The Fletch Report: October 23rd, 2023
Your Weekly Newsletter Recapping USF Olympic Sports
1349 Words
5 Minutes, 40 seconds of readingWelcome back to The 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
USF women’s soccer dominated the weekly honors this past week, but Buse makes her regular appearance on the volleyball honor roll as well:
- Leire Herraez Gallach was named AAC Goalkeeper of the week
- Signe Markvardsen and Sadie Sider-Echenberg both landed on the Honor Roll for women’s soccer
- Buse Hazan was named to the weekly honor roll for women’s volleyball
USF Women’s Soccer: Lone Star State Showdowns
Frustrated Draw: USF started their trip in Texas with a mid week matchup against Rice, who came limping into this game with a lowly 1-6-0 record in conference play. However, fortune favored the Owls in the 30th minute when Rice was awarded a PK and converted to go up 1-0 on USF.
The Bulls responded expeditiously, just 34 seconds later when Gentiana Fetaj responded to level the score. USF would continue to pound away shots at the Rice goalie all night, who amassed an astounding 11 saves on the evening, as they looked to take the lead. Twenty eight shots, twelve on goal, but only Fetaj’s would find the back of the net, leading to a 1-1 draw on Thursday, putting USF at 4-1-2 in conference play and tied with ECU for first place in the east, with the Pirates owning the tie breaker.
Defensive, Decisive Victory: Continuing their road trip in Texas, the Bulls traveled to San Antonio to take on UTSA in a penultimate showdown with crucial conference standings to play for. USF’s stellar defense delivered a wonderful performance once again, limiting the Roadrunners to only five shots and zero on goal. Late in the first half, Madison Schwartzenberger was able to put the Bulls ahead off a set piece from Vivianne Bessette for the match’s lone goal.
The victory, coupled with an ECU draw against UNT, places USF back into first place in the east division with 17 points. USF can clinch the east with a victory in their final game, a draw will do the same if ECU drops their final game. If USF draws and ECU is victorious, then ECU will win the east based off of a tie breaker.
Look Ahead: The Bulls will have their senior night, and season finale, against FAU on Thursday October 26th at 7 pm.
Score Summary:
Rice (T 1-1)
Gentiana Fetaj
UTSA (W 1-0)
Madison Schwartzenberger
USF Men’s Soccer: Double Dose of Dubs
Capped the Hatters: USF took the trip up to DeLand this past Tuesday for a much needed non-conference tune up game against Stetson. The Hatters had the upper hand early when they scored back-to-back goals in a three minute span in the first 26 minutes to put some fright into USF.
The Bulls would answer back quickly just two minutes later to halve the deficit when JT Cooper scored from an assist by Lovro Kostanjsek and Pedro Faife, leading to a 2-1 halftime score. Desperation started to set in for USF, who collected 9 shots on goal for the match looking to get the game back in hand. Marco Astorga would find an equalizer in the second half off an assist by Segun Afolabi, and sweet victory was secured when Jalen Anderson would score the game-winning in the 82nd minute. Anderson’s goal is his 6th on the second, leading the Bulls.
Crucial Points Secured: USF welcomed a winless UAB team to Corbett Stadium, and with the regular season finale looming and points needed, USF needed to close the door on the Blazers to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Ajmeer Spengler rose to the occasion on that fine Thursday night, netting a brace to give USF a 2-1 victory and three important points in the conference standings. His two goals, including a world class goal that landed on #2 on SportsCenters’ Top 10 Plays, puts him at three goals on the year, and the only player with more than one goal this season aside from Jalen Anderson.
Look Ahead: USF will travel to Memphis to take on the Tigers on Friday night at 8pm.
Score Summary:
Stetson (W 3-2)
JT Cooper, Marco Astorga, Jalen Anderson
UAB (W 2-1)
Ajmeer Spengler (x2)
USF Volleyball: Defeat at Home
Downed by the Mean Green: USF women’s volleyball suffered their first home conference loss of the season to UNT on Friday night. In a dual that saw the match tied 54 times in four sets, UNT was victorious 3-1 to put USF at 7-3 in conference play this season and second place in the east division.
The first set put USF ahead 1-0 on the match with a 27-25 set victory in a back-and-forth affair. The second set was slightly more decisive in favor of the Mean Green to tie the match 1-1 with a 17-25 set victory. The third set saw the two teams battling all the way to the 30s (for those uninitiated to volleyball rules, you have to win by 2 in each set), but eventually UNT won 31-33. The fourth set was a battle once again, but the Mean Green clinched the match with a 23-25 set victory.
Buse Hazan will most likely find herself in some sort of conference honors after putting up a blistering 27 kills for a career high. Caroline Dykes put up 55 assists, while Niki Khoshatefeh added three blocks to the stat sheet.
Looking Ahead: USF will take the show on the road, traveling to take on Tulsa on Friday night at 7:30 pm EST and then battling against SMU on Sunday at 2 pm EST
UNT (L 1-3)
27-25, 17-25, 31-33, 23-25
Other USF Sports in Action
Additional olympic sports continue to compete throughout the fall calendar schedule.
USF Sailing competed against top competition at the Atlantic Coast Women’s Championship on Long Island Sound, finishing 15 out of the top 18 teams in the country.
USF Men’s Golf earned their second straight team championship this fall with a 1st place finish at Quail Valley Invitational, recording a team score of -37.
Brock Healy finished T1st individually, getting another trophy for the USF men’s golf trophy case recording a -13.
USF men’s tennis standouts Alvin Tudorica and Erik Grevelius competed at the ITA Southeast Regional along with their teammates Tom Pisane and Ben Hudson.
Alvin earned a Runner Up (!!!) finish with victories over a few nationally ranked individuals in singles action. With his finish, he’ll go on to compete in the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego on November 1-5.
In doubles play, him and Grevelius reached the semifinals with victories over Georgia Tech, FSU, and FGCU in the process before falling to UCF.
Tom Pisane and Ben Hudson both earned some individual singles victories around the horn, but ultimately didn’t get out of the round of 32.
Around the Lee Roy Selmon Center, VP of Athletics Michael Kelly made an announcement that USF women’s basketball coach Jose Fernandez received an extension through the 2028-29 season.
We’ll have a post looking ahead and recapping the offseason for USF women’s basketball before they tip off the season on November 6th against UT Arlington.
Additionally, it was announced in Mid-October the USF softball program will welcome a big time opponent for a Fall Ball matchup, as they will host the Puerto Rican National Team on Monday, October 23 at 6 p.m. in the USF Softball Stadium. Puerto Rico features three players with USF ties on it’s roster:
Team captain and first basemen Karla Claudio Rivera is the USF pitching coach.
Sophomore SS Kathy Garcia-Soto and sophomore C Camille Ortiz-Martinez are also featured on the Puerto Rico Roster.