PHOENIX — A week after facing adversity, and a day after responding to adversity, the Santa Clara University volleyball team showed its versatility.
Eight different players collected at least three kills Saturday while the team hit an outstanding .450 en route to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-17) sweep of Idaho on day two of the GCU Invitational at Grand Canyon University's GCU Arena.
Nani Spaar (.643 hitting percentage) and Sophia Tulino (.400) led the Broncos (3-2) with nine kills each. Julia Sangiacomo had six kills with six digs and two blocks. Lia Okammor tallied five kills with no errors for a .625 hitting percentage, and four Broncos – Oren Abutbul, Lexi Poppinga, Anna Stucchi and Layla Truitt – had three kills each.
"We had an opportunity to get some other athletes out there to get some experience," said Santa Clara head coach Erin Lindsey. "I think to be able to get other players in there and make it harder for the other team to know where we're coming from is just an advantage."
The Broncos hit no worse than .394 in each of the match's three sets. They also had seven service aces, their second most in a match this season.
"I told our team we need to win serve and pass, and our team is doing better and better," said Lindsey. "We made sure our communication is going strong."
Idaho (0-5) pushed back in the second set. The Broncos led by as many as five at 12-7, but the Vandals went on a 7-2 run to tie it at 14-14. Over the next 17 points, neither team led by more than two, until an Okammor termination put Santa Clara up, 24-21, all but sealing the match.
Santa Clara – now 2-0 on the weekend at the GCU Invitational – will play host Grand Canyon (4-1) at 2 p.m. Sunday for a chance at the tournament title. It would be the Broncos' first full tournament title since 2019 when they won all four of their matches at the season-opening Indiana Invitational. They also went 2-0 at last season's Kennesaw State Invitational, but didn't play the host Kennesaw State, who also went 2-0.
"I think that our team is very driven to want to find a lot of success this year," said Lindsey. "Yes, we've been working on things and keeping with the process, but it's important to us that we're winning, so it's exciting for us to be going into the finale 2-0 and have a chance to win the whole thing."
Sunday's match will be streamed live on ESPN+. Live stats are available on StatBroadcast. All live coverage links can be found on the Broncos' schedule page.
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