SAN FRANCISCO – Supported by a sea of pink in the stands, the San Francisco volleyball team could not overcome its lowest hitting percentage of the season as the Dons fell to long-time rival Santa Clara in straight sets on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.

With the loss, USF moves to 15-4 (2-4 WCC) on the season, while the Broncos (14-4, 5-1 WCC) stay atop the standings in the fiercely competitive West Coast Conference.

"We let it slip away," said USF head coach Gilad Doron. "I was disappointed with our resilience, I was disappointed with our patience today. But you've got to give credit to Santa Clara. They came in here and they were more physical than us, more determined than us and they took it."
 Katarina Pilepic, USF's team leader, had an unusually quiet night from the floor, managing six kills for the Dons. Oluoma Okaro led the squad with nine kills, five of which came in the first set of the night. USF, who entered the contest leading the WCC in hitting percentage, could only muster a season-low .073 in the match.

In the first set, USF jumped out to the early lead and held the 12-9 advantage after Madison Murtagh's kill found the court off the assist from Kiara McKibben. Soon thereafter, Sabrina Clayton took over at the service line for Santa Clara, and the Broncos strung together six unanswered points to pull ahead 17-13. Santa Clara remained in control to take the frame 25-21.

The Dons never managed to own a lead in the second set, which the Broncos won 25-18, but USF came out of halftime with fervor. USF went up 4-2 with Jurja Vlasic manning the serve for the Dons, but after a sideout put the ball in Danielle Rottman's hands, the Broncos snatched the 6-5 advantage. The teams would find themselves tied at 11 apiece after an ace from Jessica Gaffney, but the Broncos pulled away to earn the 25-19 victory in the final set of the evening.

Clayton and Nikki Hess led the Broncos with 12 kills each, while Kirsten Mead compiled 33 assists and Rottman added 20 digs and two aces in the victory.

"I thought they served us well today, and our players were not patient enough," noted Doron. If you get impatient, you start making errors. And when you start making errors you become more frustrated. It wasn't our day today and hopefully we can recover from this and have a better week next week. We're going to have to look at what we can do better and to be more efficient, especially on the road."

USF travels to the Southland for a pair of matches, first taking on Loyola Marymount on Thursday at 7 p.m., from Gersten Pavilion.