TAMPA, Fla. ? In its home opener Thursday night, the University of South Florida volleyball team extended its win streak to six matches with a 3-0 (30-21, 30-25, 30-26) sweep of in-state foe Central Florida.
With the victory, the Bulls record improves to 6-1, while the Golden Knights' drops to 6-6.
In front of a near capacity crowd at The Corral, USF opened the Best Western Tournament on a winning note with a 1-0 slate. The Bulls will look to continue their momentum into Friday's action against Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. in hopes of capturing their second tournament title.
“Our girls have been real geared up for this home opener, especially being against UCF which is such a big in-state rivalry,” coach Claire Lessinger said. “To walk into a packed house like this, you just can't really explain what the girls felt on the court tonight. That environment is so motivating and I am really appreciative of the people that came out, as well as our marketing department that helped promote this match.”
On the night, Marcela Gurgel led the Bulls' offense with 11 kills, while Kristina Fabris led the team defensively with 13 digs.
Sophomore Alli Arbogast continued her strong blocking effort and led all players on the court with 5.0 blocks.
Although the Bulls didn't have their best offensive showing on the night, their offensive attack out-played UCF, hitting .162 to the Golden Knights' .043. in addition, the Golden Knights were forced into committing 31 attacking errors, slowing their momentum.
USF's success on the evening was its play at the net and its serving. Although the Bulls tallied 9.0 total blocks to UCF's 6.0, USF slowed the Golden Knights rhythm by stopping the ball at the net and continuing play on UCF's side. The Bulls were also strategic in their serving and tallied nine aces, four by Gurgel.
“I was just really pleased with our serving and blocking,” Lessinger said. “I thought that was where we scored points tonight. We could have done a little better on defending their best attacker, who still hit well, but I really loved the energy that our kids brought to the floor tonight in front of this crowd and hopefully we can get this crowd back for tomorrow.”
In the end, the Bulls came out on top because they limited their mistakes and didn't make costly errors, committing 21 fewer errors than UCF.
