SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's volleyball team swept Santa Clara at the Leavey Center on Saturday afternoon, posting the Waves' best start to West Coast Conference play since the 2011 campaign. 
 
The Waves (10-5, 4-1 WCC) gritted out 28-26, 25-8 and 27-25 set wins to secure the sweep over the Broncos (5-11, 0-4 WCC).  The last time the Waves had such a start to conference action was in 2011, when the team opened with 13-straight WCC wins.  That team went 15-1 that season to win the league title. 
 
BIG WAVES
Rachel Ahrens (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./Tesoro HS): 13 kills, .423 hitting %, 1 ace, 7 digs, 4 blocks
Hannah Frohling (Edmond, Okla./Edmond North HS): 13 kills, .400 hitting %, 3 aces, 4 digs
Shannon Scully (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS/Utah): 12 kills, 1 ace, 9 digs
Alli O'Harra (Boise, Idaho/Centennial HS): 7 blocks (2 solos), 6 kills, .429 hitting %
Blossom Sato (Santa Monica, Calif./Santa Monica HS): 37 assists, 2 aces, 13 digs, 1 block
Hana Lishman (Kailua, Hawai'i/Punahou School): 21 digs, 4 assists
Tarah Wylie (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral HS): 4 kills, 1 dig
Madison Shields (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge HS): 6 digs
 
WAVES VS. BRONCOS
The Waves showed extreme grit throughout the match, marking 47 kills on a .273 success rate, while allowing the opposition 39 kills on a .171 clip.  Pepperdine added seven aces to Santa Clara's one and marked 44 assists to the competition's 38.  Each side collected seven team blocks throughout and the Broncos led the match with 63 digs compared to the Waves' 62.
 
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set          K             E             TA           Pct
1              16           6              48           .208
2              12           1              33           .333
3              20           5              51           .294
TTL         48           12           132         .273
 
SANTA CLARA ATTACK BY SET
Set          K             E             TA           Pct
1              18           7              45           .244
2              6              7              37           -.027
3              15           4              41           .268
TTL         39           18           123         .171
 
NOTABLES

• Pepperdine leads Santa Clara 40-33 all-time dating back to 1982.
• Hannah Frohling has hit for double-figure kills in eight matches this season and 48 throughout her career.  She leads the team with 3.27 kill/set and 22 aces overall.
• Rachel Ahrens has posted eight matches with double-figure kills this season and has led the Waves' attack in six.
• Hana Lishman has put up 10 double-figure dig matches this season, with two above 20-digs including today, and 58 in her career.
• Blossom Sato has led the Waves in assists in all but one match this season including a career-high 59 in the home opener against Idaho. 
• Shannon Scully has posted seven double-doubles this season, leading the Waves.
• On the season, Alli O'Harra leads the Waves with 1.11 blocks/set after amassing 49 total blocks with five solo rejections. Tarah Wylie has marked 44 total blocks, including three solo rejections for 0.86 blocks/set.

 
PLAY-BY-PLAY
After falling behind early in the first set, the Waves stayed close to the Broncos.  Pepperdine stayed three-points behind throughout the majority of the set, until big kills from Rachel Ahrens and Tarah Wylie evened things up at 21-apiece.  Pepperdine then pulled ahead to a 24-22 advantage, although Santa Clara rallied to tie the score.  After battling off one set-point opportunity and battling through a few of their own, the Waves took the set 28-26 courtesy of kills from Hannah Frohling and Wylie.
 
Pepperdine had their best set of the season in set two, putting seven points on the board before the Broncos countered, after a big service effort from Blossom Sato featuring multiple kills from Ahrens and Frohling.  The opposition tallied a point after that, but the Waves countered with another 10-1 run with a big service from Frohling including a pair of aces and three-straight blocks from Alli O'Harra with two including Ahrens to pull ahead 17-1.  Santa Clara posted some points shortly after, but Pepperdine stayed tough and secured the 25-8 set win to go ahead 2-0 in the match.
 
In the third set, each side went point-for-point en route to a 9-9 tied score.  The opposition then worked ahead for a few points but smashes from Shannon Scully and another Frohling ace and the Waves tied it at 16's.  It was a see-saw battle for the remainder of the set with each side collecting leads throughout.  Late in the action after battling back from a 24-22 deficit to tie things up, the Waves gained the advantage with a kill from Ahrens.  Although the Broncos fought off a few match-point attempts, Pepperdine was able to finish the set with a 27-25 win on top of a final Scully kill and won the match with a sweep overall.
 
NEXT UP
The Waves return home next week to host Pacific and Saint Mary's in Firestone Fieldhouse on October 4 and 6 respectively.  Follow the Waves on Facebook and Twitter, @WavesVolleyball, and follow the team on Instagram, @peppvolley.  Get all the most recent schedules, results and more on www.PepperdineWaves.com.