Santa Clara lost 3-0 at UC Santa Barbara in its opening match of the UC Santa Barbara / Cal Poly Invitational on Friday afternoon. Set scores were 25-18, 25-23, 26-24.  Santa Clara is 8-3 and UCSB is now 4-6.

The Broncos play Northern Illinois Saturday at 10 am and then will travel to Cal Poly for its final non-conference match of the year at 8 pm.

Santa Clara hit .168 with 44 kills (23 e, 125 att.). The Broncos collected 39 assists, nine aces, nine service errrors, 45 digs and 4.0 team blocks.

Santa Clara hit .086 with 11 kills in the first set (8 e, 35 att.). The Broncos hit .156 with 15 kills in the second set (8 e, 45 att.).  In the final set, the Broncos hit .244 with 18 kills (7 e, 45 att.).

Taylor Milton had 12 kills and 11 digs.  Nikki Hess added nine kills and Sabrina Clayton seven.  Kirsten Mead had 37 assists and four aces.  Danielle Rottman had 14 digs.  

UCSB hit .300 with 39 kills (9 e, 100 att.). The Gauchos collected 37 assists, five service aces, two service errors, 50 digs and 12 team blocks.

UCSB hit .233 with 11 kills in the first set (4 e, 30 att.).  UCSB hit .233 in the second set with 14 kills (4 e, 43 att.).  In the final set UCSB hit .481 with 14 kills (1 e, 27 att.).

Jaylen Villanueva had 12 kills, hitting .500 with no errors.  Phoebe Grant added seven kills.  Ali Santi had 12 digs and Ali Spindt had 15 digs.