Santa Clara takes care of UCSB in four-set match
STANFORD — ? Last weekend head coach Kathy Gregory celebrated her 800th career victory and Thursday another coach, ?Santa Clara’?s Jon Wallace, ?celebrated a milestone: his 200th career win.
Unfortunately, that win came at UCSB’s expense as the Gauchos dropped a four-set match to the Broncos in its opening contest at the Stanford Invitational being held at Maples Pavilion this week. Santa Clara took the match with set scores of 25-19, 21-25, 25-22, 25-19.
With the loss, the Gauchos fall to an even 3-3 record on the season while Santa Clara improves to 5-1.
UCSB was once again led by sophomore outside hitter Charlene DeHoog who chipped in 15 kills, one ace, six digs, and one block in the loss. Senior outside Lauren McLaughlin posted her first double-double performance of the season with 14 kills and 12 digs. She also supplied a pair of assists and a pair of aces. Sophomore middle blocker Kasey Kipp had eight kills and two blocks in the match. Junior outside Rebecca Saraceno had a mixed performance as she tallied four service aces, but also tallied three service errors. She did, however, lead the team with four block assists and collected seven digs. Senior libero Leigh Stephenson tallied a team-best 16 digs and sophomore setter Dana Vargas had 38 assists.
As a team, the Gauchos hit just .175 on the match with 50 kills on 137 attempts with 26 errors. They also struggled with their serves, tallying eight aces, but almost erasing that advantage with six errors.
Santa Clara?s Brittany Lowe led all players with 17 kills and also tallied six digs and an ace. Anna Cmaylo tallied 14 kills with a .545 clip (2e, 22 att) while also posting two aces, nine digs, and eight blocks. As a team, the Broncos posted a .278 hitting percentage (56k, 19e, 133att) and also out-blocked the Gauchos 12.5 to 5.5. Santa Clara also struggled behind the line with eight aces and six service errors.
After splitting the first two sets, UCSB held the advantage through most of the third set. The Broncos remained on the Gauchos’ heels and were able to come back and tie the set at 21- 21. An ace from Lowe gave Santa Clara their first lead of the set and a pair of kills and a Gaucho error led the Broncos? 25-22 victory.
After breaking free of two early ties, Santa Clara controlled the fourth set and captured the match victory with a 25-19 win. The Gauchos hit .000 in the final frame, negating their nine kills with nine errors.
UCSB will continue action at the Stanford Invitational on Friday with a 7 p.m. matchup with host No. 7 Stanford.
