SAN FRANCISCO — It's been a while since the Santa Clara University volleyball team has gotten off on the right foot in West Coast Conference play.
Friday, the Broncos started down the right path.
Santa Clara swept rival San Francisco, 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-22), on the road at War Memorial at Sobrato Center to snap an eight-season losing streak in WCC openers and start off conference play with a 1-0 record.
Santa Clara setter Nive Tuileta recorded her 1,400th career assist on the first point of the game and finished with 28, adding nine digs and two service aces. The Broncos (5-8, 1-0 WCC) had three players with double-digit kills, led by 13 from Julia Sangiacomo. Sangiacomo also tied a career high with five service aces. Santa Clara had 13 aces as a team Friday, its most in a single match since it also had 13 against San Francisco on Nov. 5, 2015, nearly seven years ago.
Layla Truitt notched her fifth consecutive double-digit kills performance with 11 Friday night. She had only one attack error while hitting a season-best .400. Sophia Tulino (10 kills) had her first double-digit kills match of the year while hitting .350. Kat Georgiadis collected 23 digs, her third time in the last five matches going over 20.
The Broncos never trailed in either of the first two sets on their way to getting out to a commanding 2-0 lead. San Francisco (7-6, 0-1 WCC) tied the score on two occasions in the first set and two more in the second set, but could never get that next point to go ahead.
The Dons held seven different one and two-point leads at the start of the third set, looking to fight off a sweep. Santa Clara responded with a 10-2 run that flipped a 10-8 USF lead into an 18-12 Santa Clara advantage. San Francisco didn't go down easy, fighting back with its own 7-1 run to tie the set at 19-19, but Santa Clara scored six of the last nine points to come away with the 25-22 set win and the 3-0 sweep.
Santa Clara next travels to Pacific on Tuesday for another WCC match. The match will be streamed live on the WCC Network, and will have live stats provided. Fans can find all live coverage links on the Broncos' schedule page.
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