The Fletch Report: November 13th, 2023
Your Weekly Newsletter Recapping USF Olympic Sports
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8 Minutes, 37 Seconds of readingWelcome back to The (regularly scheduled and not delayed) Fletch Report, your go-to weekly newsletter dedicated to bringing you the latest on University of South Florida's Olympic Sports. In this concise and informative newsletter, we'll dive into the highlights of the previous week's athletic events and matches, while also offering a glimpse of what's on the horizon.
USF Weekly Honors
With the closure of USF soccer teams, honors were a plenty this week for USF athletics:
The men’s soccer season wrapped up, and three Bulls were honored with all-conference Ajmeer Spengler and Jalen Anderson both received All-Conference first-team honors.
Additionally, Pedro Faife was unanimously selected to the All-Rookie team
Maria Clara Andrade was named AAC offensive player of the week for women’s volleyball.
Alvin Tudorica (get ready to hear this name a lot in the spring) was named AAC Men’s Tennis player of the month for the month of October.
USF Women’s Basketball: The Road has Begun
With the conclusion of the soccer teams, we set our sights on the two marquee winter teams starting up in Tampa, with women’s and men’s basketball getting their seasons underway officially. We’ll feature the men’s and women’s basketball team here, and continue to follow the volleyball team as their season is in it’s final stages.
Tamed the Mavericks: USF women’s basketball got their season underway last Monday with a matchup against University of Texas-Arlington at the Yuengling Center.
- If the name sounds familiar, UTA was the team who defeated USF in 2021 when the Bulls were ranked #15 and coming off back-to-back victories over then ranked #9 Oregon and #5 Stanford.
- UTA stunned USF 61-56 in Arlington in a game that felt like the Bulls played a few steps behind the entire time.
This story would unfold differently however, with USF defeating the Mavericks 76-61 in the home opener. Daniela Gonzalez went for 16 points to lead the Bulls and grabbed 6 rebounds in 30 minutes of action. True freshman Vittoria Blasigh came out the gate on fire, gathering 15 points in her first collegiate action. USF would go wire-to-wire here and didn’t allow the Mavericks to pursue any true momentum, 12 different Bulls got playing time in the opener, allowing Jose to see a bevy of different lineups and styles using the international flavor that we have come to expect.
Notably, the Bulls out rebounded UTA 52-34 but struggled behind the arc, hitting only four 3s on 17 attempts.
Sluggish Against the Hatters: On Friday afternoon, the Bulls had an uncharacteristic tip off against Stetson at 4 p.m. in the Foam Dome. It wasn’t the tip off time itself, but both USF and Stetson really struggled to produce any sort of cohesion in both teams’ second games of the season.
USF would prevail in this game 67-55, but at times it seemed like the team wasn’t even going to breach the 50 point mark in this game. The Bulls jumped out to a 23-9 lead after the 1st quarter of action, the team was playing loose, hitting 3s, and we even saw a bit of a vintage Maria Alvarez performance, who ended up finishing the game with 18 points.
But the 2nd quarter on saw the Bulls struggle to string together any sort of offensive flow, and thankfully Stetson was in the same boat. The Hatters would outscore USF 12-8 in the 2nd, and 13-12 in the 3rd, leaving the Bulls reeling while trying to find any sort of momentum. That momentum came from Carla Brito, who went for game-highs with 20 points and 11 rebounds to will the Bulls to victory.
Some shocking statistics were the Bulls nearly having more turnovers (20) than field goals made (22), only 13 assists, Alvarez and Brito were the only Bulls who hit double digit scoring, and four players ended the game with more fouls than points.
After the game, USF head coach Jose Fernandez chalked it up to Stetson playing hard while also experimenting too much in the 2nd quarter, killing any momentum that USF was trying to bring over in the 1st. But alas, they’re 2-0 so far and the dream is still alive.
Look Ahead: The Bulls will have three games until the next edition of The Fletch Report. Monday night in Tampa they’ll welcome Grambling State, Thursday they’ll travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama, and on Sunday they’ll come back to the Sunshine State to take on UNF in the Yuengling Center.
USF Men’s Basketball: The New Era has Begun
Thumped the Bulldogs: New head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim got off to a thunderous start in green and gold, when USF dunked all over South Carolina State in the Bulls home opener winning 96-52.
Now, before we get too excited, expectations are in order. South Carolina State is a really bad basketball team this year, ranked in the bottom 20 of NCAA basketball this year in the KenPom ranking system.
BUT, it feels really good to absolutely destroy a team and nearly put up 100 points in a game, right? The 44 point margin of victory is the second largest in program history.
With the score tied at 4 early in the game, Chris Youngblood hit his first shot in green and gold, scoring a 3 pointer to give the Bulls a 7-4 lead that they would continue to carry until the end of the game. Youngblood went for a game high 19 points, but it was true freshmen star Jayden Reid who stole the show for the Bulls. Reid produced a double-double in his first ever collegiate basketball game, scoring 11 points and 10 assists off the bench.
In fact, USF’s bench would go on to outscore the Bulldogs’ team, scoring 53 points opposed to SC State’s 52.
More highlights included Sam Hines having three monstrous dunks, one of them ending up #1 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Night, where he posterized three Bulldogs. USF would use relentless defense to stifle any offensive momentum, collecting 12 steals as a team and produced 21 turnovers.
