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SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The San Francisco volleyball team got its first road victory of the season Friday afternoon and doubled its tally in the nightcap knocking off SMU and Northeastern in the opening day of the Aztec Invitational.
In the first match of the day, the Dons battled to the last point in the hotly contested match against SMU. USF won the first set 25-21, but the Mustangs evened the score in a second set that required extra points before the frame was finished at 29-27.
In the third, the Dons looked to be cruising to the win after an SMU attack error grew USF's lead to 24-19 late in the set. However, the Mustangs scored the next six consecutive points punctuated by a pair of kills by both Abbey Bybel and Caroline Young found their mark. The 25-24 SMU advantage was the first lead held by the Mustangs since the score was 9-8. Undeterred, the Dons cashed in on a SMU service error to knot the score and two timely kills by freshman
Katarina Pilepic off the assist from
Mackenzie Murtagh gave the Dons the lead in the match once more.
A closing ace in the frame allowed SMU to take the fourth set by a score of 25-21 and force a deciding fifth frame. Evenly contested from the outset, the two teams see-sawed for position and the score was tied at 8-8 after an
Anja Segota kill. But the Mustangs would score the next three to jump out to a slight lead. A timely service ace by freshman
Emily Reed again tied the frame at 13-13 and kills by
Valentina Zaloznik and Pilepic ended the set and the match to give USF with win.
After the two and a half hour battle with SMU, the Dons were left with little time to rest up for the evening match against Northeastern, but USF was prepared for the tournament grind. The Dons started slow in the first set of the match, and found themselves behind by as many as five points after a kill from Northeastern's Ava Cramp set the score at 17-12. But USF clawed back into the set after erasing the deficit to tie the set at 21 apiece before the Huskies scored four of the next five points to take the first 25-22.
The second set was another close battle, again with the Dons finding themselves in the come-from-behind position late in the match. USF rose to the challenge after being faced with Northeastern set point and the score at 24-21. The Dons scored the final six points of the set, capped by two kills by Reed to earn the 26-24 win and tie the match heading to halftime.
From that point on, momentum was fully on the side of the Dons as USF closed the match by winning set 3 25-13 and following it up with a 25-19 fourth set score to take its second victory on the day.
The Dons were led by outstanding performances up and down the lineup, most notably a pair of 21-kill performances in the match against SMU. Pilepic and Segota both finished with the match-high tally against the Mustangs and Segota, a junior from Pula, Croatia, was one dig away from a double-double.
In the second match, USF's offense was paced by Zaloznik's 19-kill effort on a .500 attack percentage to headline the Dons' scorers. Defensively, Zaloznik posted an eye-popping 14 total blocks in Friday's action, including three solo efforts. All told on the day, five Dons had at least 10 kills with Pilepic's 33 as the USF benchmark. Murtagh finished with 55 total assists and a team-high 26 digs. Reed, a freshman from Sunnyvale, Calif., posted a team-high five service aces.
With the pair of wins, USF moves to 3-5 on the season, and seeks to finish non-conference action at .500 after matches against Harvard and host San Diego State slated for Saturday. The Dons face the Crimson at 2 p.m., and return to close the invitational against the Aztecs at 7 p.m.
