On the hottest day of the summer in New York, continuing its strong early-season play, Santa Clara defeated Army 3-0 at West Point Academy on Tuesday evening. The Broncos move to 4-0 with Army falling to 2-3. Set scores were 25-22, 25-20 and 25-18. The Broncos are 4-0 vs. Hofstra.
"We played really nice tonight. Army is a good team – the teams only made nine hitting errors each – Army came to play," said Bronco head coach Jon Wallace. "This is a fun group to work with. Sabrina is playing so good right now and so is Nikki."
Santa Clara hit .409 with 45 kills (9 e, 88 att.). The Broncos had 43 assists, 11 aces, 10 service errors, 33 digs and zero blocks (solo or assists).
Army hit .325 with 34 kills (9 e, 80 att.). The Cadets had 30 assists, four aces, eight service errors, 24 digs and five team blocks. Army was led by Amber Clay's 10 kills and three digs. Carolyn Bockrath had eight kills, hitting .727.
The Broncos were once again led by the sophomore duo of Nikki Hess and Sabrina Clayton – both 2013 WCC All-Freshman team honorees. Hess led the team with 12 kills, two aces and five digs, hitting .368 (5 e, 19 att.). Clayton hit .345 with 11 kills (1 e, 29 att.), three aces and six digs. Kaity Edwards hit .800 with eight kills on 10 attempts with no errors. "Kaity was automatic for us tonight," added Wallace. "We haven't had someone hit .800 in a long time. Kaity is taking big, aggressive swings for us. We moved the ball around a lot and they seem very frustrated."
Kirsten Mead continued to set the pace, as the rookie setter had 38 assists, two aces, three digs and three kills. "I am very pleased with Kirsten's maturity and decision-making as a setter," said Wallace. "She has caught on quickly – more quickly than most freshmen I've seen."
Lacey Maas also played well, adding five kills; and Danielle Rottman had a team-high 12 digs. "We worked a lot on defense since the weekend and we played amazing defense," said Wallace. "Dani stepped up really big for us and made some amazing plays. We missed a lot of serves in game two, but we are going to serve really tough going forward and we will get better as the year goes on."
Army started the match with an ace. Army jumped out to a 3-1 lead. The teams were then tied up eight times before Army took a two point lead, 15-13. SCU then went on a five-point run when Hess scored a kill and two aces. Taylor Milton added a kill and then Nicole Perri stopped the run with a kill before Edwards started another run with a kill, 19-16 Broncos. The teams traded points and Mead collected an ace to put SCU 21-17. Army halted play and scored twice out of its timeout. Clayton scored a couple kills between an Army error to pull ahead 23-19. Army scored three of the next four points to cut the Broncos lead to just two, 24-22. Timeout Broncos. Hess collected the final kill of the first set to give SCU a 25-22 set one victory. Hess had four kills and Clayton had two.
The teams were tied up twice in the early going of the second set. Army went up 5-3 and 6-4 on Bronco errors. In a back and forth second set, the teams tied it up eight times. Back-to-back kills by Clayton and another by Hess put SCU up 17-14. Timeout Army. Out of the timeout, Maas smacked a kill and Mary Shepherd knocked down an ace to make it 19-14 SCU. Nicole Perri and Hess traded kills, 20-15 Broncos. Clayton sided out with a kill and then aced the ball, 22-16 Broncos. Army scored three straight before Fairfield served the ball into the net, 23-19 Broncos. Rottman scored an ace then served it into the net, 24-20. Edwards finished the second set with a kill down the line, 25-20 Broncos. Hess had six kills and Clayton four in the second set.
SCU started the third set quickly with a 3-1 lead, including another ace by Mead. Milton's kill put SCU up 5-2. Army scored twice and then Hess scored her 11th kill of the match for a Bronco sideout. GiGi Cresto collected an ace and then the teams traded points again on an Edwards-kill, 10-6 Broncos. Army scored four of the next five to pull within one, 11-10 SCU. Amber Clay smacked it into the net to and Clayton knocked down her ninth kill of the match, 13-10 SCU. Maas and Bockrath traded kills twice, 15-13 Broncos. An error by Olivia Fairfield made the Broncos lead four, 18-14. Army scored a pair of points on Bronco errors, but Clayton and Hess responded with kills, 20-16 SCU. Timeout Army. Out of the timeout, the teams traded points, 21-17 SCU. Another error by Clay gave SCU a sideout, but Fairfield followed it with a kill, 22-18 SCU. Clayton took the match over with a kill down the line and then finished the match with back-to-back aces, 25-18.
"This team is really refreshing to be around. Everyone is working together and all 15 are playing hard together - really supporting each other," said Wallace. "We have to give a shout-out to Sparta because it was 90 degrees in the gym tonight and we looked and played really fit. Phil Brady and the Sparta workouts really have put this Bronco team in to very good shape. It was the hottest day of the summer in this area and we looked really ready to play - even in the third set."
