BERKELEY, Calif. – Using an intense rally from No. 1 pair
Valentina Zaloznik and
Sara Staengle, the San Francisco women's sand volleyball team knocked off California-Berkeley 3-2 at the Clark Kerr Sand Courts on Friday.
For the second-consecutive competition, the Dons were tied 2-2 heading into the decisive fifth match of the day between the No. 1s. Unique to today, however, was the fact that Zaloznik marked her birthday today.
“It's like a cherry on top,” co-head coach
Eyal Zimet said of winning on Zaloznik's birthday. “Driving here, she said it would be a great birthday gift from the team to win today. And she is the one that actually earned her birthday present.”
Zaloznik and Staengle started out slow, falling behind 15-9 to the pair of Katarina Milosavljevic and Joan Caloiaro in the first set. USF rallied back to tie the set at 19 apiece, but the Bears pulled out the 22-20 first set victory.
In the second, the Dons got on the board first with Zaloznik at the serve. The hotly-contested set was tied on 13 separate occasions. With the score knotted at 12-12, Cal went on a three-point run to grab the largest lead for either side in the set. Zaloznik responded with back-to-back kills to pull within one. Staengle slammed home a kill to mark the 12th tie at 17 apiece. A Zaloznik ace made the score 20-18 in favor of USF and a Staengle kill finished the second set at 21-19 to force a third set.
The USF duo struggled early, falling behind quickly by a score of 3-0. The Dons would respond by rattling off five straight points to take the lead, but Cal would rally to regain the advantage. Cal freshman Milosavljevic served an ace to put the score at 10-9 in favor of the Bears, but the Dons battled by scoring six of the next seven points. Finishing off the set, Zaloznik powered home one of the strongest kills of the day on the final point, giving USF the 15-11 set victory to earn the Dons' third point in the team competition.
After the win to move to 2-1 on the season, the rest of the USF squad broke out in a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for the sophomore from Ljubno ob Savinji, Slovenia. Statistically, Zaloznik led the Dons with an impressive 17 kills and eight aces on the day. Staengle added 13 kills and both players in the pairing finished with 20 digs apiece.
“I think Sara and Valentina demonstrated that they can handle the pressure, and they actually perform well under pressure,” Zimet remarked. “We all have complete confidence in them closing out matches. I think today was even more pressure. in addition to Val's birthday there were a lot of people around the court and it was a very tight match to begin with. There were a lot of gut check moments throughout the games, and I think we've got pretty good guts.”
Also earning match points for the Dons were the duos checking in at the Nos. 4 and 5 positions.
Mackenzie Murtagh and
Inbar Vinarsky started the day with a 21-8, 21-12 win in the fifth position. Vinarsky notched 11 kills in the victory. Proving to be the most effective service duo of the day, the twosome combined for 11 total aces for USF.
Malina Terrell and
Courtney Sabahi dominated the No. 4 match, winning handily in the 21-10, 21-14 victory. Sabahi recorded 12 kills while Terrell added 10 in the win.
“This means a sweep over Cal for the year, with both indoor and sand,” noted co-head coach
Gilad Doron. The Dons picked up a 3-2 win in the indoor season over the then-No.25 Bears on Sept. 1, 2012, as Doron became the all-time wins leader in program history. Two weeks later, USF earned a 3-0 win over Cal to sweep the indoor series. The lone sand match scheduled between the two squads, the Dons can boast a 2012-13 sweep of the Bears.
“We see the girls continue to improve in their footwork and control and how they serve, so overall I thought they did very well,” Doron said of the progress of the team during its inaugural season. “Now hopefully they can be more confident going into the next tournament after this good win.”
USF takes to the sand again on Sunday, facing off with Santa Clara and Pacific in Sacramento, with competition beginning at 9 a.m.
Results:
No. 1: Zaloznik/Staengle vs. Caloiaro/Milosavljevic - 20-22, 21-19, 15-11
No. 2: Kopilovitch/Vlasic - 15-21, 17-21
No. 3: Ludes/Segota - 16-21, 17-21
No. 4: Sabahi/Terrell - 21-10, 21-14
No.5: Murtagh/Vinarsky - 21-8, 21-12
