Box Score
SANTA CLARA – After falling behind two sets to one, the San Francisco volleyball team catapulted to a 3-2 victory over Bay Area rival Santa Clara Thursday night at the Leavey Center.
The Dons dropped the first two sets in the match before battling to the five-set win, 20-25, 17-25, 27-25, 28-26, 15-8. With their second-straight victory in West Coast Conference action, the Dons improve to 6-7 (2-1 WCC) while Santa Clara moves to 6-6 (1-2 WCC).
"It was just an amazing performance, and I couldn't be more proud of the team," head coach
Gilad Doron said. "It wasn't necessarily a good day for individual performances, but as a team it was really amazing. They never gave up and gave everything they had to fight their way back."
Valentina Zaloznik, a junior from Ljubno ob Savinji, alongside freshman
Katarina Pilepic led the way for the Dons. Pilepic, a native of Novi Vinodolski, Croatia, produced a team-high 14 kills on an effective .393 hitting percentage and added eight digs. Zaloznik nearly finished the night with a double-double, leading the team with 12 kills and nine total blocks.
Mackenzie Murtagh added 26 assists while
Ester de Vries dug out 15 balls to lead USF. The Dons defense held Santa Clara senior leader and all-WCC preseason selection Megan Anders to a -.120 hitting percentage for the night, as the Broncos hit a season-low 14.3 percent on in the match.
"It was rough at the start but we never gave up, and in time we found our rhythm," associate head coach
Ken Ko noted. "The inspiration for great play is contagious. I'm proud of how our team stayed in the moment to get another conference road win."
After falling behind on the road, the Dons started the third set down 8-3 after Haley Cameron's kill for the Broncos. With de Vries at the serve, USF battled back to get within one after a kill by
Emily Reed made the score 11-10 in favor of Santa Clara. The Broncos extended the lead to as many as four before the Dons finally knotted the score at 24 apiece. USF took their first lead in the match on an
Anja Segota kill, assisted by Murtagh to give USF a set-point opportunity and an error by Megan Anders ended the set with a final score of 27-25 in favor of the Dons.
"We had our backs against the wall 24-20 in game three, and the crowd was ready to close the door," Doron said. "We took advantage of our one opportunity to find way to win that game and really got stronger. Game four was a true battle, but once we got game five you could see it in our faces that we weren't going to let that one go."
USF took the lead from the outset of the fourth set and maintained until late in the frame. Santa Clara snuck into the lead with the score at 24-23 and the two teams battled back and forth until Zaloznik's kill evened the match at 26-26. Two straight attack errors by Sabrina Clayton finished out the set and tied the match.
Similar to Pepperdine, the fifth set was owned by the Dons, who opened with the first four points in the frame. USF grew the lead to 7-2 after a block by Zaloznik and Pilepic. A Pilepic kill finished off the match with the Dons reigning victorious after a 15-8 win in the decisive fifth set. This is the first time in school history that the Dons have prevailed on the road at Santa Clara and Pepperdine in the same season.
For the second-straight match, USF used effective hitting while capitalizing on Santa Clara errors to hold the Broncos to .000 percent hitting in the final frame, where the Dons finished with a match-high .389 in the set.
"Knowing that we're still not 100 percent, but we're just finding ways to win is a good way to build our confidence," Doron said. "With the early WCC results across the league, we are seeing that anybody can beat anybody on a given night. These two wins show that we're responding to all the adversity early in the season, and hopefully it will build even more confidence and belief in our system and our team as we face our next challenge."
The Dons have a week off before hosting Gonzaga for next Thursday's WCC Game of the Week on TheW.tv. First serve from War Memorial Gym is slated for 6 p.m.Â
