Nov. 2, 2006
MALIBU, Calif. - Lightning didn't strike twice Thursday night, as the No. 20 Santa Clara volleyball team, faced with a 0-2 deficit for the second match in a row, could not produce a comeback and fell 3-0 (30-25, 32-30, 30-28) to the Pepperdine Waves at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.
The Broncos (16-6, 6-4 WCC) will return to action this Saturday afternoon, finishing off the weekend with a 1 p.m. match against the Loyola Marymount Lions at Gersten Pavilion.
Anna Cmaylo had 12 kills and two blocks to lead the Broncos Thursday night, while Kim McGiven added nine kills and 10 digs. Caroline Walters had 13 digs, and setter Crystal Matich made her return to the court for the first time in the conference season, passing out 34 assists and making eight digs.
"We're disappointed with tonight's result, at times we looked like we were getting in there in terms of finding our rhythm, but then we'd lose it," said head coach Jon Wallace. "We just had too many attacking errors tonight, and giving away those points killed us. But we will bounce back for Saturday's match."
Game one started out with a load of back-and-forth action, as the teams battled to an 8-8 stalemate until the Broncos wriggled away with a 4-0 run thanks to a Nichole Clark ace and a pair of Wave errors. But Pepperdine crawled back into it, using kills from Kayla Walker, Julie Rubenstein and Cassi Chamberlain to pull even at 15-15.
The Waves continued that run up to a 17-15 lead, which swelled to five at 23-18 behind a pair of Chamberlain kills and some Bronco attack errors. Two more kills got the lead to 26-19, and from there the Waves were able to hold SCU off to grab the first game, 30-25.
The second stanza started out just as tight as the first, as the first half of the match featured eight ties and four lead changes up to the 12-12 mark. Julie Rubenstien then had a kill and a block and Sophia Milo had two kills to fuel a 5-0 Pepperdine run, but the Broncos came back moments later. Behind kills by Cmaylo and Lowe, SCU made a 4-0 run at the 18-14 mark to knot the game up at 18-apiece, but the Waves answered with a 3-0 run of their own to negate the momentum.
Still, the Broncos fought back, as a kill and then block from Cmaylo helped lead a 3-0 run to tie things up at 23-23. From there, no team led by more than one up to the deciding point, with the Broncos getting first crack at game point at 29-28, but an attack error kept the Waves alive. SCU fought off a game point at 30-29, but then surrendered the final two points of the game to head into the break down two games.
Down 0-2 for the second match in a row, the Broncos again tried to grind their way towards another comeback, but the gears stuck and SCU dropped a heart-breaking third game. Pepperdine jumped out to leads of 3-0 and 5-2 to start things off, but Santa Clara brought things back to 5-5 with a three-point run behind kills from Cmaylo and Lindsy Evans.
From there the teams battled up to the halfway point, where the Broncos nabbed an 18-15 lead thanks to an Evans kill, but again, the Waves could not be kept at bay. Pepperdine tied it up at 18-apiece with a 3-0 run, and took a 24-22 lead. After the Broncos evened things up at 24-24, the two squads played tit-for-tat up to the 28-28 mark, until kills from Rubenstein and Rachel Lumsden gave Pepperdine the match.
