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The Fletch Report: October 9th, 2023

Your Weekly Newsletter Recapping USF Olympic Sports

Author
Collin Sherwin
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6 Minutes, 16 seconds of reading

    Welcome 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.

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    USF Weekly Honors

    Weekly honors are becoming more…weekly for USF Olympic sport athletes after more victories this past week:

    • Buse Hazan named Offensive Player of the Week for volleyball
    • Ragan Kinard named to the honor roll for volleyball
    • Melanie Green named the AAC women’s Golfer of the Month

    USF Women’s Soccer: Back to the Win Column

    Road Victory: USF women’s soccer got a well earned and much needed 1-0 road victory over UAB on this past Thursday. The victory got the Bulls back to over .500 on the season, sitting at 6-5-1 and 2-1-1 in conference play. Crucially, the Bulls have 7 points, tied with FAU and trailing ECU for first place in the ‘East’ division of the AAC this season.

    The match against UAB saw the Bulls dominate key metrics in possession and shots on goal to eventually find themselves ahead of an important conference game. USF used 10 first half shots to keep the Blazers on their heels with relentless pressure on the opposing goalie, who parried away three of them to keep the score level going into halftime.

    However, in the second half, Serita Thurton used her aggressive tactics to steal the ball away from a UAB defender before crossing it to Signe Markvardsen, who came screaming into the box, before putting it away smoothly in the 79th minute. UAB mounted a comeback attempt, but their best shot of the night in the 89th minute was saved by USF goalie Leire Herraez Gallach, who compiled 3 saved on the way to her 3rd clean sheet of the season.

    Look Ahead: USF will play host to North Texas this Thursday at 7 p.m. EST.

    Score Summary:

    USF Men’s Soccer: Things are Definitely Happening

    Weathered Victory: USF men’s soccer, who entered the week at a paltry 2-6 on the year and 0-2 in conference play, traveled to Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane looking for a momentum booster in a Wednesday night match up. Their match against Tulsa was delayed to the following day due to weather in the area, but that didn’t stop the Bulls from going full send on the day.

    Just seven minutes into the game, the Bulls leading scorer Jalen Anderson took a pass from Oscar Resano off a nifty give and go and slammed his shot into the back of the net to give USF an early 1-0 lead. However, Tulsa would quickly equalize five minutes later.

    The second half was more heavily dominated by USF, who had a fortunate shot deflect off of a Jalen Anderson shot in the 74th minute to find its way into the back of the net. The Bulls would continue to hammer away shots in the second half to try to put the game well out of reach, but a timely save in the 82nd minute off a Tulsa shot was all the Bulls needed to handle to get a decisive 2-1 victory.

    Agonizing Defeat: USF hurried back home to prepare for a Sunday showdown against Charlotte, who came into this match second in the conference and have only two defeats on the season. Charlotte was able to find the back of the net first thanks to a penalty kick in the 27th minute, giving the 9ers an early 1-0 lead. The Bulls would continue to pound away at shots to look for an equalizer until the halftime whistle chimed.

    The second half saw much better production out of the Bulls, peppering the Charlotte goalie with 8 second half shots, which paid off in the 58th minute when Segun Afolabi put away a set piece corner fed by Jemone Barclay to level the score. Heartbreak came for the Bulls in the 90th minute, with less than 20 seconds left the 49ers were given a corner and off a set piece, were able to find the back of the net to give the visitors a 2-1 victory at the brink of a tie.

    The result drops the Bulls to 3-7 on the year, 1-3 in the conference and are looking for a reprieve after facing the top 4 teams in the AAC standings to start conference play.

    Look Ahead: USF men’s soccer will travel to Temple on Saturday at 7 p.m. EST.

    Score Summary:

    • Tulsa (W 2-1)

      • Jalen Anderson, Tulsa Own Goal

    • Charlotte (L 1-2)

      • Segun Afolabi

    USF Volleyball: Sweeps Galore

    A Good Sweep: USF traveled to UTSA looking for their third straight victory, which they accomplished in dominating fashion to corral their third straight conference sweep as well. The first set started with a back-and-forth affair, resulting in the match being tied 8-8 before the Bulls rattled off an 8-1 run to take a 16-9 lead. This momentum carried USF to the end, closing the first set on a 5-2 run and winning 25-16.

    The second set was much closer, with the Bulls committing a match high 10 errors, feeding the Roadrunners some momentum at crucial times during matching runs. With the Bulls trailing 19-21, Buse Hazan, fresh off of her player of the week honors, scored 3 of the next 4 points to regain the lead for USF. Hazan would go on to get the set-sealing kill to win the second set 25-23.

    The third set was back to a one-sided affair with the Bulls coming out on top 25-16 thanks, once again, to Buse Hazan who totaled a game high 18 kills while hitting .275 for the match. Caroline Dykes collected a staggering 36 assists as well while Miya Thomas lead the Bulls with 17 digs.

    A Bad Sweep: With the Bulls chasing their fourth straight victory and potentially fourth straight conference sweep, the team was met with a brick wall in Wichita leading to a 0-3 defeat to close out the western division road trip.

    The first set saw USF and the Shockers matching blow for blow, with the match closing at 21-23 in favor of Wichita. The Shockers would go on to win the first set 25-21 after back to back errors by the Bulls. The second set saw Wichita force more errors at critical times for USF, who finished the match with 22 errors. The second set wrapped up at 16-25, and although the Bulls lead 16-15 in the third set, the Shockers imposed their will to take the sweep after, you guessed it, back to back errors by USF closed out the third set 21-25. Buse would lead the Bulls with 14 kills, her 9th straight match with double-digit kills.

    Up Next: USF volleyball will look to shake off the loss by welcoming Charlotte to the Corral on October 13 and 15, at 6 pm and 2pm EST respectively.

    Score Summary:

    • UTSA (W 3-0)

      • 25-16, 25-23, 25-16

    • Wichita State (L 0-3)

      • 21-25, 16-25, 21-25

    Other USF Sports in Action

    Additional olympic sports continue to compete throughout the fall calendar schedule, with a special shoutout to a USF baseball alum who is making an appearance in the MLB playoffs.

    • USF’s Orion Kerkering, who played baseball for the Bulls from 2020 to 2022, has made two appearances for the Philadelphia Phillies in the postseason so far.

      • In his first appearance in the wild card series against the Marlins, Kerk used 9 pitches, 8 of which were strikes, to close a 1-2-3 in the 8th inning, leading to a 7-1 Phillies’ victory

      • In the NLDS round against the Braves, Kerk came in late once again in the 7th and got all three batters out before being replaced in the 8th to hold for the closer.

    • USF Sailing competed at the ACC Semifinals over the weekend, where a 9th place finish was good enough to have the squad advance to the ACC finals October 21st-22nd at Yale University(as only the top 9 advance).

    • USF Men’s Golf will be hosting the USF invitational on October 9th and 10th at Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, Florida.

    • USF Women’s Golf, who is now ranked #30 in the country, will travel to compete in the Dale McNamara Invitational at the Golf Club of Oklahoma in Broken Arrow, Okla.

    • USF men’s tennis duo of Alvin Tudorica and Erik Grevelius competed at the 2023 ITA Men's All-American Championships:

      • Alvin would win his first singles match 6-4, 6-3, but lose the second 2-6, 2-6

      • Erik would lose his first match 6-7, 0-6, but win his second match 6-2, 6-1

      • In doubles play, the duo of Erik and Alvin lost their first match 3-6, 6-2, 8-10, but win their second match 6-3, 6-2