San Francisco, Calif. — A night that seemed as if it was destined to be a repeat of the many before it turned into one with pulse-pounding action by the time it was through. After taking the first two sets, visiting Gonzaga (13-7, 6-4 WCC) controlled much of the third until the Dons came roaring back.
USF had the score knotted up at eight, but Gonzaga took control and was seemingly preparing to run away with the match. Tyna Adamcikova and Emily Reed had a different idea, though, as they started slamming balls to the court bringing the score back even at 16. The teams would continue to trade blows all the way until it was a tied again at 19 on an ace by Trish Koutsoukos.
The Bulldogs would rattle off three unanswered points which forced head coach Vicki Brown into calling a timeout. The Dons responded well to coach Brown as they won the next two points, the final of which was a monster of a rally capped off by a Reed slam. The final set was a true show of force from Reed and Adamcikova and Brown certainly took notice saying, "I think Emily and Tyna did a really good job of handling that pressure in that set."
Gonzaga would ultimately win the set and the match but it was a very encouraging effort put forth by USF (4-20, 0-11 WCC). "The last three weeks we've been talking about that middle part of the set and getting through that," Brown said after the match. "And I think the third set was just us, not only doing it in practice, but also now seeing it in a game. When you do it in a game, you feel it and you can repeat it. Now we just have to close it out, that's the next step."
Adamcikova tallied a team high 13 kills to go with 11 digs in the match. Reed was busy all night with nine kills and nine digs. Koutsoukos led the team in assists with 18 followed by Shannon Levinson who had 12. Kim Gutierrez registered a team-high 14 digs on the evening.
Now, the Dons will look to take the momentum from their resilient play in the final set and carry it into their next match. "It's all about motivation," Brown said. "I think that third set, granted it's not the outcome we want, does motivate you to have a good Friday practice that carries over into a good Saturday match."
That next match for the Dons is a home-tilt with Portland at War Memorial in the Sobrato Center Saturday at 1 p.m.as USF will look to build of the strong performance against Gonzaga. "It's coming together," Brown said. "It's like a puzzle, we just have to keep piecing it together."
