SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara volleyball takes its 3-0 record from opening weekend into the Active Ankle Challenge Friday and Saturday in Louisville, Ky. The Broncos start off the tournament against host and 21st-ranked Louisville Friday at 4:30 p.m. PDT, followed by matchups with Auburn Saturday at 9 a.m. and Stony Brook Saturday at 2 p.m. All matches will be played at the KFC Yum! Center.
Last weekend, Santa Clara defeated UC Irvine, No. 7 USC and Marquette to win the USC Baden Invitational. The Trojans are the highest-ranked team the Broncos have defeated in SCU regular season history.
Junior setter Kirsten Mead was named Tournament MVP and West Coast Conference Player of the Week. Santa Clara received 123 points in Monday's AVCA poll, second-most for a team not to make the Top 25. The Broncos have started 3-0 or better in three straight seasons.
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The Broncos
Santa Clara got off to a winning start in 2016 by sweeping UC Irvine 25-21, 25-22, 25-19 Friday night. On Saturday, the Broncos started with a 22-25, 25-11, 25-20, 25-17 victory over No. 7 USC and ended the day by downing Marquette 25-17, 25-22, 16-25, 25-14. They are one of only three teams in the WCC to start off the year at 3-0 (BYU, Gonzaga).
Mead totaled 124 assists (11.27 assists/set) alongside 35 digs, eight kills, six total blocks and four aces. The team's veteran attack displayed its balance between Nikki Hess (40 kills, 3.64 k/s), Jensen Cunningham (38 kills, 3.45 k/s) and Sabrina Clayton (36 kills, 3.27 k/s). Hess and Clayton were also active in the back row; they had 37 and 23 digs, respectively.
Freshman Taylor Laugero totaled 68 digs and averaged 6.18 digs per set; the latter is good for first in the WCC and third in the NCAA after one weekend. Sophomore middle blocker Hailey Lindberg, who played in just six sets last season, hit .404 (22 K – 3 E – 47 TA) and led the Broncos with 12 total blocks. Redshirt freshman Taylor Odom produced nine kills and eight total blocks.
In 11 sets on opening weekend, the Broncos went on seven stretches of 6+ unanswered points — including three 8-0 runs — and held opponents to two stretches of 6+ unanswered points. At one point against No. 7 USC, Santa Clara scored 13 consecutive points between the end of the second set and beginning of the third set.
The No. 21 Cardinals and Broncos meet in a matchup of 3-0 teams Friday night. Louisville defeated Oakland in four sets and swept VCU as part of a season-opening doubleheader last Friday. The team edged out Bowling Green in a five-set match to cap the undefeated weekend.
Freshman Melanie McHenry tops the team with 50 kills and six aces, and ranks second on the Cardinals with 33 digs. She hit .229 (50 K – 20 E – 131 TA) and had 39 more total attacks than the next-highest teammate. Sophomore Kali Eaken tops the team with 98 assists and sophomore Molly Sauer has 48 digs.
The Broncos defeated Louisville 3-1 in the only prior meeting between the teams on Sept. 16, 2000.
The Tigers began the season 0-3 as hosts of the War Eagle Invitational last weekend. They dropped the season opener to Georgia Tech in four sets Friday night, then fell in four sets against Furman before being swept by the WCC's Pacific Tigers. Auburn won its first match of the season Tuesday night, taking down Kennesaw State in five sets after dropping two of the first three frames.
Auburn has more kills than its opponents (203-195), but committed more errors both in attack (104-74) and service (53-28) through its first four matches. The Tigers are hitting only .160 and have a serving percentage of .842.
Junior Jesse Earle ranked first in the SEC and 28th in the NCAA with 5.36 digs/set through the first three matches of the season.
Saturday marks the first meeting between the Broncos and Tigers.
The Seawolves enter the weekend at 1-3. They were swept in their season-opening match Friday against UCF, the swept Stetson and fell against 3-1 against Kent State Saturday. Stony Brook was swpet on the road at Hofstra Tuesday night.
Sophomore McKyla Brooks led the team and the AEC with a .431 hitting percentage (27 K – 5 E – 51 TA) through three matches. The Seawolves were picked to finish third in conference this season.
The Broncos swept the Seawolves in the only prior meeting between the teams on Sept. 24, 2005.
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