SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara volleyball takes its West Coast Conference-leading 4-1 record to San Francisco for a 7 p.m. matchup with the USF Dons Friday at War Memorial Gym. The Broncos, who have won 10 of their last 12 contests, play only one time this week after a stretch of five matches in nine days. The team is off to its best start since 2006 with a 13-4 overall record, including a season-long four-match winning streak.
Santa Clara won all three matches last week, beginning with a sweep of Saint Mary's Tuesday in Moraga. The Broncos followed their road win with a pair of home victories: 3-2 over Portland Thursday night and 3-1 over Gonzaga Saturday afternoon. Kirsten Mead was named WCC Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Monday; it also marked the first player of the week award for the Santa Clara this season.
SANTA CLARA (13-4, 4-1 WCC) at San Francisco (15-3, 2-3 WCC)
Friday, Oct. 9, 2015 • 7 p.m. PDT
Game #18 • Away Game #6 • San Francisco, Calif.
Live Stats: usf.statbroadcast.com
Video: TheW.tv
Series: Santa Clara leads 61-13
Last Season: Sept. 26, 2014 in San Francisco — USF won 3-0
Nov. 20, 2014 in Santa Clara — SCU won 3-0
THE BRONCOS
Following a tightly-contested first set, Santa Clara won the final six points of sets two and three as part of a 26-24, 25-10, 25-19 sweep of the Gaels Tuesday at McKeon Pavilion. Tuesday night marked the first time in 50 sets this season that a stanza went past the 25-point mark.
In its first five-set match of the 2015 season, Santa Clara outlasted Portland 17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 24-26, 15-13 Thursday night. Nikki Hess posted a season-high 22 kills and Mead topped all players with a season-high 50 assists.
Santa Clara secured its best start in nine seasons on the strength of a 9-25, 25-12, 25-23, 25-20 victory over Gonzaga Saturday.
Mead tallied 132 total assists and averaged 11 a/s last week, along with 13 kills, a .706 hitting percentage, 42 digs and five aces. The Palo Alto, Calif. has recorded at least 41 assists in each her last six matches, including a season-high 50 assists against the Pilots.
Clayton ranks first in the WCC and ninth in the NCAA with .52 aces/set.
Santa Clara continues to be the only team in the WCC that has at least one player ranked in the conference's top three for all five major statistical categories (per set):
Aces — Clayton 0.52/s (1st)
Kills — Hess 4.14/s (3rd)
Assists — Kirsten Mead 11.02/s (3rd)
Digs — Danielle Rottman 4.76/s (1st)
Blocks — Jensen Cunningham 1.25/s (3rd)
The next closest team is BYU, who has players ranked in the top three of three major statistical categories.
THE DONS
San Francisco won its first 13 matches of the season, including eight sweeps, and dropped only five sets in that span. The Dons lost each of their first three conference matches against No. 10 BYU (3-1), San Diego (3-0) and Pacific (3-2). They rebounded last week with wins against the same teams Santa Clara faced: Gonzaga (3-2) and Portland (3-0).
The Dons lead the WCC with a .278 hitting percentage and 14.25 k/s. Gilad Doron is in his ninth season as head coach of Santa Clara.
USF Category Leaders in the WCC's Top 10
Hitting Percentage — Madison Murtagh .362 (2nd)
Kills — Katarina Pilepic — 3.92/s (6th)
Assists — Kiara McKibben 7.06/s (9th)
Blocks — Murtagh 1.17/s (5th)
Digs — Kim Gutierrez 4.06/s (5th)
GO BRONCOS!
