Highlights from Santa Clara's 3-2 victory over No. 16 BYU.

Defeating its second top 20 West Coast Conference team in less than a month, Santa Clara beat No. 16 BYU 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in the Leavey Center, handing the Cougars just their second loss of the year.  Set scores were 31-29, 20-25, 25-21, 13-25 and 16-14 Santa Clara is 16-7 and 5-3 in league play.  BYU falls to 19-2 and 7-2 in the WCC.

Santa Clara defeated then-No. 18 Pepperdine 3-1 on Sept. 29.

"Today we had a great team effort all the way around from everyone in the win over BYU. From the play at the net to the block to our floor defense, we were able to dig a lot of balls because our front court did their job and that is why we were able to out-dig them (64-51)," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace.  "Both of our setters did an amazing job following the game plan by executing and believing in our hitters all night long.  We knew what we wanted to do in each rotation and with each match up. It was great match ups all night long."

BYU entered the week as the nation's No. 3 team in hitting percentage and were tied with No. 1 Penn State for the best record in college volleyball.  "Megan Anders had a personal best 25 kills and hit .432. Those are big numbers against a team like BYU," said Wallace.  "I am really proud of the team. Everything they worked for came together today.  Each time we won a set, it was ended with a kill by Taylor and she is a kid who wants the ball in big moments."

Santa Clara hit .244 with 73 kills (33 e, 164 att.).  They collected 69 assists, five service aces, 10 service errors, 64 digs and eight team blocks.  BYU hit .253 with 60 kills (20 e, 158 att.).  They collected 55 assists, eight service aces, six service errors, 51 digs and 19.0 team blocks. 

Santa Clara was led by Megan Anders, who scored a career-high 25 kills, hitting .432 (6 e, 44 att.).  Taylor Milton had 17 kills, hitting .237 (8 e, 38 att.).  Kayla Lommori had 10 kills and three block assists, hitting .130 (7 e, 23 att.).  Lexi Williamson and Haley Cameron both scored nine kills each with Cameron adding a block solo and seven block assists.  Alyssa Anderson had 40 assists and six digs, adding one ace.  Chelsea Heier had 24 assists with two aces and six digs. 

BYU was led by Alexa Gray, who had 23 kills, hitting .488 (2 e, 43 att.).  Jennifer Hamson had 17 kills and seven block assists, hitting .204.  (7 e, 49 att.).  Nicole Warner collected four kills, a block solo and 11 block assists. 

The teams traded points in the first set with an Anders kill.  Two kills by Hamson were sandwiched between a service ace by Parker, 4-1 BYU.  A kill by Williamson and an ace by Milton stopped the rally.  A Bronco service error and a BYU kill was followed by a kill by Anders, 6-4 BYU.  An error by LeCheminant and one by Lommori, 7-5 BYU.  Two Cougar hitting errors were sandwiched between a pair of Lommori kills down the line, 10-7 Broncos.  Timeout Cougars.  A block solo by Lommori  continued the 5-point run before a kill by Dahl stopped it with SCU up 11-8.  A BYU team block,  two Cougar service aces and a Milton error and the teams were tied 11-11.  The teams traded points on service errors after a Bronco timeout.  A tip by Alexa Gray and a BYU  team block gave the Cougars a 14-12 lead.  A kill by Haley Cameron and one by Anders, both in the back row, stopped the run to tie it up 14-14.  Two more BYU errors, by Gray and Hamson, and the Broncos led 16-14.  BYU scored three of the next four points before an Anders kill to the very back inch stopped the rally, 18-17 Broncos.  A Hamson kill tied it up 18-18.  A lift by Hannermann and the Broncos had a sideout.  A kill by Douglas off the Hamson block, 20-18 Broncos.  Sideout Cougars.  BYU laced together a kill and an ace before the Broncos whistled for time, down 21-20.  A kill by Lommori and a team block by Cameron and Milton and BYU whistled quickly for time, down 22-21.  Two BYU kills and it went up 23-22.  A swift, but lucky tip by Gray, hit the Bronco floor for a BYU kill before a Milton kill made it 24-23 BYU.  Hamson's fourth hitting error of the set tied it up 24-24.  An attack error by LeCheminant was followed by a service error by Rottman, 25-25.  A Milton hitting error followed a crushing kill by her, 26-26.  A set error by Anderson was followed by a Williamson error, 27-27.  Hamson's cross court kill hit pay dirt.  A kill by Anders in the doughnut gave SCU the ball.  A lift by the Broncos gave BYU the sideout, 29-28.  Another BYU cross court error tied it 29-29.  A team block by Douglas and Cameron on Hamson's fifth hitting error gave SCU a sideout. A kill by Milton to an empty back row gave SCU the first set 31-29.  Santa Clara hit .216 with 16 kills (8 e, 37 att.).  BYU hit .021 with 14 kills and 13 errors on 48 attempts.  Lommori had five kills.  Hamson and Dahl had five kills each to lead BYU, but they collected five errors and four errors, respectively as well.

