Box Score
STOCKTON, Calif. - The San Francisco Dons fell to a surging Pacific offense 3-1 at the Spanos Center Thursday night.
The Tigers, who had been managing only a .208 attack percentage on the season, nearly doubled their usual offensive output against the Dons. Pacific hit .390 for the match, a conference high for the team in its inaugural West Coast Conference season.
USF got a 15-kill effort on .448 hitting by
Malina Terrell, and freshman
Katarina Pilepic again paced the Dons with 16 total kills. A trio of setters,
Mackenzie Murtagh,
Jurja Vlasic and
Kiara McKibben, notched double-digit assists with Murtagh's 17 leading the way on the night.
Rebecca Kopilovitch added 12 digs and
Anja Segota finished with 10 in the loss.
The Dons won the first set 25-23, in a see-saw battle that saw the teams tied up on 15 occasions with seven lead changes. In total on the night, the Dons and Tigers had a knotted score 33 times in the four-set match. The final tie score in the first frame came as the two were deadlocked at 23 apiece. A kill from Terrell off the assist from Murtagh put the Dons at set point and forced the Tigers to take a timeout. After the break in the action, Segota set Pilepic for the kill and the early lead in the contest.
USF trailed early in the second set before breaking a 4-4 tie with a kill by Terrell followed by an ace for the senior from Richmond, Calif. However, the Tigers regained the lead off a block from Gillian Howard and Alicja Wilk put the score at 9-8 and never trailed again in the frame. Howard, who is ranked 10th in the nation in blocks per set, finished the evening with nine assisted blocks for the Tigers, as the team tallied 10 total denials in the match. Pacific went on to win the second 25-20 and took the third in wire-to-wire fashion, 25-18, after hitting .576 in the frame.
USF scored first in the fourth, but the momentum built by the home team was too much to handle in the final set of the night. An 8-1 run finished by a Howard kill put the score at 17-9. The Dons battled to close the gap to 21-18 and edged even closer as Pacific had match point. With the score at 24-20,
Valentina Zaloznik got the solo block to continue the set. She powered home a kill on the ensuing play as the Dons called a strategic timeout as the scoreboard read 24-22. But after the break, Pacific's Megan Birch finished the set and the match to give the Tigers their first win since Oct. 17.
With the defeat, USF moves to 11-14 (7-8 WCC) on the year, while Pacific improves to 12-14 (5-10 WCC).
The Dons face off with their final foe away from War Memorial Gym in a Saturday matinee, as USF takes on Bay Area rival Saint Mary's at 2 p.m.
