SAN FRANCISCO - The UC San Diego women's volleyball team won its third-straight match Friday, holding on to defeat the University of San Francisco in five sets on the road.

Scores from War Memorial Gym were 25-14, 25-19, 12-25, 20-25, and 15-8.

UC San Diego is now 3-7 in its first season as an NCAA Division I team. USF remains winless at 0-8.

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HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego used a 5-0 scoring run in the final set to seal the victory. In fact, tied at 7-7, the Tritons scored eight of the final nine points in the frame. During that span, Ava McInnes had two kills while Grace Cannon and Emily McDaniel each had a kill and a block. Prior to the winning run, the score was tied five times.

UC San Diego held a comfortable 2-0 lead in the match, winning the opening set 25-14 and the second set 25-19. Over those two sets, the Tritons hit .306, including .355 in the first stanza. In the first, they took a 5-4 advantage on a Trinity Castaneda kill and stayed in front the rest of the way. It was the same story in the second. A service error by the Dons gave UC San Diego a 4-3 lead and again the Tritons remained ahead for the rest of the set. A six-point run put them up 14-6 and USF couldn't make up any ground.

At that point, San Francisco flipped the script and led the entire way in sets three and four. The Dons flew out to a 5-0 advantage in the third and a 4-0 lead in the fourth. UC San Diego's offense slumped as it hit -.014 over the two sets.

Fortunately, the Tritons returned to their earlier form in the fifth and deciding period, hitting .471 with nine kills and a single error in 17 attack attempts.

For the match, the Tritons finished at .181 (55-26-160). The Dons posted a .119 (39-21-151) attack. UC San Diego held a 55-39 advantage in kills on the night, while San Francisco had sizable advantages in service aces (9-3) and blocks (10-6).

McDaniel and McInnes each finished with 13 kills. McDaniel led the Tritons with 16 points by adding five blocks (one solo). She also collected six digs. McInnes was just behind with 15.5 points with an ace and three block assists to add to her kill total. She had seven digs as well. Sabire Karacaova totaled 11 kills, a season-high for the freshman. Setter Isabela Dobra logged 44 assists and 20 digs, while Naya Dong, the reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Week, paced the Tritons defensively with 21 digs.

USF got 14 kills from Shyia Richardson and 26 digs from Letizia Aquilino. Both of those totals were match-highs.

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QUOTABLE FROM HEAD COACH RICCI LUYTIES
We came out doing a lot of good things in the first two sets. We were serving them tough and scoring off of our defensive plays. The big turnaround was when our serving got easier and their serving got tougher. Volleyball is almost always about serving and passing and the first four sets were won by the team that was doing those two things better.

The fifth set was about making big plays. Everyone on the court came through with a play to help the team win. It was really nice to see them make those plays to win a tight match.

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TRITON TIDBITS
• It was the third five-setter for the Tritons this season, who are now 1-2 when going the distance.
• UC San Diego's .181 hitting percentage was its third-best of the season.
• Isabela Dobra recorded her fourth double-double of the season.

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UP NEXT
UC San Diego plays one more non-conference match before opening its first-ever Big West campaign. The Tritons commute from San Francisco to San Jose and take on San Jose State Saturday at 1 p.m. On Sept. 24, they play their inaugural Big West match at UC Santa Barbara.

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.