SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco volleyball team competed well early on Saturday in its second match of the week against an opponent receiving national recognition in the polls, but visiting Loyola Marymount survived a close first set on its way to a 3-0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-17) West Coast Conference sweep over the Dons at the War Memorial at Sobrato Center.



HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Francisco (8-7, 1-3 WCC) would not go away in the first set, staying right with the Lions (13-3, 3-2 WCC) the whole way. The set featured 11 tie scores and three lead changes, while neither team ever led by more than three points. Even after LMU took multiple-point leads late in the set at 22-20 and 23-21, the Dons came back to tie it at both 23-23, and again at 24-24. But Bo Culo took care of business for the Lions, putting down a kill and serving up an ace on back-to-back points to close out the 26-24 set victory.
   
• The Lions got into a groove from there. USF again was battling early in the second set, but a 9-2 run midway through turned what was a 9-7 score into an 18-9 advantage for LMU. Two more aces and two more kills from Culo helped power the Lions during the run, as they went on to win the set, 25-16, and take a 2-0 match lead.
   
• Loyola Marymount looked like it was going to put the match away early in the third set, going on a 7-1 run with four kills from Savannah Slattery to jump out to a 7-2 lead. But back came USF again, never accepting what was on the scoreboard and continuing to battle. The Dons made it a two-point set at 10-8 by scoring six of the next nine points with kills from three different players and three LMU errors.
   
• The Lions snapped back with a quick 6-2 spurt that put them back up by six at 16-10. One last push by San Francisco made it a five-point difference at 21-16 thanks to three LMU errors over a four-point period, but the Lions were able to to score four of the last five points to clinch the match with a 25-17 set victory.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 3: The Lions had three players with double-digit kills. Savannah Slattery led all players with 14 kills, though she also had the most attack errors in the match with eight (.207 hitting).
• 35: The Dons were able to keep pace with LMU defensively thanks to a combined total of 35 attack, service and blocking errors. Loyola Marymount had more than twice as many attack errors and double the amount of service errors as USF did.

COMING UP

• The Dons leave the Bay Area next week for the first time in WCC play, as they travel to the Pacific Northwest to face Portland (Thursday) and Gonzaga (Saturday). Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.