Box Score
SAN FRANCISCO – After pulling out two-straight five-set victories on the road, the San Francisco volleyball team got a dose of their own medicine as Gonzaga rallied to a 3-2 win at War Memorial Gym Thursday night.
Mirroring the comeback of the Dons on the road against Santa Clara last time out, USF won the first two sets before Gonzaga rolled off the next three to escape with their just their second road win of the season.
The Dons were led by the consistent play of junior
Valentina Zaloznik, who finished with 16 kills on .467 hitting, eight digs and five total blocks.
Katarina Pilepic added 11 kills to end as the only other player to reach double-digit kills for USF. Assist duties were shared, with Mackenzi Murtagh helping on 23 balls and
Kiara McKibben finishing with 15 sets on the night.
Rebecca Kopilovitch led the match with 22 digs, followed closely behind by
Anja Segota's 19.
"I think Valentina has been a consistent bright point, but we need more players to step up," said head coach
Gilad Doron. "From the back line to the front line, we need more contributions from everyone in order for us to be more successful. Before this match, we had the resiliency and we played together, and today we started moving away from what got us to this point."
Associate head coach
Ken Ko agreed.
"You have to give a lot of credit to Gonzaga who came in and worked very hard together," he said. "Usually that is exactly what we rely on – togetherness, resilience and fighting for every point no matter how difficult the situation is. Tonight we got a taste of our own medicine against us."
USF raced out to a two-set lead in the match, finishing the first with a score of 25-15 capped an
Emily Reed kill to finish the set. The second saw the Bulldogs take their first lead of the night at 9-8 in the frame and later at 12-9 as Gonzaga went on a 6-1 run. But USF rallied back to tie the set at 13-all after a kill from Zaloznik found its mark.
The frame, punctuated by long rallies by both teams, was tied again at 18-18 after
Ester de Vries came through with a kill from the back court. Scoring the next five points, the Dons had a 24-18 advantage in the second. The Bulldogs responded with a point to extend the set followed a stuff on a free ball, but a long attack by Jordan Gasser missed its mark and gave the Dons the 25-20 set win.
Despite heading into halftime with a 2-0 deficit in the match, the Bulldogs came out with a spark in the third set, jumping out to a 10-5 lead that turned into a 20-13 advantage for the visitors on a kill credited to Gonzaga Savannah Blinn. Second in the West Coast Conference in kills per set, Blinn entered the third frame with just six to her name, but finished the five-set match with a high of 22 to lead all scorers.
The Dons rallied back to tie the set at 23 apiece but a Blinn kill followed by a smash by Deanna Nielson on a free ball finished the frame with a score of 25-23 and gave Gonzaga exactly what they needed, according to Doron, hope.
"It wasn't our best match today, that's for sure, but we were still up after two," said Doron. "We let them make a run in the third game and it was just enough to give them hope. Even though we tied it at 23, from that point it seemed to be all Gonzaga needed."
USF dropped the second set by a score of 25-17, hitting .091 for the frame, and Gonzaga finished off a hard-fought fifth set with a score of 15-11 to escape with a road victory. Both the Bulldogs and Dons now stand at 6-8 overall, with USF moving to 2-2 in WCC action.
"Right now we've just got to respond and be more determined to play every point," said Doron. "It's very upsetting, but we're just going to have to go forward from it. Hopefully we are angry enough and learn our lesson and want to respond."
USF continues its weekend home stand Saturday, hosting a winless Portland Pilots squad in War Memorial Gym at 1 p.m.
