San Francisco, Calif. - Getting back on track to begin the second half of play in the WCC, the Tigers made short work of San Francisco on the road at War Memorial Gym as Pacific came up with a 3-0 sweep on Saturday, Oct. 24. The win netted Pacific its second-straight season sweep of the Dons as the Tigers improved to 5-5 in conference play and 14-7 overall while USF fell to 15-8 and 1-8 in the WCC.

Set scores for the match were: 25-20, 25-22, 25-21.

After a 4-0 run gave USF the early lead at 7-3, the Tigers were able to settle in defensively and respond with a six-point spurt that erased the deficit and put them in the lead for good. Normally scoring points from the net, junior Lexi Elman served the Tigers into the lead as her tough serve forced the Dons out of system where Pacific's block could control the play. During the initial run, the Tigers picked up back-to-back blocks by junior Alicja Wilk and senior Holland Crenshaw as the duo combined to get their hands on nearly every Don attack. Overall, Wilk and Crenshaw combined on four blocks in the set after not picking up a block on Thursday night while Crenshaw would finish off the frame with six blocks. 

Unlike the first set of the day, the second frame proved to be more of a back and forth fight as both offenses caught traction and began to pick apart holes in the opposition's defense. With each team hitting nearly .400 for the first half of the set, the contested set would come down to who made the first mistake. That mistake would come from the Dons as an unforced hitting error and the Tigers' first block of the set, this time from senior Kimmy Whitson and sophomore Janie Feldsher, gave Pacific some much needed breathing room at 19-16. The three-point cushion would be all the Tigers needed to to hold off the Dons as the two teams once again went back to trading points before a final kill out of sophomore Maycie LaBass finished off the set for the Tigers. 

In the third and on three different occasions, the Dons were able to grab a hold of three point leads as Pacific would fight back to within one before USF pulled back ahead. That all would finally change for the Tigers' midway through what would be the final set of the day when Pacific mounted a four-point rally that finally pushed the team over the hump and into the lead. Taking the big swings, LaBass came up with a pair of kills on the pin while sophomore Katrin Gotterba served the Dons' into a bad set to even the contest at 14-14. After trading points to 18-18, the Tigers finally broke free for good when Elman came up with a kill on an overpass and Whitson dropped in another ace on the back line to put Pacific up two late at 20-18. From there, the Tigers would close out the win, ending the day with another LaBass kill, her 10th of the match.

In the end, Elman led all attackers with 13 kills on .296 hitting while LaBass just missed the double-double as she added nine digs to go with her 10 kills. Defensively, the Tigers finished the match with 8.0 blocks led by Crenshaw's six and Wilk's four while Gotterba chipped in a team-best 10 digs. Leading the offense, Whitson pushed the attack to a WCC best .320 (45-12-103) in the match while also adding two kills, two blocks, and three aces.

For the Dons, Katarina Pilepic played even with Elman as she tallied 13 kills on .286 hitting while Oluoma Okaro in the middle matched LaBass with 10 kills. As a team, the Dons hit .233 and came up with 3.0 team blocks.

Pacific returns home on Thursday, Oct. 29, when the Tigers host Pepperdine at the Spanos Center. The match is scheduled for 7:00 pm.