SAN DIEGO — The Santa Clara University volleyball team gave West Coast Conference preseason favorite and host San Diego the toughest battle its faced in conference play so far, but the Toreros still emerged victorious on its home floor, fighting off the Broncos, 3-1 (25-12, 21-25, 25-21, 25-23), at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Diego (8-6, 4-0 WCC) hadn't lost a set in conference play all year entering Thursday. And after it dominated Thursday's opening frame, 25-12, it looked as though that trend would continue. But Santa Clara (9-7, 1-3 WCC) engineered quite the turnaround, winning the second set, 25-21, to even the match at 1-1.
   
• The Broncos outhit the Toreros by nearly 140 percentage points in the second set (.267 to .128). They had 13 kills, four service aces and three blocks in the second. Each of those numbers were doubled or even tripled from the first.
   
• Santa Clara's offense continued to improve in the third, hitting .321. But San Diego's offense began finding every open space on the court. The Toreros tallied 20 kills and three aces in the set. Even with their accuracy, the Broncos still had the set tied at 17-17. It took USD a 5-1 spurt to create some space at 22-18, and SCU still wouldn't go away. Elena Radeff helped the Broncos score three consecutive points with a kill and back-to-back blocks to make it 22-21. San Diego closed it out with three straight of their own on consecutive kills from Ella Durham and an ace.
   
• The fourth set was no easier for San Diego, as Santa Clara fought all the way to the end. The set featured nine lead changes and 20 tie scores. The Broncos held a late lead at 22-21, but the Toreros came up clutch, scoring four of the set's last five points on three kills and a block while not allowing another kill by Santa Clara.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 9: Santa Clara collected nine service aces, its most in three matches. Kat Georgiadis and Anna Stucchi both led the Broncos with three aces each.
• 14: San Diego totaled 14 blocks as a team, tying a season high for a Santa Clara opponent (Air Force, Sept. 8).
• 17: Elena Radeff led all players with a career-high 17 kills. It was the first double-digit kills performance of her career.

POST-MATCH QUOTES
Head Coach Erin Lindsey

• "I'm really proud of our team effort tonight. We gave ourselves a chance to win the match and just didn't execute quite enough at the end of the fourth (set).
   
• "Elena really stepped up on the left for us, producing more offense. We will continue to build on this as we look to Saint Mary's on Saturday."

NEXT UP

• Santa Clara returns home to host Saint Mary's at 1 p.m. Saturday. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.