Oct. 25, 2008

Box Score

(San Francisco) - Down by five late in the fourth set, the USF women's volleyball team rallied to post a 26-24, 23-25, 25-16, 26-24 victory over No. 15 Pepperdine Saturday in West Coast Conference action Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Gym. The win snapped the Dons' (17-4 overall, 7-0 WCC) 29-match losing streak to the Waves (16-3 overall, 4-3 WCC) and marks only the second time USF in program history that the Dons have prevailed over Pepperdine. The last time San Francisco had defeated Pepperdine was a 3-2 decision in 1993.

USF posted a strong rally in the fourth set to secure the victory. Down 22-17, Darcy Carroll served four straight points to narrow the gap to 22-21. Following two Wave points and a kill by Alix Gombos, Pepperdine jumped back out to a 24-22 lead and were in sight of taking the set. The Dons halted the Waves looming victory thanks to a big block by Sarah Mandala, Addie Webster and Gombos. Haley Carroll then took the ball for USF and served three straight points thanks to the efforts of Carly Babin. Babin and Mandala tied the score 24-24 with a block before Babin gave the Dons a 25-24 edge with a kill. San Francisco captured the victory with a block by Webster and Babin to close out the match.

"I have told the girls that I am proud of them and everything we have done this year," said head coach Gilad Doron. "We knew that we were going to face a very very tough team today - a team that we haven't had much success against in a long time. After dropping set two, I told the girls `lets just take it one play at a time and not to let it get into our heads'. We came out really well in set three and in set four we had our backs against the wall. Down 22-17, we told ourselves we aren't going to lose this one and I just had to back off and let them do their job. We got a couple big blocks when we needed it the most. We out blocked them, we out aced them, we out hit them. That's what we wanted to do. We wanted to win the offensive and defensive game and we did that. Anytime you can out block a team that's bigger than you it is pretty impressive."

Thanks to the rally and victory, USF extended its current win streak to 10 matches with the victory and also improved to 12-1 when playing on the Hilltop. The Dons also remained perfect in league play and currently sit atop the conference with an unscratched 7-0 record. Dating back to the end of last season, USF has won its last nine league contests.

The victory marked the third time in as many weeks that San Francisco has defeated a ranked team marking a program first. Prior to this season, the Dons had never defeated more than two ranked teams in a season. The last time USF accomplished the feat was in 2003, the year of the Dons lone NCAA Tournament appearance, when it defeated then-No. 19 Washington State and then-No. 21 San Diego.

"When I first came to USF one of my goals was to beat every WCC team in a year," commented Doron. "In my second year here to win at Santa Clara, beat Pepperdine, San Diego and Saint Mary's at their home, is a remarkable achievement. This team doesn't want to stop here, we want to go farther. We can do that if we stay together, play hard and keep improving. We'll see how the second round of WCC goes; it can't get much better than the first."

San Francisco came out firing from the start as the Dons hit over .350 in three of the four sets including hitting at a .412 clip in the first set. For the afternoon, USF hit .333 while holding Pepperdine to a .259 average, including a .143 clip in the final set.

Opposite hitter Mandala paced USF with 17 kills on .407 hitting. The sophomore also recorded an assist, two service aces, five digs and five blocks. Senior outside hitter Addie Webster and junior outside hitter Anna Berger each added 11 kills. Webster also posted two assists, nine digs and three blocks, while Berger tacked on six digs and a block.

Gombos recorded a match-high .571 hitting average with eight kills. Babin posted nine kills and six blocks for the Dons.

Senior setter Darcy Carroll dished out 38 assists and three service aces, while sophomore setter Alaina Sully added 11. Junior libero Haley Carroll recorded a match-high 23 digs for San Francisco.

"We had great contributions from everyone," said Doron. "Haley had a good game; Darcy had a very good game serving wise which helped us down the stretch. But again, you can't point out one player. I think we have different players step up at different times."

Pepperdine was led by Julie Rubenstein who recorded a match-high 21 kills on a team-high .326 hitting percentage. Rachel Lumsden was the only other Wave to record double-digit kills with 18.

USF will open the second half of league play next week as it travels to Spokane and Portland. Thursday, the Dons will play the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. before facing off with the Pilots Saturday at 1 p.m.