University of South Florida
Villanova
USF Volleyball Headed to the BIG EAST Tournament
November 16, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
TAMPA - - The theme for this 2008 University of South Florida volleyball team is "A Time To Celebrate". After today's match came to a conclusion, the Bulls got to enjoy the celebration they have focused in on up to this point in the season.
In a must win situation to play in the postseason, USF battled hard with a quality Villanova team and after four close sets, the Bulls pulled out the dramatic victory, 25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23.
At 7-7 in BIG EAST play, the Bulls will be playing next Friday at the Fitzgerald Field House in Pittsburgh, Pa. in the BIG EAST Championships. USF will enter the tournament as the No. 8 seed and will face the St. John's Red Storm. It will be the Bulls third consecutive appearance in the tournament.
" I think we showed a lot of character today," said USF head coach
Claire Lessinger. "For our team to come out and play the way they did,
with nothing but pressure on them, showed a lot about their pride.
Things we have worked for all year we were able to put into a product
out on the court."
USF moved up to 17-12 overall on the season and will still have one more regular season contest this season, coming on Nov. 26 at home against FIU.
For Villanova, its season ends with a 14-16 record while going 5-9 in league play.
On senior day for libero Stephanie Augustavo, outside hitter Cynthia Danthon and middle blocker Nakia Williams, all three of the student-athletes were in the starting lineup and played a key role in the big victory.
Augustavo tied for the match-high in digs with 16 and also helped out with five assists throughout the four sets.
Danthon neared her second career double-double of her career by adding up 11 kills and eight digs against the Wildcats. Danthon served up a pair of aces and also had two block assists.
"Cynthia has been so great for us and she came up big at crucial
times. Her passing and defense was great all weekend and she came up
clutch offensively in key points," said Lessinger.
Williams tallied 13 kills on just 27 attacks while dominating the net with a match-high seven blocks. The native of Bowie, Md. had 29 kills on the weekend and will head back to Pittsburgh where at the time, set her career-high in kills.
Junior outside hitter Marcela Gurgel had 20 kills (5.0 p/s) and 12 digs for another double-double on her impressive season. She also had two aces to bring the total to 71 (0.66 p/s) for the season.
Allie Boaz rounded out the quartet of players in double-digit kills for the match. The sophomore had a dozen kills and a career-high five digs.
In the middle, Alli Arbogast hit at a .364 attack percentage and had five kills, three digs and two blocks. The junior from St. Louis hit .571 on the weekend with 18 kills and 14 total blocks.
Mariana Thon eclipsed the century mark in assists for the weekend with 42 of her 102 coming today. Thon also dug nine attacks and had a pair of blocks.
Villanova, who entered the match as the best overall serving team in the conference based on aces per set, were held to just two aces during the match thanks to a good passing match by the Bulls.
Morgan Petkovich and Maggie Mergen led the offensive charge for the Wildcats with 18 and 15 kills respectively.
Tentatively, the match time for USF-St. John's is set for 12:30 p.m. eastern time. The BIG EAST Conference will be running a live video stream and USF will also be bringing the audio stream to Pittsburgh and patch it into Press Pass. Fans can visit the Championship Central Web site HERE.
"I think what we did this weekend was exactly what we needed," said Lessinger. Now we're 0-0 and the way this league is, any given team can win on any given night and we have confidence now. Let's go upset number one."
