TAMPA - The University of South Florida volleyball team (0-5) dropped three sets (24-26, 25-27, 23-25) to Bowling Green (6-0) at the USF Volleyball Invitational Saturday night. With a 4-0 record in the tournament, Bowling Green clinched the tournament title, which will conclude with two matches tomorrow.
The Bulls controlled the beginning of each set as they led up until the 20-point mark in all three games. However, a pesky Bowling Green squad rallied late to secure the victory in three sets.
“We are so good up to 20,” head coach Claire Lessinger said. “That's what we are going to focus on in practice this week. We need to focus on situational scoring drills where we are putting our girls in that crunch time environment. We are making some of our worst errors in the last five points of the match and its really costing us. But this team is ready for a breakthrough. I want nothing more than this team to get that first “W” under their belt because they are working hard and we can see that training translate onto the court.”
Sophomore
Kayla Walton and freshman
Valerie El Houssine accounted for 20 of the team's 34 kills with a pair of double-digit kill performances. Senior libero Janice Rivera notched 11 digs for the match, raising her career total to 871.
Junior setter
Jessica Burghart tallied 14 assists through the opening two frames. Freshman
Shelbie Dailey provided a spark for the Bulls in the third game as she collected 14 assists while leading the team to its best hitting percentage of the night at .265.
USF followed up its blocking frenzy against UMES earlier in the day (19.5) with eight team blocks in the nightcap. Senior
Kimika Rozier had four block assists and one solo block to help the Bulls out-block its opponent for the fifth consecutive game this season.
The Bulls will play its final match of the USF Volleyball Invitational Sunday against Bethune-Cookman at 2 p.m.
