University of San Francisco Athletics

Video Highlights

STANFORD, Calif. – The San Francisco sand volleyball team battled to the finish, but fell just short to Stanford, 3-2, to close the 2014 campaign at the ACSR Sand Courts Tuesday afternoon.

The Dons conclude the year with a 4-6 overall record, and a 3-4 mark against fellow members of the Northern California Sand Volleyball Consortium. For Stanford, also playing its final match of the season, the Cardinal finishes at 5-8.

USF got on the board first, with No. 5 pair of Emily Reed and Inbar Vinarsky earning a hard-fought 21-16, 25-23 win to open the afternoon. Reed, a freshman from Sunnyvale, Calif., and Vinarsky, a junior from Pula, Croatia, conclude the year with a team-best 7-3 mark. The duo knocked off competition from Cal, Saint Mary's, Sacramento State, Pacific, Cal Poly and San Jose State, finishing with a .700 winning percentage.

The Cardinal tied it up from the No. 4 position, with a narrow win in a three-set battle. USF's Rebecca Kopilovitch and Anja Segota dropped the hotly –contested first set 21-19 before knotting the match with a 21-18 second-set victory. The Stanford pair prevailed in the third, 15-9 to even the score at 1-1.

The Cardinal took its first lead on the day after a win at No. 3, but USF's top tandem of Sara Staengle and Valentina Zaloznik came up with a big victory over Lauren Birks and Carly Wopat, 21-11, 21-19. The duo of Malina Terrell and Jurja Vlasic was the last on the sand, battling Jordan Burgess and Brittany Howard. Up early in the first set, the USF tandem was edged, 23-21, 21-15, to give Stanford a 3-2 victory.

Overall, five of the six pairs that took the sand this season finished with at least a .500 record. Staengle and Zaloznik along with Katarina Pilepic and Courtney Sabahi conclude the sand season with an even 5-5 record, and Kopilovitch and Segota sit at 5-4 the season. Jessica Keenan and Anja Segota, partnering up but once, end at 1-0 as a duo.
 

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Stanford 3, San Francisco 2
April 22 | ACSR Sand Courts | Stanford, Calif.

No. 1 – Sara Staengle /Valentina Zaloznik (USF) def. Lauren Birks/Carly Wopat (STAN), 21-11, 21-19
No. 2 – Jordan Burgess/Brittany Howard (STAN) def. Malina Terrell /Jurja Vlasic (USF), 23-21, 21-15
No. 3 – Madi Bugg/Kelsey Humphreys (STAN) def. Katarina Pilepic/Courtney Sabahi (USF), 21-12, 21-13
No. 4 – Inky Ajanaku/Kyle Gilbert (STAN) def. Rebecca Kopilovitch/Anja Segota (USF), 21-19, 18-21, 15-9
No. 5 – Emily Reed/Inbar Vinarsky (USF) def. Morgan Boukather/Megan McGehee (STAN), 21-16, 25-23