Waves Drop Marathon to #19 Santa Clara, 3-2
10/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 24, 2004
Final Stats
MALIBU, Calif. - The 19th-ranked Santa Clara Broncos capitalized on four Pepperdine errors early in game five Sunday night and never looked back as it averted the Waves upset bid 15-9 at the Leavey Center in Santa Clara, Calif.
Junior Katy Daly paced the Waves (5-11, 3-4 WCC) with 22 kills and tacked on 16 digs, completing her ninth double-double of the season.
Despite Santa Clara's (14-4, 5-2 WCC) dominance at the net, five Waves logged double-digit kill totals. But the Broncos out blocked the Waves by a 19-4 margin with Annalisa Muratore recording 11 assisted.
The Waves opened the match sluggish as Santa Clara got out to a 10-5 lead. Pepperdine was able to battle back behind the play of Sophia Milo and Lecca Roberts who combined for five kills and no errors and closed the gap to one, 18-17. But the Broncos would pull away going on a 5-0 run before taking a 1-0 lead in the match, 30-20.
Pepperdine would even the match up at 1-1 in game two, 30-25. The game was tightly contested in the early going. A Katy Daly kill evened the game up at 6-all and sent the Waves on a 5-0 run. During the run, Daly recorded another kill and a block, while Milo recorded a pair of kills. Santa Clara would pull within one on three occasions - 11-10, 16-15 and 21-20. At 21-20, Milo committed her first attack error of the day completing the Broncos long comeback attempt. But Daly would bang her eighth and ninth kills and Milo would add a kill, giving Pepperdine a 24-21 lead. Both teams would trade blows down the stretch, but the Waves were able to able to maintain their lead.
Game three would turn into a tightly contested one as neither team led by more than four points during the game. After Santa Clara pulled within one at 19-18, Pepperdine got a kill from Kristen Shultz and used a pair of Bronco errors to gain the 22-18 advantage. Another Shultz kill halted a small Santa Clara run and kept the Waves up 23-19. A pair of Kristin McClune kills was followed by two more Shutlz kills as Pepperdine held on for the 30-27 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
A Milo kill tied game four at 7-all as the Waves looked to upend the Broncos. But Santa Clara used five kills and four Pepperdine miscues to build a commanding 11-point lead, 20-9. The Waves would answer with an 8-2 run of their own and close the gap to 24-20. After a pair of sideouts, the Broncos closed out the game with a 5-1 run, to force a fifth game.
Milo finished the night with 17 kills on 31 swings for a team leading .355 percentage. Shultz recorded 15 kills, while McClune and Roberts notched 14 and 10, respectively. Shultz tacked on 11 digs for her seventh double-double of the year and Melissa Mehlhorn dished out 66 assists and had 10 digs for her team-leading 11th double-double. With 27 digs in the match Christina Hinds passes Jennifer Meredith (1990-94) to move into second on Pepperdines all-time list.
Pepperdine will have a quick turn-around as it must now get ready to take on #12 UCLA in Los Angeles on Tuesday. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. (PDT) at Pauley Pavilion.
