SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco volleyball team swept its South Bay rival for the second time this season Friday night, using a balanced offense to beat Santa Clara in three straight sets, 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-23), at the Leavey Center.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Francisco got off to a fast start in the first set, scoring five straight points with three kills from three different players and going up 5-0. That set the tone for the rest of the set and the rest of the match. San Francisco trailed just once for the entire night, and that was early in the second set. Santa Clara made a push to come back late in the opening frame, scoring seven of 10 points to make it 22-21, but the Dons notched three of the last four scores, getting a kill from Emily Zinger and a service ace from Kathya Garcia to clinch a 25-22 opening-set victory.
   
• Santa Clara took its first lead of the night with a 6-1 run early in set two. The Dons answered with four straight points of their own on kills from Lena Bondar and Marjolijn Oskam, and an ace from Camille Araujo, to tie it right back up. The Broncos finally sacrificed the lead when USF went on an 8-2 run to go up 16-11. Garcia, Sophie Sydenham and Emily Zinger all had kills during the run to continue highlighting the Dons' balanced attack. USF would go on to win the set, 25-19, and take a 2-0 match lead.
   
• Now with the Dons eyeing another sweep over Santa Clara, they grabbed an early lead and held on to it until the middle of the set. There, the teams would trade runs and the lead back and forth. Santa Clara fought back with a 6-2 run that gave it a 15-13 advantage, then the Dons responded with a 5-1 sprint of their own. Santa Clara went back on top with four straight points, and then USF turned in another 5-1 run to go ahead 23-21. It was setter Erin Anthony and Bondar who got the last two kills for the Dons and clinched the sweep.

COACH LAVRISHA QUOTES

• "Kathya took some big swings for us when we needed them. Mo was incredible (8 kills, .636 hitting percentage). That was huge. And impressive swings; stuff we hadn't seen, maybe early on in matches, then later we didn't see so much. Mo was fantastic.
   
• "Our passing was solid. We had that one spell in (the third) set. Kudos to our kids for dealing with it and fighting things off."
   
• "Just be fresh (to carry the momentum from tonight into Tuesday), and just the confidence this gives them. Like, "OK. All that work and sticking with it is paying off." We talk about that this is the start of next year. We want to carry this into next year."

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• .303: The Dons hit .303 on the night – their second-best hitting performance of the season since hitting .404 versus the Broncos in War Memorial at the Sobrato Center on Sept. 20.
• 7: San Francisco had seven different players log multiple kills. Five of them had at least five kills. Garcia and Bondar led the team with nine each.
• 21: Anthony tallied 21 assists, her 16th 20-plus assists performance of the year. She has had double-digit assists in five straight matches and 26 of 28 this season.

COMING UP

• San Francisco concludes its season on the road Tuesday at Pacific. The match is set for a 7 p.m. first serve. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.