TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 15, 2005) ? After losing six conference matches this season, the USF volleyball team posted its first-ever BIG EAST win, sweeping Georgetown, 3-0 (30-24, 30-12, 30-13), at The Corral Saturday afternoon.
The Bulls (2-14, 1-6 BIG EAST) were dominant in their first league win of the year, out-playing the Hoyas (5-14, 1-6 BIG EAST) all-around. USF had a stellar offensive outing, out-hitting Georgetown .310 to .083. This marked the first time this season that the Bulls hit over .300 and the first time USF held an opponent below .100. USF was hitting the ball hard throughout the match, netting 21 more kills that the Hoyas (49 to 28).
The USF defense started out the match with solid play and continued throughout all three games, forcing Georgetown into key misplays while coming up with defensive stops when needed, as the Bulls tallied 11 more digs (48-37) and three more blocks (6-3) than the Hoyas.
“I was really pleased with our execution today,” coach
Claire Lessinger said. “The girls did a really good job with first-ball contact in serves received and the defense we played was the best we have done all year, allowing us to transition kill really, really well and score points. I felt it was one of our very best matches putting everything together.
“I felt finally we got even distribution, and when Kristina (Fabris) went hard and got a big kill, and she went hard again then Kate (Verhoff) would set someone else?that's exactly what you want to happen. People were opening up and when they got the ball they terminated. It was an overall team effort.”
Sophomore
Michelle Stalbaum led the way for the Bulls, recording a 14-kill, 12-dig match while netting her 16th-career double-double. The Gainesville, Fla., native registered three aces ? all coming in the first game ? to pace USF in that category.
Kristina Fabris also had a solid outing, tying Stalbaum for the team high in kills, posting 14 while chipping in three block assists. Junior
Ashley Reavis tallied the highest hitting percentage for the team, converting 19 kills into eight attacks while not committing an attack error.
Game one started out with the Hoyas taking a 7-3 advantage. The Bulls kept chipping into the Georgetown's lead and used a run to score 21 points while only allowing the Hoyas to net seven points. The 10-point lead gave USF its largest advantage of the match, while the run sparked the Bulls offense as they closed out the game with the 30-24 win.
Game two featured a closer matchup as Georgetown would take a lead and the Bulls would tie it up through the majority of the game. After 10 tie scores and three lead changes which put the game at 19-19, the Bulls wore down Georgetown using an 11-2 run ? eight of which points were misplays by the Hoyas ? to close out the game for the second straight win, 30-21.
Looking for their first sweep of the year gong into game three, USF's offense was unstoppable, hitting .594 compared to Georgetown's .062 in route to a 30-13 dominating win, giving the Bulls their second win of the season. Although game three started out with five ties, the Bulls took control quickly. With the score 6-6, USF out-scored the Hoyas 24-7 the rest of the game thanks to hard-hitting by Stalbaum, Fabris and Reavis. In the game, Stalbaum hit an impressive .857, Fabris hit .583 and Reavis hit .500, and they combined to score 15 of USF's last 24 points in the game.
The Bulls will look to post their second-straight win of the season when they travel to face Jacksonville on Sunday at 2 p.m.
