SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Addie Picha recorded 11 kills and 6 blocks to lead San Diego to a 3-0 victory over Santa Clara on Thursday night.
The senior middle blocker hit .647 in the match, as USD (8-9, 5-2 WCC) outlasted the Broncos in three closely contested sets. San Diego won 25-22, 26-24, 26-24 to sweep Santa Clara (5-14, 0-7 WCC) and improve to 5-2 in WCC play.
The Broncos took an early lead, 7-2, in set one with two key blocks and three kills from Kamrin Caoili. The Toreros came out of a timeout on a 5-2 run to even it up at 9-9 on a
Katie Lukes kill.
The teams traded points, with the Broncos holding the advantage until Lukes took charge of the set at 18-20. She rattled off two kills to bring the Toreros even with the Broncos 20-20, before Picha recorded a solo block to give USD the lead.
Lukes added two more kills to put the Toreros up 23-21 and the Toreros never looked back, taking the first set, 25-22. Lukes finished the night hitting .231 with two blocks and nine kills, six of which came in the first set.
The second set remained close early on, tied at 4-4, before
Roxie Wiblin found the court for her third kill of the night and
Laura Madill followed it up with an ace to make it 6-4.
The Broncos continued to apply pressure before Picha and
Cami May combined for a block to make it 10-7 and give the Toreros some breathing room.
USD maintained their lead to 21-18 before Santa Clara recorded three straight kills to tie it up, 21-21. Each time the Toreros pulled away the Broncos found some momentum to tie again at 23-23, 24-24.
A kill by
Lauren Fuller and block by Fuller and Picha ended the set, 26-24 and gave the Toreros a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Toreros stormed out to an 8-2 lead in the third set behind the productive front row attack from Wiblin, May and Picha. However, the Broncos would not go quietly, tallying five straight points to make it 8-7.
The momentum continued to be in favor of the San Diego with SCU playing catch-up for most of the set. The Broncos came back to tied it up at 15-15 and 16-16, but Picha and the Toreros refused to surrender the lead.
San Diego looked to be in control of the set and the match at 24-22 before Santa Clara came back to tie 24-24. But Picha proved to be too much for the Broncos to handle and rattled off two straight kills to secure the win 26-24 and the sweep.
Wiblin finished the night with nine kills, nine digs and two aces, while Newsome tallied 23 assists and nine digs.
San Diego hit .252 in the match compared to Santa Clara at .257 and the Toreros out-blocked the Broncos 8-6.
The Toreros remain on the road to face San Francisco on Saturday at 12 p.m.
