Sophomore outside hitter Maria Clara Andrade set a new career-high of 24 kills in the University of South Florida volleyball team (14-10, 8-5 The American) five-set win over the Temple Owls (15-10, 5-8The American) on Thursday night.
The Bulls won with scores of 20-25, 29-27, 25-18, 21-25, and 15-5.
Andrade was joined by Marta Cvitkovic and Buse Hazan for double-digit kills. Cvitkovic followed Andrade with 17, while Hazan finished with 14. Hazan and Andrade also finished with a double-double. Caroline Dykes dished out 52 assists. Freshman libero Miya Thomas tied Hazan with 15 digs to lead the team. Niki Khoshatefeh and Hazan had two solo blocks.
South Florida fell behind early with Temple taking a 13-7 lead. The Bulls closed the gap, but the Owls took set one.
The Bulls were off to a slow start in set two but closed the gap to one with a 6-1 run. Temple was two points away from taking a two-set lead, but South Florida battled back and tied the set at one each.
South Florida carried the late momentum from set two into set three. The Bulls' late 6-2 run increased their lead to five points. South Florida cruised through the remainder of the set, holding Temple to five kills.
The Bulls and Owls traded points throughout the entirety of the fourth set. Temple went on a late 7-2 run to close out the fourth set and send it to extra volleyball.
South Florida came out on fire in the final set, taking an 8-5 lead. From there, it was all Green and Gold as the Bulls closed out the match with a 7-0 run.
The Owls will look to even the series on Friday at noon ET. The rest of the league will be in action beginning at 6 p.m. ET. The full schedule can be found
here.