SAN FRANCISCO — The University of San Francisco volleyball team played close early on in Thursday's match versus visiting San Diego, but the West Coast Conference co-leaders were able to come from behind and earn an early set victory en route to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-14) WCC sweep at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Dons (6-17, 2-10 WCC) were never behind by more than one early on in the first set. They built two separate multi-point leads of their own over San Diego (19-5, 12-1 WCC) with strong defense and timely hitting. A 6-1 run that made it 9-5 Dons included four San Diego attack errors, one from a block by Ally Wada and Katie Wagstaff.
   
• Another 5-1 run later in the first set that gave USF a 14-11 lead included four more San Diego errors – a reception error on an Erin Fujitani service ace, a blocking error, a service error, and an attack error on a block from Orsula Staka and Emily Zinger. But San Diego straightened itself out, using back-to-back USF errors to start a set-changing 7-1 run that gave them the lead for good. Three kills from Thana Fayad during the run also helped bring the Toreros to the verge of a 1-0 match lead at 23-19.
   
• San Francisco and its defense wasn't done however. Three consecutive blocks – with Wagstaff in on all three, joining Kathya Garcia and Zinger on two of them – pulled the Dons right back to within one at 23-22. Even when USD answered with a kill to get to set point, Sophie Sydenham still gave the Dons fight with a kill of her own to make it 24-23. But another kill by the Toreros stopped the Dons' efforts and handed San Diego a close, 25-23 first-set victory.
   
• USF still played close in the first half of the second frame. A 5-1 run early that included another block from Wagstaff tied the set at 9-9. But San Diego took off after that, using a 7-1 run with seven kills – four from Katie Lukes – to go up 16-10. USD's lead wouldn't dip below three points again on its way to a 25-18 set win and a 2-0 match lead.
   
• San Diego never trailed in the third and final set, breaking an early 3-3 tie with a 14-3 run that included 11 kills. The Toreros hit .410 in the third set alone after hitting no better than .231 in each of the first two sets.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 2: The Dons had two players with double-digit digs Thursday, led by Anna Dalla Vecchia's team-high 11. Moana To'oto'o had 10 digs, her fourth double-digit digs performance in her last five matches.
• 9: San Francisco totaled nine blocks as a team and had four player tally multiple stops. Wagstaff notched five blocks for the second match in a row, and Zinger had five for the third time this season.
• 13: Garcia tied with USD's Fayad for the match high with 13 kills. It was Garcia's fifth match in the last six with at least 10 kills. She is now only 15 kills away from 300 on the year with 285 total.

COMING UP

• San Francisco hosts No. 11 BYU at noon Saturday. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.