Box Score SPOKANE, Wash. - Led by freshman
Ester de Vries, the San Francisco volleyball team stifled rival Gonzaga 3-2 (15-25, 25-19, 15-15, 23-25, 15-7) Thursday night. The Dons tallied 58 kills, their third-highest total of the season, to win their second WCC match of the season.
The Dons (11-6, 2-2 WCC) won their 11th match of the season behind the Heerlen, Netherlands native who hit a blistering .426 with eight digs to power USF to an impressive road win.
Jocelyn Levig continued her stellar senior campaign with 18 kills and seven digs on the night. Combined, de Vries and Levig accounted for 74 percent of the Dons' kills.
Thursday's match didn't start out as intended for USF, as the Bulldogs took the first set with relative ease, winning 25-15. The Dons jumped out to 2-0 lead, but after Gonzaga tied the score at 3-3, it wouldn't relinquish the lead. The Zags doubled the Dons kill total 18-9, while hitting .485 throughout the first set.
San Francisco quickly flipped the script, winning the second set 25-19 behind a dominant set from de Vries. The Dons never trailed throughout the second frame, keeping at least a three-point lead for the entire set. Five USF blocks and eight Gonzaga errors aided the Dons.
The Green and Gold jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the third, experiencing their most dominant set of the night. For the second consecutive set, the Dons never trailed, hitting a remarkable .379 compared to Gonzaga's .100.
Gonzaga would send the match into the fifth set with a narrow 25-23 win in the fourth. With the match tied 23-23, Bulldogs' middle blocker Kalista Takau put Gonzaga up by one with a kill before
Mackenzie Murtagh's set error gave Gonzaga the match.
The Dons took a quick 4-0 lead in the fifth set and wouldn't look back from there, winning by a convincing eight-point margin, 15-7. San Francisco registered nine kills compared to Gonzaga's three, while taking advantage of three aces in the deciding set.
USF will stay on the road for the next three matches, including a Saturday Oct. 6th matchup against Portland at 1:00 p.m.
