In its final match on the East Coast, Santa Clara defeated Delaware 3-0 on Saturday morning to move to 6-1 while the Blue Hens dropped to 3-3. Set scores were 25-21, 25-20 and 25-20. Taylor Milton and Sabrina Clayton were both named to the Harvard Invitational All-Tournament Team.
Milton received tournament honors for the second straight weekend as she was named the MVP of the Hofstra Invitational last weekend.
Santa Clara returns home on Fri., Sept. 12 to host Penn at 7 pm and then Duke at 11 am on Sat., Sept. 13.
Santa Clara hit .300 with 46 kills (16 e, 100 att.). The Broncos collected 45 assists, 10 aces, 10 service errors, 28 digs and five team blocks.
Taylor Milton scored a match-high 16 kills and adding five digs, hitting .355 (5 e, 31 att.). Sabrina Clayton had 11 kills, hitting .304 (4 e, 23 att.) with four digs. Danielle Rottman collected 10 digs and two aces. Kirsten Mead had 44 assists and three digs. Mary Shepherd added two aces and three digs.
Delaware hit .247 with 31 kills (13 e, 73 att.). The Blue Hens collected 30 assists, two aces, one service errors, 31 digs and six team blocks.
They were led by Katie Hillman, who hit .600 with nine kills (0 e, 15 att.). Autumn Jenkins hit .038 with 8 kills and added six digs (7 e, 26 att.). Erin Layne had 17 assists and Julia Anderson added 11. Taylor Hollingsworth had 15 digs.
In the first set, the teams knotted it up twice before the Broncos jumped out to a 9-6 lead. The teams tied it up three times before SCU went on a 6-1 run to take a 17-12 lead. After Delaware scored a couple, the Broncos tacked on three more to make it 20-14. Timeout Delaware. The teams traded sideouts with a Rottman ace and a Lacey Maas kill giving the Broncos game one, 25-21.
The teams were knotted up nine times before SCU scored two on a kill by Taylor and ace by Chloe Sliger. Tied 11-11, the Broncos scored seven of the next eight points to go up 18-12. The teams traded point twice and then Maas scored a kill and Maas and Milton teamed up for a block. Timeout Delaware. The Blue Hens scored six of the next eight points, but a Milton cross court kills clinched set two 25-20.
In set three the teams again battled back and forth with seven ties and then SCU went up by two on a Mead ace and a Delaware error, 11-9 SCU. An ace by Shepherd made it 14-11 Broncos. The teams tied it up five more times. After SCU scored a couple times, Delaware whistled for time, down 21-19. Santa Clara scored again and timeout Delaware again. Santa Clara finished off the match by scoring three of the next four and won the match 25-20 on an ace by Shepherd.
