A big road win just barely slipped through the fingers of the University of South Florida volleyball team.

USF (10-8 overall, 2-3 BIG EAST) missed its opportunity to close out Syracuse on the road Friday afternoon, dropping a 2-1 match lead to lose to the Orange in five, 25-19, 17-25, 15-25, 25-23, 16-14.

The Bulls led in nearly every statistical category, giving the Orange their only real edge in the serving game. Syracuse used its 11 service aces to its advantage however, ending the match on an ace to take down the Bulls after fighting off match-point just two plays earlier.

After committing 10 hitting errors in a first-set loss, USF's offense turned things around in the second. The Bulls pounded out 17 kills and hit .433 on the heels of five kills from junior Kayla Walton, and four kills apiece from junior Andrea Rodriguez Gomez and freshman Ciara Brown.

Brown finished with nine kills and hit .292, continuing to be a consistent target on the right side for setter Wylie Devlin. USF received its largest chunk of offense from freshman outside hitter Erin Fairs however, as Fairs tied a career-high with 17 kills, while hitting a team-best .308 in the match. The only other Bull to reach double-digit kills would be Walton, who finished with 10 kills.

Fairs served the Bulls to an 11-0 run in the third set to help USF cruise to its most lopsided set of the day, then posted eight kills in the final two sets, accounting for 40 percent of the Bulls' offense as USF fell just shy in the fourth as well as the fifth.

Defensively, the Bulls looked strong up front, out-blocking Syracuse 16-12 as Walton and senior Caitlyn Breen contributed eight blocks each. The Orange out-dug USF by a slim margin, 59-55, but Bulls' senior libero led all players with 19 digs in the match.