SAN FRANCISCO – The University of San Francisco women's volleyball team sent out their lone senior a winner. The Dons honored libero Anna Dalla Vecchia in a pre-match ceremony and then immediately went to work on the Broncos, defeating Santa Clara in straight sets 25-18, 25-12, 25-22 on Friday night at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.
 
USF (8-10, 8-10 WCC) had a solid evening on the attack, but it was their play at the net and on defense that stood out.  USF hit .296 as a team with 44 kills on 108 swings with 12 errors. Defensively, they held the Broncos to an .075 attack percentage. Stymying Santa Clara to 26 kills on 106 swings with 18 errors.  USF finished the night with five total blocks, three coming from Orsula Staka.
 
On the attack, USF was led by McKenna Marshall who finished with 12 kills on 32 swings for a .281 attack percentage. She also had 12 digs to finish the season strong with her eighth double-double of the season. Greta Corti overcame a slow start to finish with 10 kills, she also had two service aces. However, it was Valeria Alegrias Cambindo who provided the spark.  The Dons' opposite finished with nine kill son 19 swings with just one error.
 
Aylen Ayub finished with 30 assists and eight digs. Dalla Vecchia finished with a match-high 15 digs, she finishes her brilliant career with 1,244 digs which is fifth all-time in USF history. Her 4.3 digs per set for her career ranks third all-time.
 
"It was such a wonderful way to finish Anna's career with a match like this," said head coach Frank Lavrisha.  "Especially with her being such a big part of it.  To be sure we got a huge boost from Valeria on the right side and that kind of kicked us off, from there on in we just controlled the match. We had great serving that got them out of system a bunch and we finished it off by playing great defense.  It was a fantastic win for Anna and her career and I'm just really excited about where we are going with our program."
 
In the opening set the Broncos scored the first two points but the Dons rallied.  USF went on a 4-0 run to take a 4-2 lead and did not look back. Alegrias Cambindo was the spark the Dons needed – she had four of USF's first five points.  Her sixth kill, on nine swings without an error, put the set away 25-18.   
 
In that game, the Dons tallied 14 kills on 38 swings with three errors to hit .289 – better than any set from the night previous. On the defensive side, USF held the Broncos to a .089 attack percentage. Santa Clara hit into nine errors in the set, thanks to USF's play at the net. 
 
In the second set, USF jumped out to a big lead early thanks to a 6-1 run. The Broncos called a timeout early with the Dons out front 11-4. USF continued to roll and took the second set 25-12.  The Broncos finished with just five kills in the set and hit -.097.
 
The third set was much more even.  The Broncos led three different times, the last coming with SCU up 16-15 thanks to a rare USF attack error. The Dons responded going on a 6-2 that was capped off by a kill by Alegrias Cambindo.  USF put the match away on a service ace by Hannah Kinnison, her third of the night.
 
The Dons' eight wins in conference play are the most since USF went 9-9 in the WCC in 2013.