PORTLAND, Ore. — The Santa Clara University volleyball team's 2022 season finally came to an inspiring end Saturday after it fought hard for the past two weeks to keep it going.
The Broncos hung tough with West Coast Conference foe Pacific, but the Tigers' serve game carried them to a 3-1 (25-18, 21-25, 25-12, 25-15) victory in the second round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship at Portland State's Viking Pavilion.
Santa Clara (13-19) had gone on a four-match winning streak to conclude the regular season last month and earn a postseason appearance – the program's 19th all-time. Then on Friday, it extended the streak to five by beating host Portland State on its own home court in the first round of the NIVC.
Julia Sangiacomo led Santa Clara in the last match of the year with a match-high 13 kills. Her career-high 475 kills this season rank No. 7 all-time in a single season at Santa Clara, and her 4.20 kills per set are ninth-best all-time. She also moved into third all-time on the Santa Clara career kills list, totaling 1,528 to pass Nikki Hess (2013-16) who had 1,518.
Kat Georgiadis collected 10 digs and finished 2022 with 469 – two short of the all-time top-10 list. Layla Truitt was one kill short of a double-double with nine kills and a team-high 12 digs. Nive Tuileta had 35 assists, four digs, three blocks and a service ace. Lia Okammor led Santa Clara with five blocks.
E2 | #Broncos 25, @PacificVball 21
— Santa Clara Volleyball (@scuvolleyball) December 4, 2022
We're all tied up at 1️⃣-1️⃣!
Layla Truitt's 4️⃣th kill of the match gives Santa Clara the Set 2 victory ��#StampedeTogether | #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/uNwmuhrEC1
Pacific (18-13) had three players with double-digit kills. Alexa Edwards and Biamba Kabengele both had 13. Darina Kumanova had 11 kills, five aces and four digs.
The Broncos led the first set, 16-13, but Pacific went on a 10-0 run to take command. It would end up being a 12-2 run overall as they came back to win the opening frame, 25-18. The Tigers' serving game played a huge part not only in that first-set run, but in the whole match. They logged 15 total aces in four sets. It was the most aces by a Santa Clara opponent since LMU totaled 16 on Nov. 11, 2017.
The Broncos jumped out to a big, 16-9 lead in the second set and scored three of the last four points to even the match at 1-1. Four more aces in the third set, including the clinching point, helped hand Pacific a 25-12 set victory.
Santa Clara stayed close in the fourth set, trying to force a deciding fifth. But Pacific went on a 6-1 run with four kills and two blocks – flexing a different side of its game besides serving – to take an insurmountable 19-14 lead en route to a 25-18 match-clinching win.
Santa Clara concluded the 2022 season at 13-18 and 8-10 in WCC play, finishing fifth in the conference standings – right behind four teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament. It was the second season in a row and third in head coach Erin Lindsey's tenure that the Broncos have won at least 12 matches in a season. It's also the second time during Lindsey's tenure Santa Clara has made a postseason appearance (2019 NIVC) and finished among the conference's top-five (also in 2019).
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