SAN DIEGO — San Diego volleyball broke a 24-24 tie with the last two points of the fourth set on Saturday afternoon, holding off Santa Clara 25-19, 25-19, 14-25, 26-24 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion for its sixth straight win.
Freshman Emma Brewer led the Toreros (13-8, 8-3 WCC) with a career-high 19 kills, four more than her previous best a week earlier at Saint Mary's. Aided by setter Kylie Munday's eighth double-double of 2026, San Diego out-hit Santa Clara (9-14, 5-6 WCC) .284 to .229, offsetting a match-high 22 kills from Cate Shanahan, who came into the week leading the West Coast Conference in kills per set.
BayLea Sparks' kill put San Diego ahead 7-6 in the first set, and Nemo Beach served the next four points, putting one of them away herself, to force a Santa Clara timeout at 11-6. Brewer accounted for five of the Toreros' final eight points, all on kills, as they hit .457 in the set.
As in the opener, San Diego never trailed in the second set, which was tied only at 1-1. Brewer had two kills and a block with Meghan Scholz during a four-point run that made it 18-12, and after Santa Clara pulled within 19-17, the Toreros scored the next three. Beach had five kills on nine error-free swings and two solo blocks in the set, and her kill off a Munday set ended it.
All six of Santa Clara's aces came in the third set, a 25-14 Broncos win that ended San Diego's run of 17 straight sets won. Shanahan served four straight points, three of them aces, as Santa Clara turned a 3-3 tie into a 12-4 lead.
The Broncos scored the first three points of the fourth and still led 13-10 before Beach's kill and three straight points on Tatum Lane's serve put San Diego ahead 14-13, its first lead in a set that had 10 ties and five lead changes.
Santa Clara went ahead 23-22 on an Allison Dzieciuch kill, but Munday and Sparks blocked Selin Aslayan to tie it, and Beach's kill, awarded after a successful San Diego challenge, made it 24-23. After Aslayan answered, Sparks put away a Munday set for match point and then teamed with Brewer to block Morgan Hayes for the final point.
Brewer's 19 kills came on 45 swings, and she added a team-high 20.5 points, eight digs and three block assists while passing 15-for-15 in serve receive. Beach finished with 12 kills on .333 hitting, three blocks and an ace for 15.5 points. Sparks hit .412 (8-1-17) and had a team-high five blocks, four of them in the fourth set.
Munday posted 35 assists and 12 digs to go with five kills on .444 hitting, and Lauren Lynch led all players with 21 digs while also passing 15-for-15. Scholz added six kills and three block assists.
San Diego has won 21 straight meetings with Santa Clara and hasn't lost to the Broncos at home since Nov. 1, 2014. The Toreros also won last season's lone meeting in four sets, dropping only the third at the Leavey Center on Nov. 22, 2025.
UP NEXT
San Diego plays its next three matches on the road, starting at Denver on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. PT at Hamilton Gymnasium, with the match streaming on ESPN+. The Toreros then visit Pepperdine on Thursday, Nov. 12, and LMU on Saturday, Nov. 14.
