SAN DIEGO — The Toreros (7-6, 2-1 WCC) made it back-to-back conference sweeps on Saturday afternoon, beating Denver (8-7, 1-2 WCC) 25-14, 25-16, 25-23 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Denver came into the programs' first meeting as West Coast Conference opponents leading the league in kills per set (13.21). San Diego held the Pioneers to 27 kills and .155 hitting and hit .400, its second-best mark of the season behind .457 against Arizona on Sept. 17.
San Diego never trailed in the first set and held Denver to .000 hitting, with seven kills against seven errors. Up 6-5, the Toreros scored five straight — a kill by freshman Ryann Knuth, then four points on Kierstyn Barton's serve, two of them aces — to force a Denver timeout at 11-5. All five of San Diego's blocks came in the set, and Meghan Scholz was in on four of them.
Lauren Lynch later served three straight points, the last an ace, for a 23-11 lead. Belle Groomes checked in at 24-14 and ended the set with an ace, the same way the sophomore setter closed out Pacific a week earlier in her college debut.
After five ties to open the second set, San Diego pulled away with an 8-2 burst that ended with three straight points on Kylie Munday's serve, beginning with an ace. Groomes later served three in a row for a 19-11 lead, and the Toreros hit .531 in the set with 20 kills and three errors on 32 swings. Nemo Beach had five kills on seven error-free swings and served out the set with an ace and a Denver attack error.
The Pioneers turned a 12-10 deficit into a 15-12 lead in the third set with five straight points, four on Elise Hart's serve. They still led 17-15 before San Diego ran off four in a row, the last three with Munday serving, to go ahead 19-17.
Barton ended that run with a kill and added two more at 20-18 and 22-20, and Denver never drew even again. Knuth's kill made it 23-21, and after the Pioneers got within 24-23, Beach put the match away with a kill off a Munday set.
Knuth's 13 kills came on 23 swings with two errors, a .478 clip, and she finished with six digs and a match-high 13.5 points. Beach added 11 kills on .400 hitting, and Scholz hit .583 with eight kills and four block assists. Barton chipped in nine kills, eight digs and two aces.
Munday had 33 assists and four digs, and Lynch led San Diego with 11 digs. San Diego was charged with one reception error in 49 serve-receive attempts. Denver was charged with six, one for each Torero ace.
Hailey Goebel led Denver with seven kills, and Madison Winkler had a match-high 13 digs.
San Diego is 2-0 all-time against Denver, having won the only previous meeting 3-1 at Hamilton Gymnasium on Sept. 12, 2009. Saturday was the Pioneers' first volleyball visit to the JCP.
UP NEXT
San Diego hosts LMU on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. and Pepperdine on Saturday, Oct. 10, at noon, with both matches at the Jenny Craig Pavilion and streaming on ESPN+.
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