TAMPA - Combining a strong offensive effort with active play away from the ball, the Bulls (13-10 overall, 5-5 BIG EAST) overpowered St. John's Sunday, finishing off their longest homestand of the season with a four-set win, 25-17, 21-25, 26-24, 25-12.

USF hit .361 in the match, including a .517 clip in the fourth set, while holding St. John's to .190. The Bulls also covered against the block well, limiting the Red Storm to two blocks.

"I was really proud of our performance in the first and fourth sets," head coach Courtney Draper said. "St. John's is a great team, and their middles were on fire. We struggled to stop them early, but did a better job of it later in the match."

After splitting the first two sets, the Bulls got off to a slow start in the third, trailing 14-5. In danger of losing the set, freshman Erin Fairs knocked out seven kills in 15 attempts to help lead USF back into the set, finishing the third with three consecutive kills to set the tone for the fourth set.

"One thing about this team is, they are fighters," Draper said. "They aren't going to give the other team easy points, and once they get on a roll, there was no looking back."

The Bulls sided out at 92 percent in the fourth set, pulling ahead early and distancing themselves to ensure their fifth conference win.

Fairs led the team with 17 kills, hitting .371 and adding 16 digs. Junior Kayla Walton and freshman Ciara Brown contributed 12 kills each, while Valerie El Houssine and Andrea Rodriguez Gomez added nine kills each.

Rodriguez Gomez, Brown and Walton all hit over .400 in the match, and had five, four and four blocks, respectively.

Senior libero Claudia Cabrera led the Bulls defensively with 17 digs.