By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA – The USF volleyball team was placed into a five-set pressure cooker and rose to the occasion Friday night.
The Bulls reached match point five times before J'beria Davis put the hammer down on a 23-25, 25-19, 25-18, 20-25, 21-19 victory over Connecticut before a crowd of 478 at a rocking USF recreation center.
“This is why this sport is incredible,” USF head coach Claire Lessinger said. “The momentum shifts, the changes in lead. You can just feel it when a team kind of takes over.”
USF (7-10, 3-2 in Big East) decided to take over in the second set. Three straight UConn errors gave USF a 12-9 advantage and the Bulls never trailed on the way to evening up the match. The USF defense was in command during the set by holding the Huskies to a negative .030 hitting percentage.
The Bulls were back at it in the third set and grabbed a 12-11 lead on a kill by
Valerie El Houssine, who finished with a match-high 21.
“Both sides couldn't play any defense because the offense was being done so well,” Lessinger said.
USF cruised to a 25-18 victory in the third and had to endure a furious comeback by UConn in the fourth set.
“Riding into the fifth, you just hope both teams give everything they have and that was a display,” Lessinger said.
A service ace by
Andrea Rodriguez Gomez set up USF's first match point at 15-14 and
Kayla Walton set the Bulls up for another with a kill that put the score at 16-15.
UConn (9-10, 0-5) tied the set two more times before Walton came up big with a thunderous block to give the Bulls a 20-19 lead.
“To get that one big block to get us another shot at match point I think was the deal sealer,” Lessinger said.
That set up Davis for a kill she finessed over the net that served as an exclamation mark to USF's huge conference statement.
“This is when we see what this group is capable of even though they're young,” Lessinger said. “When they can play like that in that type of pressure, in this type of environment with a lot on the line, that's when you see what they're capable of.”
Dailey finished just three kills shy of a triple-double with 51 assists and 12 digs. Walton came through with 15 kills and Janice Rivera was in double-digits again with 18 digs.
The Bulls will look to build off Friday's thriller in another home match Sunday against St. John's at 2 p.m.
