TAMPA, Aug. 25, 2017 – The University of South Florida volleyball team took Northwestern to four sets in the opening match of the season but dropped Friday's USF Invitational contest, 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 27-29, 19-25).
 
Freshman Nikkia Benitez (Miami, Fla.) paced the Bulls (0-1) in the opening set with four kills, while senior setter Alex Mendoza (Minneola, Fla.) and junior setter Briana Stowell (Orlando, Fla.) each had four assists.
 
The Bulls took a 5-1 lead in the second set, but the Wildcats stormed back to take their second lead of the match at 12-11. The set went back and forth, and USF gained some separation when a Priscilla Ehieze (Houston, Texas) kill and a Wildcat error made it 22-18. But Northwestern tallied seven of the next eight points to tie the match at 1-1.
 
The Bulls came out on fire in the third set, leading 12-4 at one point before the Wildcats slowly battled back. Northwestern took its first edge of the set at 23-22. The Bulls extended the set facing match point twice thanks to kills from Benitez and classmate Doris Carter (Lexington, Ky.). Leading 27-26 following a Stowell ace, Northwestern scored the next three points to take a 2-1 lead.
 
The fourth set was another battle, with no side leading by more than one until midway through. The Bulls trailed 19-21 before five-straight Wildcat points sealed the match.
 
QUOTABLES:  

Head coach Courtney Draper on the match:
"There were some incredible plays tonight, a lot of long rallies, excellent defensive efforts that I hadn't yet seen during the preseason which made me really excited. The passing struggled early which made it difficult to feed the middles, and that's usually a big strength of our team.
 
Head coach Courtney Draper on the competitiveness of the team:
"We talk a lot about this refuse to lose attitude the team has this year, and that showed tonight with a lot of 50-50 balls that could have been kills but someone flies in to keep the rally alive. We had more blocks tonight, more digs, and fewer attacking errors so certainly plenty of opportunities that we couldn't take advantage of in the end. There are lot of positives to take away heading into tomorrow."   
 
KEY STATS

• Benitez led the Bulls with 11 kills.
• Ehieze and redshirt-junior middle blocker Clara Payne (Osteen, Fla.) added seven.
• Senior middle blocker Joli Holland (Dublin, Calif.) had a match-high five blocks.
• Mendoza led the Bulls with 22 assists.

UP NEXT
The USF Invitational resumes Saturday at noon when the Bulls take on UAPB. USF will then conclude the tournament against LSU at 7:00 p.m. The LSU match can be seen on Facebook Live.


About USF Volleyball
In addition to 10 newcomers, USF returns a slew of talent for 2017, led by senior setter Alex Mendoza, who surpassed the 2,000 assist total in 2016 and led the Bulls with 1,125 helpers. Redshirt-junior middle blocker Clara Payne finished second on the team with 340 points and senior middle blocker Joli Holland finished fourth with 251.5. The Bulls are guided by sixth-year head coach Courtney Draper. Follow the volleyball team on social media (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information.
 
 
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