SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Behind a team-high 14 kills from senior Haley Cameron, the Santa Clara Broncos volleyball team defeated Loyola Marymount, 3-1, Thursday night at the Leavey Center. Set scores were 25-18, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19.
The Broncos moved their record to 11-15 overall, 6-11 in WCC play. The Lions fell to 14-13 overall, 8-9 in WCC.
"I thought we passed really well in games one, two and four," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace. "On top of that, I think we've been hitting really well. The last two matches vs. LMU and UOP, we've been hitting above 300. Haley Cameron and Sabrina Clayton started off with a nice aggressive approach to the game and they both had really good numbers and played really well tonight."
Cameron hit .423 in the match and added a block solo and eight block assists in a dominating front line effort. Sabrina Clayton added 12 kills and Taylor Milton had 10. Katy Schatzman had 19 digs and Alyssa Anderson tallied 44 assists as the Broncos hit .304 for the match.
The Lions were led by Kathleen Luft, who tallied a match-high 16 kills in 47 attempts. Litara Kiel (13) and Felicia Arriola (11) were also in double-figure kills but the Lions hit only .181.
The Broncos return to the court on Sat., Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. for their final match of the seaon and Senior Day. The team will be honoring their four seniors; Cameron, Anderson, Kat Douglas and Megan Anders, before the match.
"Senior Day is a great day for them and a sad day for us," said Wallace. "Since I've been at Santa Clara, I've recognized that the students are ready to go out in the world. Santa Clara does a great job preparing them to go out and be productive members of the community. At the same time, they want to finish strong. I like the energy the seniors have brought to the gym and to practice this week and I know they are excited for Saturday."
The Broncos started to pull away in the first set and built a 16-8 lead off a pair of aces from Anderson forcing the Lions into a timeout. The Lions cut the gap to 23-18 and Santa Clara called a timeout to regroup. The Broncos scored two straight out of the timeout to take set one, 25-18.
Santa Clara scored the first three points in set two and climbed to a 14-11 advantage off a kill from Nikki Hess down the middle of the court.
LMU got within, 23-20, forcing a Santa Clara timeout. A kill by Clayton and an attacking error by LMU gave the Broncos the set to close out the half.
After the break, the Lions took the first four points before the Broncos called a timeout. After the Broncos regrouped, Cameron got the Broncos up on the board with a kill to make the score 4-1.
The Lions increased their lead to 10-2 before a kill by Hess put the Broncos in motion.
LMU extended its lead to 16-5 before the Broncos went on an 11-4 run to close the gap to 20-16. Cameron picked up three kills and Lacey Maas blocked an attack during the run before an LMU timeout.
A Clayton's kill got the Broncos within 24-22 but the Lions picked up the next points to win the match.
"We lost our focus," continued Wallace. "When this team loses focus we don't pass well and we kind of trickle down and it puts us in really tough situations. I thought we got our focus back mid-way through that third game making a nice little come back which gave us some more confidence and momentum going into game four."
Milton picked up another hard-hit ace in the fourth set to give the Broncos their first lead of the set 4-3.
Clayton and Anderson extended the lead 10-6 before the Lions called a timeout.
The Broncos defense was on point, blocking two kills in a row but couldn't hold off the third to make the score 14-9.
"Our girls are very motivated for this weekend," said Wallace. "We have a great rivalry with both LMU and Pepperdine and I know they are excited. Their record doesn't indicate how good this team is. They want to prove themselves that they can compete with good teams in our conference. They did that against BYU and beating LMU tonight just shows where we're at in terms of competing."
Game Notes: Attendance was 643.