BYU jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the second set.  A pair of kills by Anders halted the rally.  Gray's kill and a BYU team block before another Anders kill made it 7-4 BYU.  SCU scored three of the next four on a Douglas kill, a team lock by Lommori and Haley and a Haley kill, 8-7 BYU.  Trading points, Cameron's kill and a Douglas service error made it 10-8 BYU.  A BYU ball handling error and then a kill by the Cougars made it 12-9 BYU.  Milton's crushed it down between the block and then Gray crushed it the same way for BYU, 13-10 BYU.  Trading points, BYU went up 14-11.  After Williamson's cross court kill,  BYU scored five of the next six to move ahead 19-14.  A kill by Milton stopped the rally but BYU then scored three more to move ahead 22-15.    SCU scored a couple, including an Anders kill.  A kill by Gray stopped the mini-rally, 23-17 BYU.  A kill by Nicole Warner and then one by Douglas made it 24-19 BYU.  After Williamson's ace, Hamson crushed it to give BYU a 25-20 set two win.  SCU hit .139 with 15 kills (10 e, 36 att.).  BYU hit .391 with 11 kills (2 e, 23 att.).  Anders had five kills.  Gray had six.

The two teams tied it up five times in the early going before BYU went up 7-5. A kill by Williamson was followed by Gray's 12^th.  The 11^th kill by Anders made it 8-7 BYU.  Trading points, Williamson's cross court kill grazed off a Cougar, 9-8 BYU.  SCU scored three of the next four to take an 11-10 lead.  A team block by Cameron and Lommori and then a kill by Cameron made it 13-10 Broncos. A couple BYU kills out of the Cougar timeout stopped the rally before Lommori smacked it off the block, 14-12 SCU.  Hamson knocked it down from the back row before Cameron put it down in front of her, 15-13 SCU.  A team block by Milton and Cameron was followed by a kill off the block by Gray.  A kill by Cameron, her seventh, made it 17-14 SCU.  Williamson's kill cross court and another kill by Anders and BYU called for time again, down 19-14.  Three BYU kills out of the timeout and then SCU whistled for time, up 19-17.  A service error by the Cougars gave SCU the ball, but it was followed by a kill by Gray. Back-to-back kills by Anders and Douglas made it 22-18 SCU.  A Hamson kill was followed by one by Anders, her 14^th, to put SCU up 23-19.  A kill by Jessica Jardine and then one by Lommori and SCU led 24-20.  Jardine's second kill in three points made it 24-21.  Milton's kill in the back row gave SCU a 25-21 set three win.  SCU hit .457 with 19 kills (3 e, 35 att.).  BYU hit .344 with 15 kills (4 e, 32 att.). 

BYU sprinted out to a 12-2 lead in the fourth set before the Broncos whistled for their second timeout of the set.  The teams traded points a coupled times and BYU went up 14-4.  Milton's 11^th kill of the day stopped the run.  A couple Bronco kills made it 15-7 BYU.  The 21^st kill of the day by Anders made it 17-10 BYU.  BYU rallied for five straight before a service error, 22-11 BYU.  SCU scored two of the next three before BYU tipped it down, 24-13.  A kill by LeCheminant gave BYU a 25-13 set four kill.  SCU hit .097 with 12 kills (9 e, 31 att.).  BYU hit .345 with 10 kills and no errors in 29 attempts. 

A kill by Gray started the fifth set and one by Milton followed.  Kills by Anders tied it up 2-2 and 3-3.  A service ace by Heier that just bumped over the net put SCU up 4-3.  A kill by LeCheminant tied it back up.  Lommori's kill off the block whistled out of bounds, 5-4 SCU.  Hamson's 16^th kill of the match was followed by Milton's 14^th to tie it up 6-6.  A couple kills by Gray put BYU up 8-6.  A BYU service error gave SCU a sideout and an ace by Anderson tied it up 8-8.  Williamson's ninth kill of the day made it 9-8 SCU. Timeout BYU.  After BYU went up 10-9, SCU called for time.  Milton's kill tied it up 10-10.  A kill by Gray, her 23rd of the match, BYU 11-10.  Jardine's smack landed on the Bronco floor, 12-10 BYU.  Timeout SCU.  Anders knocked it off the block and Hamson's kill made it 13-11 BYU.  Anders smacked down her 25^th kill of the day to pull SCU within one, 13-12.  Jardine's kill at the back inch of the court made it 14-12 BYU.  A service error by Hamson gave SCU the ball and BYU whistled for time, up 14-13.  Milton's kill between the block tied it up 14-14.  Cameron's block solo made it 15-14 and Milton's 17^th kill of the day gave SCU a 16-14 win.  SCU hit .320 with 11 kills (3 e, 25 att.) in the last set.  BYU hit .346 with 10 kills (1 e, 26 att.).