SAN FRANICSCO - For the fifth straight match, the San Francisco volleyball team battled Gonzaga to five sets, and on Thursday night at War Memorial Gym the Dons hit an impressive .381 in the decisive frame to snatch the 3-2 victory over the visiting Bulldogs.
After taking sets one, two and five for the match win, USF stands at 14-3 (1-3 WCC) on the season while Gonzaga moves to 11-5 (2-1 WCC).
"We talked about it before, and this is a very, very tough Gonzaga team," noted USF head coach
Gilad Doron. "The last couple years, every time we play them was five and we knew that going in. I've got to give our team credit to stick in through game five. They played a pretty good, smart game and we had the energy. Two nights after we had a five-gamer at Pacific to finish strong, I'm proud of our team. But I've been proud of them for a long time this year."
The Dons were paced by the offensive output of
Katarina Pilepic, who has led USF in kills in all but two occasions on the year. The junior from Novi Vinodolski, Croatia, slammed home 23 kills on .315 hitting including a 9-for-11frame in the first. She also added 11 digs to record consecutive double-doubles for the Dons.
Kiara McKibben, junior setter for the Dons, finished the night with a season-high 44 assists on the night. After eclipsing the 1,800 mark in career assists, McKibben leapt to seventh on the all-time lists surpassing Leanna Ludes (09-12 - 1,783) and Margaret Hillhouse (86-88 - 1,791) in the match.
The Dons recorded winning scores in the first two sets, but Gonzaga responded to tie and force a fifth set after overpowering USF 25-18 in the fourth frame.
"Game five is so strange. It's a game of runs," said Doron. "Two nights ago I thought we had it at Pacific and they tied it up. Then we let Gonzaga do the same here and they had a chance tonight, but we just didn't let them come back. We kept the lead, we got them where we wanted. Kim served phenomenally to get us in a really good position and I'm glad we got this one. This is a big one for us."
USF opened the final set with the point off the block from
Madison Murtagh and
Jessica Gaffney, the Dons edged out to the 5-3 lead after
Oluoma Okaro's kill nestled in by the back line. With Kim Guteirrez at the service line, USF built the 8-4 advantage, capped by an ace from the sophomore libero. McKibben took over at serve and got an ace of her own to extend the lead to 10-5 and force a Gonzaga timeout.
Two points later,
Sara Staengle extended the lead to seven, but Gonzaga hung in to cut it to three after Savannah Blinn's ball after the long rally put the score at 13-10. The Dons went on to take the final set 15-11 after Pilepic's floater over the defense send the jubilant USF bench pouring onto the court.
For Doron, the turning point of the match came well before the test of breaking the 2-2 tie, but rather in the first frame after falling behind to the Bulldogs late in the action.
"When I took the timeout down 24-22 in game one, I told the team that I didn't recognize them," reflected Doron. "We were playing like individuals, and we needed to go back to playing together. We started blocking better, we started digging better, we started playing the way we've been playing up until now and then we went away from it [in sets three and four]. Then we came back and Oluoma and Madison played big for us and came through when we needed them most and I'm proud of them. They're young, they're learning, they're growing fast in front of our eyes."
Murtagh, a freshman from San Francisco, finished the game with 14 kills and five blocks, while Okaro posted an 11-kill, four-block effort for the Dons. Gutierrez posted 20 digs to go along with three aces on the night. Overall, the Bulldogs managed to outhit the Dons .241 to .214, but USF reserved its 38.1 percent set for when it mattered most.
After the marathon week that has already seen the Dons play 10 sets in just over 48 hours, USF takes on Portland for its third match of the week.
"We're going to have our hands full every night from here until the end, and we've just got to go compete," noted Doron. "Portland is a much better team, we're a better team, Gonzaga is better - everyone in the WCC is good. We're just going to have to rest well and be prepared to bring the same type of energy and go after them. They play a very, very different style than what we play. It's not as physical, but it's very efficient and we're going to have to adjust, but hopefully we can end up with the same result."
First serve between the Dons and the Pilots is slated for Saturday at 1 p.m., at War Memorial Gym.
