Box Score
PROVO, Utah – Despite a first set that went deep into extra points, the San Francisco women's volleyball team fell 3-0 to No. 24 BYU at Smith Fieldhouse Saturday.
The Dons pushed the first set of the afternoon match with a see-saw battle to open the day. A
Katarina Pilepic kill opened the frame before the first tie of the game was seen just one point later. All told, there were 18 points in the first set in which the score between the West Coast Conference-leading Cougars and the Dons was knotted.
Neither team led in the frame by more than three points, and the widest gap was after an
Inbar Vinarsky attack error put BYU ahead 17-14. But as was the custom of the opening set, USF scored the next three to push for the tie. The Cougars edged out to a two-point advantage after a Kathryn LeCheminant kill put the home team ahead 23-21 and forced head coach
Gilad Doron to take a timeout.
The break in the action was timely, as an
Emily Reed kill followed by a strike from
Ester de Vries made the score 23-23. The match was tied yet again at 25 and later at 26 before BYU's Camry Godfrey was called for a ball handling error to give USF its last lead of the day at 27-26. Alexa Gray put together a string of three straight kills to ice the set at 29-27 in favor of the Cougars.
The second and third sets both went to BYU by a score of 25-15 to send the Dons home with their second straight road loss against Top 25 ranked opponents. A slow start to the second doomed the Dons, as USF fell behind by a score of 10-3 and couldn't manage to make up any ground. The third set stayed close until BYU went on a 12-3 run in the middle of the frame to extend their lead to 20-10 before eventually picking up the straight-set victory.
The Dons were paced by Pilepic's 10 kills, the only USF player to record a double-digit kill tally. This marks the 11th 10-plus kill match for the freshman from Novi Vonidolski, Croatia, on the season. Senior
Mackenzie Murtagh's 18 sets and 12 digs from fellow upperclassman
Rebecca Kopilovitch rounded out the team leaders on the day. For the Cougars, Gray combined with Tambre Haddock to account for 31 kills in the match to lead the way in the win.
With the loss, the Dons move to 7-10 (3-4 WCC) on the season, while BYU continues to stay atop the conference leaderboard after improving to an undefeated 7-0 in league matches and 14-3 overall.
The Dons return home to the friendly confines of War Memorial Gym for three-straight matches against Bay Area foes, starting with Thursday's tussle with Saint Mary's at 6:30 p.m.
