SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Santa Clara volleyball is back to action for two home matches against Portland to start the week. The Broncos host the Pilots Monday at 4 p.m. and Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Leavey Center.

Monday's match marks the fifth of the season for the Broncos (1-3, 1-3 WCC), who are coming off of a pause in all team-related activities due to a positive case from COVID-19 testing and related contact tracing. Santa Clara's last match before the pause was a sweep victory over Pacific on Feb. 24 in Leavey Center. 

Due to current guidelines in Santa Clara County, spectators are not permitted inside Leavey Center. In addition, only essential personnel is allowed on campus. The general public is allowed only to 'pass through' campus, such as on a walk, but no lingering, gathering, lounging, etc. is permitted.

HOW TO WATCH ON WCC NETWORK

Santa Clara home matches and West Coast Conference matches are streamed live on WCC Network. All events are available at WCCSports.com/watch. Match-specific broadcast links will be posted on the schedule page and on Twitter (@SCUVolleyball).

Ben Ross is the play-by-play announcer for Monday and Tuesday's broadcasts.

THE BRONCOS

• This Season (2021): 1-3 (1-3 WCC, 1-2 Home, 0-1 Away) | Last Season (2019): 21-12 (10-8 WCC), NIVC Second Round

Santa Clara split the home-and-home with Pacific, falling to the Tigers Feb. 23 in five sets on the road before returning home for the first victory of the Spring 2021 season. The Broncos opened the season with a pair of four-set losses against No. 18 San Diego on Feb. 16-17.

SCU's season-opening match against the Toreros was the first for the team in 440 days, after the fall 2020 season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Santa Clara's first six matches of the Spring 2021 season were also postponed.

Julia Sangiacomo and Sophia Tulino both posted efficient performances in Santa Clara's win over the Tigers. Sangiacomo led all players with 13 kills on .344 hitting and Tulino added 11 kills on .357 hitting. Sangiacomo has at least 12 kills in all four matches, including 17 kills in consecutive matches on Feb. 17 and Feb. 23. Tulino has at least 11 kills in all four matches, including 15 kills in her Bronco debut on Feb. 16.

As a team, the Broncos lead the WCC with 1.94 aces/set and 2.69 blocks/set. Individually, Tulino leads the conference and ranks third in the country with 0.75 aces/set; she had four aces in each of the matches against the Toreros. Alex Anthony leads the WCC with 1.31 blocks/set. She had a career-high 12 blocks against the Tigers on Feb. 23.

The Broncos are hitting .189 and allowing a .197 hitting percentage.

HEAD COACH ERIN LINDSEY

Erin Lindsey is in her second season as head coach of Santa Clara volleyball. She is the 10th head coach for a program that dates back to 1963 and is in her second stint as a head coach after leading Dartmouth from 2011 to 2015. Her overall record as a head coach is 76-84 (22-15, 11-11 WCC at SCU). Lindsey joined the Broncos after winning a national championship as an assistant coach at Stanford in 2018.

Last year, Santa Clara reached the postseason for the first time since 2015 and won its first postseason match since 2008 by claiming an opening-round victory at Long Beach State in the NIVC. The Broncos went 21-12 overall for a 15-win improvement compared to the previous year and their first 20-win season since 2015. Lindsey became first head coach in program history to start 6-0 in her debut season.

ACTIVE ROSTER BREAKDOWN

Santa Clara returns five student-athletes from 2019 on the active roster, all of whom saw the court last season. Senior libero Gretchen Reinert played in all 33 matches and all 124 sets last season. Junior setter/opposite Michelle Shaffer and sophomore outside hitter Julia Sangiacomo also played in all 33 matches.

Sangiacomo earned Second Team All-WCC and WCC All-Freshman team honors in her debut campaign on the Mission campus. She led the WCC with 492.5 points (4.14/set, led SCU, 2^nd WCC). The outside hitter also led SCU and all WCC freshmen while finishing second overall in the conference with 411 kills (3.45/set, led SCU/4^th WCC). Sangiacomo posted double-digit kills in 22 of 31 matches and had five double-doubles.

Reinert led the Broncos and finished fourth in the WCC with 451 digs. She reached the 20-dig mark seven times. The libero had 10 or more digs in the first 11 matches and 28 of 33 for the season.

Shaffer led SCU with 781 assists (6.35/set) while playing primarily in a two-setter system and topped the Broncos by recording 13 double-doubles. Other season highlights include posting Santa Clara's first triple-double since 2003 (16 seasons), posting Santa Clara's first 20-20 match since 2017 (two seasons), becoming the second Bronco in program history to record a triple-double and a 20-20 match in the same season and tying an SCU single-match program record with eight aces, becoming the first Bronco since 1989 (30 seasons) and the fourth in program history to hit that mark from the service line.

Liliana Light (23 matches, 88 sets) and Alex Anthony (7 matches, 22 sets) round out the returning unit. Light played in each of the first 23 matches before missing the final 10 contests due to injury.

Santa Clara welcomes seven newcomers in freshmen Casey Campbell, Kat Georgiadis, Lexi Poppinga, Elena Radeff, Nani Spaar, Sophia Tulino and Lucy Walsh. Prepvolleyball.com recognized the group with an honorable mention on its list of top recruiting classes for 2020.

By Class: Seniors (1), juniors (3), sophomores (1), freshmen (7)

By State/Country: California (8), Texas (2), Hawai'i (1), Canada (1)

WCC PRESEASON POLL

The Broncos were picked to finish 4^th of 10 teams in the 2021 West Coast Conference Spring preseason poll. San Diego, the defending conference champion, was picked to win the WCC again with 78 points and seven first-place votes. The Toreros closely edged out BYU (72 points, one first-place vote) and Pepperdine (69 points, two first-place votes). The Broncos cracked the top four with 55 points. LMU (50), Saint Mary's (41), Pacific (27), Gonzaga (27), San Francisco (18) and Portland (13) rounded out the poll.

THE PILOTS

• This Season (2021): 1-9 (1-9 WCC, 1-3 Home, 0-6 Away) | Last Season (2019): 11-18 (3-13 WCC)
• Picked to finish 10^th of 10 in 2021 WCC Spring preseason poll
• All-time series: Santa Clara leads 56-13 (first meeting 1979)
• 2019: 10/19 SCU won 3-2 @ SCU, 11/14 SCU won 3-0 @ POR
• The teams have split the last eight meetings. They split the two-match season series in 2016 and 2017. Portland swept the season series in 2018 and Santa Clara swept the season series in 2019.

Monday's match will be the first for both Portland and Santa Clara since Feb. 24. The Pilots have lost their last three contests – Feb. 19 3-2 at San Francisco, Feb. 23 3-2 against Saint Mary's and Feb. 24 3-0 against Saint Mary's. The team's lone victory was on Feb. 18 in five sets at San Francisco.

Mia Wesley has recorded 12 or more kills in four straight contests, including 23 in the Feb. 19 match at San Francisco. Jayde Harris has 10 kills in four straight matches. Carey Williams leads the WCC with 223 digs and 5.44 digs/set.

The Pilots are hitting .157 and allowing a .234 hitting percentage.