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After playing its first 13 of 16 matches on the road this season, Santa Clara returns home to host four of its next five matches in the Leavey Center.  Santa Clara will start by welcoming the West Coast Conference's top team, No. 19 Pepperdine, on Thurs., Oct. 13 at 6 pm.

Santa Clara is 7-9 and 2-3 in the WCC and the Waves come in at 11-5 and 5-0 in the WCC.  Santa Clara will play at Saint Mary's on Sat., Oct. 15 at 7 pm. Prior to hosting No. 17 San Diego on Thursday, the Gaels are 8-10 and 2-4 in the WCC. 

After a road sweep of Portland and Gonzaga that brought the team up to .500 for the first time since Sept. 3, Santa Clara fell at BYU and USF last weekend. 

In its 3-1 loss at USF on Oct. 8, Santa Clara hit .266 with 60 kills (22e, 143att.).  They collected 57 assists, 57 digs, no aces and six service errors and 4.0 team blocks.  USF hit .275 with 64 kills (22e, 153att.).  The Dons collected 57 assists, seven aces and 12 service errors, 49 digs and five team blocks. 

The Broncos were led by Katherine Douglas' 14 kills (6e, 36att.).  She collected 11 digs as well. Both Dana Knudsen and Kaleigh Durket had 11 kills, hitting .389 and .304, respectively.  Tanya Schmidt hit .500 with seven kills. Bridget O'Hara scored 16 digs and setters Alexandra Palmer (28) and Alyssa Anderson (24) led the offense. 

Three Broncos are moving up the school's career charts.  Schmidt is hitting .321 during her four-year Bronco career.  That number would be good for No. 3 all-time if the season ended today.  She is No. 10 in blocks assists with 206.  Knudsen is No. 11 with 197 block assists.  O'Hara's 3.85 dpg average in her career would be good for No. 3 all-time if the season ended today.  She needs 3.90 dpg this season to jump into the top 10 for a single season. Last season she collected 4.47 dpg which was good for No. 5 on the single season list.

Knudsen hits .319 to pace the team. Douglas is the team's kills leader with 3.24 kpg and she is third with 2.24 dpg. Schmidt is the team's top blocker with 0.65 bpg and she third in hitting percentage. Palmer is first in assists with 6.18 apg. Durket is second in kills with 2.67 kpg and she hits a .259, which is fourth on the team. O'Hara leads in digs with 3.82 dpg (214 total) and Anderson is second in assists. 

Santa Clara is second in assists with 13.31 apg (839 total) in the WCC.  The Broncos are also second in kills with 14.11 kpg (889 total).  Santa Clara features two players in the top 10 in hitting in the league. Knudsen is fourth at .319 and Schmidt is seventh at .302. O'Hara is sixth with 3.82 dpg. 

Santa Clara is 25-34 vs. Pepperdine all-time and lost both to the Waves last year after winning six straight over Pepperdine. 

Pepperdine leads the league in digs with 15.71 dpg (1037 total).  Pepperdine is third in assists with 12.76 apg (842 total), in kills with 13.71 kpg (905 total) and  in blocks with 2.38 bpg (157 total).  Pepperdine is fourth in service aces with 1.36 sapg (90 total) and fourth in hitting percentage at .219. 

Individually Kim Hill is second with 3.71 kpg (245 total) while teammate Lilla Frederick is 10th with 2.86 kpg and eighth with 3.17 dpg   Kellie Woolever leads the league in assists with 10.86 apg.  Samantha Cash is also second in the league in blocks with 1.15 bpg.

Hill holds the WCC individual game season-high with 25 kills versus Saint Mary's on Sept. 29. Hill's 24 kill performance versus UCLA is second, tied with Douglas' total against SMU on Sept. 17.

After a quick 6-2 start to the season, including wins vs. No. 8 UCLA and No. 23 Dayton, Pepperdine lost a five-set heartbreaker vs. No. 20 Michigan and suffered two defeats straight losses at No. 11 Hawaii. All that has changed as the Waves started WCC play with a perfect 5-0 record, including a 3-1 win at home in their last outing vs. BYU. Pepperdine had blanked LMU before their showdown with BYU.

Woolever dished 54 assists and picked up 21 digs in the victory. Woolever and Cash combined for two blocks when down 22-24 to help Pepperdine overtake BYU. The Waves also benefitted from a tremendous defensive effort, holding 6-foot-6 conference kills leader Jennifer Hamson to 12 kills on 44 attempts. BYU, who leads the league with a 3.20 bpg, was limited to 1.75 bpg for a total of seven. The Waves finished with 11.5 rejections.

A Pepperdine athlete has received the WCC Player of the Week three straight weeks running. This week it was Kellie Woolever, who was instrumental in the team's two victories and achieved a 12.14 apg to bring her season average to a league-leading 10.86. In addition to her impressive assists total, she is fourth on the team in hitting percentage, fourth in sapg, third in dpg, and fourth in bpg. Woolever's achievement comes on the heels of back-to-back WCC Player of the Week honors for Hill. Hill leads the team in kills, is second in service aces, and is third in attack percentage and blocks.

The Broncos travel to Saint Mary's on Sat., Oct. 15 for a 7 pm match.  Santa Clara is 45-16 vs. Saint Mary's all-time, but have dropped seven straight to the Gaels dating back to 2007.

The Gaels started the season 6-5 including a sweep at BYU on Aug. 27th. From Sept. 17th to Oct. 1^st the team fell into a slump, losing five consecutive matches to Kansas State, BYU, USF, Pepperdine and LMU. Saint Mary's got back in the winning column with a 3-0 win vs. Gonzaga and a 3-1 win vs. Portland last weekend. 

Against Portland, Saint Mary's had four players hit over .320 with Jolly leading the team with a .435 hitting percentage.  Jolly blasted 13 kills on 23 attempts with just three errors.  She also added five total blocks in an all-around strong performance. Shaw led the team for the second-straight match in kills, tallying 15 on 28 attempts for a .321 hitting percentage.  She also recorded seven digs and three block assists. Corp finished the day with 14 kills on 29 attempts for a .345 hitting percentage.  She also added four digs and four block assists.

Sarah Reams tallied a match-high 21 digs on the afternoon, she continues to add to her career-high in digs and is well on her way to finish the year with over 400 digs, which would make her just the eighth person in SMC history to finish with 400 digs in a single-season.  Missy White tallied 53 assists on the day with six digs and four kills.  Loos finished the match with nine kills on 18 swings for a .333 hitting percentage. 

Saint Mary's is fourth in the WCC in opponents hitting percentage at .192, fourth in assists with 12.20 apg, fourth with 2.37 bpg, and third in services aces with 1.42 sapg.

Jordan Shaw, Lauren Corp, and Gabby Jolly power the Gael offense. Shaw is second on the team in kills and attack percentage. Corp is first in kills and third in hitting percentage. Jolly leads in attack percentage and is third in kills.

In the WCC individually, Corp is sixth with 3.25 kpg and Shaw is eighth with 3.22 kpg. White is second with 10.84 apg.   Natalie Loos is eighth in blocks with 0.97 bpg and Jolly is ninth with 0.96 bpg.   Reams is fourth with 4.10 dpg.