SAN FRANCISCO – An explosive third set extended the match between San Francisco and Pepperdine, but the Waves hung on to take the 3-1 victory on Thursday night at War Memorial Gym.

A trio of Dons recorded double-doubles on the night, with the offense paced by Katarina Pilepic's 14 kills and 12 digs, her fourth double-double of the season. Kiara McKibben added a 25-assist, 10-dig effort, and senior Jurja Vlasic finished with 11 assists and 10 digs on the night. Oluoma Okaro recorded 10 kills and six total blocks in the match.

Pilepic's 14-kill night puts her at 999 for her USF career, one kill away from becoming the 11th Don in program history to reach the 1,000 plateau.
"I was expecting us to start a little bit better, but with the injuries we have we are searching to find some consistency and that's really tough," noted head coach Gilad Doron. "I was really proud of our team today with everything they are going through. Game 4 went back and forth, and I thought we had most of the momentum early there and then couldn't regain it, unfortunately.

"But I saw some bright spots there with a couple of our players so hopefully we can build on that. That's really important for us right now that our younger players are getting to grow here, regardless of this season, because we are looking for a bright future with this program."

The first set of the evening was evenly contested through the first third of the action, tied at 8-8. Then, the Waves went on a 7-1 run to jump out to the advantage, and the Dons could not mount a comeback, falling 25-18 in the opening set. The momentum stayed with Pepperdine in the second as the Waves eased to the 25-14 win helped by eight total blocks in the set. The visitors headed into halftime up two sets to none, but USF would not go down without a fight.

The Dons hit .311 in the must-win frame, paced by four kills apiece from Courtney Sabahi and Pilepic. USF jumped out to an early 5-2 advantage after Sabahi's point was set up by Pilepic. The Waves battled back to knot the score at 8-8 on the kill by Jenna Tunnell, but the Dons would again gain the upper hand with Jessica Gaffney at the service line. After seeing the score tied at 11, the Dons scored three unanswered capped by a block for Okaro and Emily Reed to force a Pepperdine timeout.

The break in the action didn't slow down the USF attack as a kill for Pilepic made it 22-15 in favor of the Dons. The Waves would battle back and withstand four set-point attempts for the Dons before the home team took the 25-22 victory to force a fourth frame.

The Dons scored the first three points of the set, before the Waves countered to knot the score at four. Pepperdine took the 9-6 lead after Becca Strehlow's serve fell to the middle of the court for the ace. Pilepic's kill with the assist from Reed edged the Dons to within one, at 10-9 in favor of the Waves. Pepperdine grew the lead to 21-17 off the attack from Brooke Honeycutt, and the visitors eventually closed the set with the 25-21 win to leave the gym victorious.

Five Waves finished with double-digit kills, and setter Strehlow notched 51 assists and 21 digs in the win. Pepperdine improved to 17-11 (8-7 WCC) while USF suffered its fifth-straight setback.

The Dons look to regroup on Saturday against Loyola Marymount in USF's last home match of the 2015 campaign.

"You always want to finish on a good note, but LMU is a really, really tough opponent and this year they are playing really well," said Doron. "But it's your senior day. You've got to bring it. The seniors want to finish strong and we want to do our best to make sure that happens."

USF will bid a formal farewell to its class of four senior student-athletes – Jessica Gaffney, Sabahi, Sara Staengle and Vlasic – along with graduate assistant and Director of Operations Thiago Lopes. First serve between the Lions and the Dons is slated for 1 p.m.