USF Volleyball Suffers Sweep at No. 21 Santa Clara

Oct. 26, 2006

(Santa Clara) - USF opened the second half of the West Coast Conference season with a 3-0 loss at No. 21 Santa Clara, 30-18, 30-21, 30-22 Thursday night at the Leavey Center. The Dons (19-6, 3-5 WCC) could not slow down a hot-hitting Broncos (15-5, 5-3 WCC) squad as their three-match league winning streak came to an end.

No USF player reached double-digit kills as the team hit at a .110 pace for the match. Junior outside hitter Kristin Hasselberg tallied eight kills and six digs to lead the Dons, while sophomore outside hitter Susan Bednarova added six kills on .455 hitting.

Freshman libero Haley Carroll, the reigning WCC Player of the Week, was a definite bright spot for San Francisco, with a career-high five service aces to go along with a match-high 12 digs. Sophomore defensive specialist also did a solid job for the Dons with an ace and four digs.

San Francisco struggled from the start, trailing 13-5. From there, Santa Clara went on a 17-8 run taking a 24-13 lead at the Dons second timeout. The Broncos hit at a .351 pace while the Dons managed a .062 clip in game one.

USF played well in stretches of game two, jumping out to a 5-2 lead. The Broncos roared back and broke out of a 6-6 tie by reeling off 11 consecutive points to seize a 17-7 advantage. San Francisco made a late run behind some strong serving from Woo, who served five straight points, with a pair of aces to help the Green and Gold close to within four, 22-18. The Broncos recovered to close out the Dons, rolling on an 8-3 run to take a two games to none advantage into the intermission.

Hasselberg led the way for USF in game two with six kills. San Francisco could find no solution to Brittany Lowe, who recorded five kills and three aces in the second frame as Santa Clara hit at a .486 percentage with 20 kills and just three errors on 35 attempts.

San Francisco played its best set in game three. After trailing 18-13, the Dons roared back to within one at 20-19. It was all Broncos from there as they used a 10-3 burst to seal the game and match.

USF returns to action when it travels to No. 18 San Diego for a showdown against the undefeated Toreros Saturday afternoon at the Leavey Center. Match time against USD is set for 1:00 PM.