TAMPA, Fla., October 6, 2025 – The University of South Florida beach volleyball team turned in an impressive overall performance in their first action of the fall at the AVCA Collegiate Beach Central Bid Tournament this weekend, showcasing depth and consistency across all flights. Competing in four pools — Bid Division, Aqua, Blue, and Pink — multiple Bulls pairs advanced deep into the brackets. The Bulls faced competition from Southern Miss, LSU, Texas A&M–Corpus Christi, Houston Christian, McNeese State, and New Orleans, with matches beginning Saturday morning.
 
AVCA Bid Division
In the AVCA Bid Championship Bracket, the USF pair of Abigail Lagemann and Emma Kate Stewart advanced through a competitive field featuring HCU, USM, and TAMU-CC. The Bulls pair battled their way into the top eight, earning a straight-set win over HCU (24–22, 21–18) and suffering a pair of losses before ultimately placing seventh overall after a weekend filled with hard-fought three-set matches.
 
Meanwhile, USF pair Isabella Almeida and Julia Panko topped the Bid 9th–16th Bracket, finishing fifth overall after strong victories over McNeese State, falling to HCU after three sets.
 
Aqua Pool
USF's duos shined in the Aqua pool, battling through a strong field featuring LSU, Texas A&M–Corpus Christi, Southern Miss, New Orleans and McNeese. The USF pair of Cornelia Crudu and Zoey Mitchell dominated the pool, defeating HCU and advancing past the USF pair of Sasha Pasloski and Josephine Sek in the semifinals. The pair's strong run ended in the championship match, where they fell in a hard-fought battle to LSU, finishing second overall. 
 
Pasloski and Sek followed closely behind, earning a third-place finish after a deep tournament run and a victory over USM.
 
Blue Pool
The Bulls continued to make their mark in the Blue Division, led by the USF Pair of Morgan Anderson and Alyx Zapatka, who narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth overall after falling to LSU and USM. Meanwhile, USF Pair of Addison Bounds and Lola Hufnagel turned in a strong weekend placing eighth overall with loses to TAMU-CC and McNeese State.
 
Pink Pool 
In the Pink Division, the USF Pair of Gabrielle Bissell and Ryann Genest secured a sixth-place finish in the division with a loss to LSU but a win against TAMU-CC (21-14) (21-19). The USF Pair of Tereza Lajkebová and Ariana Medchill also had a standout showing, sweeping TAMU–CC's duo in consolation play to finish fifth place overall, following a close loss to eventual champions LSU earlier in bracket play.

Up Next
South Florida continues its fall slate later this month on October 17 –18 at the AVCA Collegiate Beach East Bid Tournament in Wilmington, N.C., before traveling west to Huntington Beach, Calif., for the AVCA Collegiate Beach West Qualification on October 25–26.
 
 
About USF Beach Volleyball
The University of South Florida Beach Volleyball program is one of the newest sports at the university, bringing USF Athletics to a total of 21 teams and marking an exciting era for the Bulls. Pri Piantadosi-Lima was named South Florida's first-ever beach volleyball head coach on June 6, 2023. Coach Pri also serves as the head coach of the beach national team development program and was honored as the 2022 USA Volleyball Female Junior Coach of the Year. Before joining USF, she helped lead Eckerd College to its first AVCA national championship and two consecutive NCAA championship podium finishes. USF Beach Volleyball will join Conference USA effective July 1, 2025, and compete in exhibition-style matches until officially starting Division I competition during the 2025-2026 season. 

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