The Missouri State volleyball team rallied from a 2-0 deficit against the University of San Francisco but fell in the fifth set by a 15-9 score in the team’s season opener Friday evening at the Long Beach State Invitational inside the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.
Scores in favor of USF were 25-16, 25-12, 20-25, 23-25 and 15-9, sending the Bears to 0-1 on the season. The Dons evened their record at 1-1.
MSU bolted to a 7-3 lead in set four and kept the lead between two and four until the Dons cut the lead to 10-9. The Bears responded with a 3-0 run, capped by a service ace from hometown favorite
Terri Del Conte, her third of the match. USF came back to tie the set at 16-16 and again at 19-all after the Bears led by two.
Bethany Fuller squeezed in a kill and Del Conte aced the Dons again for a 21-19 lead, but USF came back yet again for the tie and got the lead at 22-21. Fuller pounded another kill to knot the score at 23-apiece and
Cara Hackmann and
Addie Foley combined to stuff a USF attack and get to set point and did it again to send the match to a deciding fifth set.
San Francisco grabbed the early momentum in the fifth set, taking a 5-2 lead and keeping the Bears at arm’s length less a point with the score at 5-4. The Dons pulled away late for the 15-9 win.
Missouri State found itself in an early 11-4 hole in the first set before a USF service error ignited a 4-0 MSU run. The Dons answered with a run of their own to extend the lead back to 15-8. The teams traded points and the Bears reeled off five in a row to force a USF timeout with the Dons leading 16-14. San Francisco came out of the stoppage and scored seven straight points to get two away from winning at 23-14, and went on the claim the 25-16 victory.
USF continued the run into the second set and jumped out to a 9-1 lead. The Bears got as close as four points at 9-5 and 10-6, but the Dons kept the pressure on and built the lead to 14-7. MSU stayed within striking distance until USF ran the score to 20-10 and cruised to the 25-12 win to go into intermission with a 2-0 lead.
The teams traded 5-1 runs to start the third set to tie at 6-6 and traded points back-and-forth to 11-all before the Bears finally got some breathing room at 15-12. USF within one but a 5-0 push by the Bears put the team up 20-14 and a tip by USF that snuck over the net and landed out of bounds gave MSU the 25-20 win.
Sara Staubach led MSU with 15 kills while Fuller added six without an error on .400 hitting. Del Conte led the way defensively with 21 digs.
The Bears play two matches Saturday, beginning with Indiana at 1 p.m. and finishing with 24th-ranked Long Beach State at 9 p.m. Central.
