MALIBU, Calif. – The University of San Francisco women's volleyball team made its long-awaited spring season debut taking on Pepperdine at Firestone Fieldhouse on Tuesday evening.  After a sloppy first set, the Dons battled but fell to the Waves in straight sets (12-25, 21-25, 20-25).
 
"We kind of needed to get our bearings after the first set," said head coach Frank Lavrisha. "The second set went way better; the third set was better than that. It was good for us to actually play against a quality opponent and work through some things.  Given that we had some freshmen out there and some players coming back from rehab it was really a baptism by fire for us.  We will make some adjustments tonight and try and carry the momentum of the second and third set into tomorrow's match."
 
USF (0-1, 0-1 WCC) finished the match hitting .066 compared to the Waves (1-0, 1-0 WCC) .245 attack percentage. However, the Dons got stronger as the match progressed. USF hit -.056 in the opening set, .095 in the second and .136 in the third set.  After hitting into 18 errors in the first two sets, the Dons cut it down to five in a very competitive third and final frame.
 
The Dons were led by junior McKenna Marshall who had her first career double-double with 10 kills and a career-best 10 digs.  The 10 kills were tied for a match-high, it is her ninth career match with double digits in kills and first since she tallied 10 against BYU on Oct. 10, 2019.
 
Setter Aylen Ayub also tallied a double-double in her USF debut, finishing with 23 assists and 10 digs.  Senior Anna Dalla Vecchia finished the night with a match-high 23 digs.  She now has 925 digs for her career which moves her in to 11^th place all-time.
 
The first set began with Pepperdine taking a quick 6-0 advantage.  The Dons cut it to 3-7 thanks to kills by Greta Corti and back-to-back kills by Valeria Alegrias Cambindo. Corti and Cambindo finished with seven and six kills respectively.  The Waves were able to put the set away thanks to nine attack errors by the Dons.
 
In the second and third set the Dons were able to keep it close. But the Waves balanced attack from Rachel Ahrens (10 kills), Shannon Scully (eight kills) and Meg Brown (eight kills) along with strong play at the net was the difference.  The Waves finished the evening with 12 total blocks, eight coming from Alli O'Harra.
 
The Dons and Waves will return to action tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. for the final of the twin billing.  The game will be streamed on the WCC Network, fans can also follow along via live stats which can be accessed on the women's volleyball schedule page.