Note the later than usual 7:00pm start time.

We end this recent brutal 6-match stretch of our conference schedule on Friday, at home against South Florida, having won four of the last five matches. A win here would position us nicely for the final 4 regular season matches. Though 3 of the 4 are on the road, Tulane is the only good team on paper. UTSA, Temple and Charlotte all have .500 or worse records.

USF comes into Tudor with an overall 7-13 record (6-4 AAC, 1-6 road, 2-9 road/neutral). However, that's somewhat deceiving as they played the 8th best OOC schedule in the country (even tougher than ours)-- against 6 ranked teams, another 2 receiving votes, and yet another making the NCAA tourney last year. That's 9 of their 11 non-conference matches. They're 6-3 in their last 9 AAC matches, with all 3 losses coming in closely played 5-setters. They also beat FAU in a 5-setter. So they're extremely battle tested and much better than their overall record would suggest. Let's not forget they blew us out in a 3-0 sweep at home earlier this months, holding us to just .113 hitting while hitting .337 themselves and collecting 10 blocks and 8 aces. Here's the box score of that ugly match...

https://gousfbulls.com/sports/womens-vol...core/14523

USF is led by the likely conference Freshman of the Year, their 6'1" OH Paula Tomasa from Argentina, who's a 6-rotation starter and leads the team in kills, is 2nd in blocks and 3rd in digs. Also of note, they rank 16th in the country in blocks, averaging a robust 2.8 blocks/set. Overall, they're hitting only .126 on the season (due largely to their tough OOC schedule) and average a very pedestrian 12.6 digs/set.

Time for payback. We need to bring the same backline defense that highlighted the final 3 sets against Tulane, with some semblance of a presence in the block, while being more aggressive and efficient offensively. Time to play more consistently. Will be interesting to see if Genny goes with Skopal or Bello to start the match. Skopal is better defensively; Bello is better offensively and on the serve. Just win, baby!