) battled to a 16-16 tie before Santa Clara went on a 5-0 run to take the biggest lead of the stanza at 21-16. Later in the set, Anna McCreadie and Sabrina Clayton posted back-to-back kills to put the Broncos on set point at 24-20. The Lions answered by winning three points in a row, and Nikki Hess capped the first stanza with a kill for the Broncos.
Santa Clara survived three set points in the second frame, and broke a 27-27 tie with kills from Kirsten Mead and Clayton to win the longest set of the season and go ahead 2-0. Each team set the tone with its offense early in the match; the Broncos hit .423 and the Lions hit .474 in the first two sets.
Mead had a season-high 51 assists and Danielle Rottman matched a season-high with 28 digs. Hess tallied 19 kills and 14 digs for a double-double, Clayton had 15 kills and Lacey Maas led Santa Clara with five total blocks. Jamie Lea topped all players with 25 kills for LMU, and five Lions totaled at least 11 kills on the afternoon.
Following the break, LMU went on a 7-0 run to take a 17-11 lead en route to a third-set victory. Santa Clara trailed by as many as eight points in the fourth stanza and rallied to tie the score at 17. LMU won three straight points to take a 21-18 lead on its way to claiming the fourth set and tying up the match. The Lions took command of the deciding set with a 6-0 stretch to pull in front 10-4, and held at least a three-point edge the rest of the way.
Santa Clara returns to the Leavey Center for a 6 p.m. matchup against Pacific (12-6, 3-4) Thursday and a 1 p.m. contest against Saint Mary's (6-11, 1-6) Saturday. The Broncos are in third place in the WCC — BYU and San Diego won Saturday to improve their respective conference records to 7-1.
NOTES: Prior to its third set loss, Santa Clara won 11 straight sets going back to its game against Gonzaga on Oct. 3 (3+ matches)… the Broncos also won 12 straight sets and 18 of 19 sets away from home (6+ matches).
