PROVO, Utah – Santa Clara volleyball wrapped up the West Coast Conference's toughest road trip on Saturday afternoon. The Broncos fell against No. 9 BYU 25-16, 25-22, 25-19 at Smith Fieldhouse.
Allison Kantor paced the Broncos (15-14, 8-9 WCC) offensively by leading the team with 13 kills on .258 hitting. She added 10 digs to make it a fifth double-double in the team's last six matches. Kirsten Mead posted a 33-assist, 10-dig double-double and Taylor Odom led all players with 8.0 total blocks.
The Cougars (27-2, 16-1 WCC) were led by Veronica Jones-Perry, who turned in a match-high 14 kills on .333 hitting. McKenna Miller added 11 kills and Lyndie Haddock topped all players with 34 assists.
BYU got its offense rolling quickly after the opening serve. Jones-Perry and Cosy Burnett each had a pair of kills while Lyndie Haddock added a kill and an ace as part of an 8-1 stretch to start the afternoon. Santa Clara used five kills from Kantor to keep pace for the rest of the opening frame.
The Broncos played some of their best volleyball on the day during the second set. They flipped an 11-8 deficit into a 13-11 edge on the strength of two combined blocks by Odom and Hailey Lindberg; the pair each had a kill during the 5-0 run. Leading 15-13, Santa Clara misfired on three straight points for attack errors that led to a 4-0 BYU run, and the Cougars eventually prevailed in a back-and-forth close to the stanza.
Following the break, BYU won the third set in wire-to-wire fashion. After two straight Bronco points narrowed the early gap to 9-8 Cougars, BYU won 11 of the next 16 rallies, including three kills from Miller and at least one kill from four different players.
NEXT UP
Santa Clara plays its final match of the 2017 regular season Tuesday night at Saint Mary's. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
NOTES
• Santa Clara is 4-10 all-time against BYU in a series that dates back to 1992.
• Kantor had two double-doubles in her first 22 matches of the season. She has five in her last six contests.
• Mead has posted two straight double-doubles and seven in her last 10 matches.
• The Broncos have played without freshman outside hitter Chloe Loreen for seven straight matches due to injury.
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