Junior
Katarina Pilepic had a match-high 15 kills while
Oluoma Okaro added 10 to power USF to its 12th straight victory at the expense of Cal State-Fullerton Saturday afternoon in the San Francisco Challenge being held in Memorial Gymnasium.
The Dons improved to 12-0 on the season with the 25-17, 25-12 and 25-22 victory over the Titans, which dropped to 0-11 on the year.
It marked USF's eighth straight set victory on the year and the Dons have now won 36 of 40 sets on the season over its first 12 matches. The win streak is the longest since USF opened the 2003 season with 15 consecutive victories.
USF raced out to leads of 9-5 and 16-10 in game one before the Titans closed to within three at 17-14. The Dons then won eight of the next 11 points to close the door on game one with a 25-17 victory. Pilepic had seven of her 15 kills in the first set.
The Dons controlled game two from the outset, extending a 12-9 cushion to a 23-11 advantage before eventually winning by the 25-12 score.
The third set was the most competitive of the match. The Dons held a 20-16 lead only to see the Titans close to with two at 23-21. Fullerton could draw no closer as USF completed the sweep en route to its 12th win of the season.
USF hit .417 on the match and held the Titans to a .222 hitting percentage.
Kiara McKibben finished with 25 assists while Juria Vlasic added 15.
USF will seek its fourth consecutive tournament title and 13th straight victory tonight when the Dons meet North Dakota State in the final match of the San Francisco Challenge at 7:00 p.m.
In earlier action from the San Francisco Challenge, North Dakota State took four games to get past Yale, 25-22, 25-17, 17-25 and 27-25.
The USF-North Dakota State match will be preceded by the Yale-CS Fullerton match at 4:30 p.m.