LOS ANGELES – Savannah Slattery led a potent offensive attack with 14 kills, Rose Booth added nine and Loyola Marymount held off a late charge from Santa Clara volleyball to secure a 25-14, 25-21, 25-22 win on Thursday.
The Lions (7-6, 1-0), who posted a .337 attack percentage, also got seven kills from Meredith Teague on just nine attempts. They are the only second team in 14 matches to top .300 hitting against the Broncos and the first team to outblock SCU in 2019 (7.0-4.5).
Allison Kantor had six kills, while Taylor Odom and Julia Sangiacomo tallied five apiece for the Broncos (10-4, 0-1), who hit .198 in the West Coast Conference opener.
LMU held off Santa Clara in the final set by scoring six of the final seven points after the Broncos snapped a 19-all tie on a pair of errors. Slattery started the flurry with a kill and had three in the sequence.
After trailing by as many as six points, the Broncos tied the second set at 21-all, forcing a timeout from LMU, but the Lions came out and scored four straight to head into the break with 2-0 lead.
The Lions hit a blistering .550 in the opening set and pulled away late, scoring the final seven points. Slattery had three kills in the run and Teague delivered two of her match-best three aces.
QUOTABLE - HEAD COACH ERIN LINDSEY
"It took us a long time to get in to the match — both mentally and in our level of intensity — to compete with an NCAA Tournament team. We figured some things out in the second and third sets and gave ourselves some chances, which I was excited about, but it took too long for us to get there."
UP NEXT
The Broncos end their two-match Southern California road trip on Saturday at Pepperdine. First serve is scheduled for noon.
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