It wasn’t all bright spots though, if you read the pre-season report here then you may have noticed that size was an issue for USF and it showed at times, especially on the boards. SC State would out rebound USF 40-37, which gave them the advantage in second chance points 15-10. But USF had a 20-3 advantage in fast break points, and hit 20 of 26 free throws to negate anything substantial.
You read that right, the team had a 77% free throw percentage for a game. They also hit eight 3 pointers at 33% shooting from 3. The offense might be fun this year.
Look Ahead: USF will have two home matches this week against other directional state schools, first up against Central Michigan on Wednesday night, and then against Northern Iowa on Sunday evening.
USF Volleyball: Defining Dubs
Showdown with the Pirates: USF volleyball, in the midst of an incredible turnaround from the previous 4 years, entered the weekend battling again ECU to remain atop the AAC east leaderboard. Two games against the Pirates this week with division crowns on the line were up to bat in the crucial final stretch of this season.
Game one was spectacular for the Bulls, who were lead by Maria Clara Andrade going for a career high 26 kills on International night. The Brazilian native, and the rest of her teammates, were relentless, winning the match 3-1. The first two sets were nail biters, with USF being on top 2-0 after back to back 25-22 set victories. Miya Thomas had her big moments as well as a true freshmen, grabbing 22 digs on the evening. The third set didn’t fall in the Bulls’ favor, as they dropped it 15-25. However, USF would turn it’s fortunes around, especially with Caroline Dykes grabbing 45 assists on the match to take the fourth and final set 25-20.
The victory on Thursday gave Bulls sole possession of first place in the AAC east, and a re-match on Friday afternoon for Senior Day was on the horizon.
Game two was even more of a battle, with the Bulls and Pirates trading blows, having moments of dominance followed by stretches where the wind wouldn’t catch their sails. However, it was USF prevailing in a five set thriller 3-2 to pad their lead in the east.
Set one belonged to the Bulls, taking it 25-23 thanks once again to Maria Clara Andrade, who spurred a 12-1 run and went for 22 kills on the match. Buce Hazan would corral 24 kills on the day for the green and gold, with every single one proving crucial.
The second set was a disaster for USF, who at one point allowed ECU to go on a 12-0 run with the set tied at 4. The Pirates lead by 22-7, and USF couldn’t stop making mistakes, as the Bulls amassed a staggering 34 errors on the day. ECU took the second set easily 25-12, and took the lead in the 3rd with a 25-23 to go up 2-1.
The fourth set proved to be crucial, and late in the set with ECU up 21-19, things looked bleak for the Bulls. But the leaders for the Bulls, Buse, Maria, and Caroline, spurred a 3-0 run to retake the lead. A battle ensued for the next 20 points as neither team could find an advantage until USF finally scored a crucial second point to take the fourth set 31-29 leading to a riveting fifth set. The Bulls would take that fifth set 15-12 to decisively take a lead in the AAC east.
Look Ahead: With at least a share of the AAC East crown on the line, USF will travel to FAU on Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.
If the Bulls win one of those games, they’ll finish no worse than T-1st in the East. A sweep will clinch the crown.
Score Summary:
ECU (W 3-1)
25-22, 25-22, 15-25, 25-20
ECU (W 3-2)
25-23, 12-25, 23-25, 31-29, 15-12
Other USF Sports in Action
Other olympic sports remained in action, however, this past week was highlighted by National Signing Day for non-football athletes. A brief breakdown is below (but to keep things nice and short, links to the official stories from USF Athletics will be provided):
Before we get to the signing classes, USF cross country sent three runners to compete in the NCAA South Regionals this past Friday.
- Kelly Lynch finished 106th overall in the women’s 6k out of 214 women.
- Jackson Dravo finished 84th overall in the men’s 10k out of 177 men.
- Nickolas Kamen finished 148th in the men’s 10k out of 177 men.
Now onto the signing classes
USF softball added six signees to their roster, including five native Floridians (two from the Bay), and one player from Pennsylvania.
USF women’s basketball inked two girls, Amy Thompson from Stillwater, Minnesota and Yana Karamfilova from Sofia, Bulgaria
USF men’s basketball signed CJ Brown from Marietta, GA, but they may not be done yet…
USF men’s golf signed two athletes, with Matthew Joseph from IMG Academy, and William Jun from Jupiter, FL
USF women’s Golf signed three ladies, Valentina Bosselmann, Annabel Collis and Cherry Marley
USF women’s tennis signed three ladies, Josefine Falster, Charlotte Ruud, and Sienna Leeson.
Charlotte Ruud is the sister of standout tennis star Casper Ruud who was ranked as high as #2 in the world
USF women’s soccer announced nine signings; Joy Kimwemwe, Noelle Sather, Julianna Bivona, Sophia Cabral, Brooke Fabri, Audrey Johnson, Macy Felton, Samantha Jo Payne, and Michaela Carter.
USF women’s lacrosse announced a loaded class of over 17 girls to their roster
Men’s tennis, men’s soccer, sailing, baseball, cross country, nor track announced any signing classes formally, but the window for signing is open from November 8th to August 24th, 2024, so there will be time for plenty of signings.