SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara beach volleyball takes its four-match winning streak into home contests against San José State on Thursday and Oregon on Friday at Los Gatos High School. The 5-1 Broncos have won four straight contests and picked up victories in all three of their duals last Saturday at the Santa Cruz Invitational.
First serve times are set for 2 p.m. on Thursday and 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
Santa Clara is led by the No. 3 pairing of Katrina Inch and Sarah Vaccaro, which boasts a team-best 5-1 set record on the year. The Broncos are 4-2 in each of the other four spots. They play seven matches in the next 10 days to close out the regular season.
"Our team had three good days of training this week as we tackled some specific needs for each pair," Bronco head coach Aaron Mansfield said. "We will continue to rely on our consistent pre-match routine to put us in the best position possible to compete and win the duel."
The Broncos started off Saturday's competition with 4-1 victories over Cal Poly and Cal State Northridge. Facing a 2-0 deficit against San Francisco, Santa Clara rallied for victories at the No. 1 (Kirsten Mead/Sabrina Clayton), No. 3 (Vaccaro/Inch) and No. 5 (Mary Shepherd/Madison Dutra) positions to avenge its only loss of the season. The Dons entered that matchup with a 12-1 record.
San José State is 6-8 on the season and 2-3 on the road. The Spartans are 3-1 in their last four matches; they defeated Cal 3-2 and Sacramento State 4-1 on Friday at the Monterey Invitational. Their top pairing of Julia Menhart and Hana Tresnakova has won eight of 13 sets on the year and the Spartans have won 12 of 14 sets at the No. 3 position.
"San José State has had some significant wins this season and is much improved," Mansfield said. "We expect them to come into the match with some well-deserved confidence."
Oregon won one of three matches in its season-opening Oregon Tournament last weekend. The Ducks fell to Stanford and Boise State on Friday before sweeping Portland on Saturday. They face Cal in a 9 a.m. matchup on Friday before heading to Los Gatos for an afternoon tilt with the Broncos.
"Oregon is going to be a fun duel," Mansfield said. "They have many athletic players from their indoor program that play both beach and indoor. They are in one of the toughest conferences in the country and we expect them to present tough challenges for our teams through their athleticism. We look forward to taking them on in our home court on Friday."
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