On Sept. 26 USF hosted Pepperdine at the War Memorial Gym. Leading the Dons is number 21 sophomore Petra Fritz who leads the team in total kills with 183 and was named WCC Offensive Player of the Week in September 2026. The Pepperdine Waves are led by Chloe Pravednikov who leads her team in kills with 112 and look to win another game in the WCC with a recent win over Santa Clara.
From the start both teams took to the floor to warm up. During those brief moments of warmup, the game-like feel was already there for the Dons. With simple work on spiking and blocking the Dons were ready to take down the Waves. After the starting lineups are announced, Head Coach Diogo Silva gathers his team in a huddle to gameplan strategies before the first whistle. After Silva’s pep talk they would all gather and yell “go Dons,” giving the team some energy just before the starting lineup went out and played the first set.
The Dons start with the ball and number 13 Jordan Smart starts out with a serve as the first whistle blows. The Waves couldn’t answer quickly enough and the Dons opened the scoring off of that serve. A few possessions later number 14 Ryan Gilhooly serves the ball over the net and evens the score at two a piece for the Waves. The teams would go back and forth for a bit with a few rallies between the two and would eventually make it eight to eight.
However, with great defensive plays from number 14 Emma Neukirchen and great serves from number 12 Katariina Korhonen, the Dons would go on a run and eventually force Pepperdine to take a timeout as the score now stands at 15-10 to the Dons. Right out of the timeout the Waves would immediately score with an amazing block from Pravednikov.
Eventually through some great blocks from number 19 Hokulani Perez and an strong serve from Neukirchen the Dons would take the first set with a final score of 25-20. With this win the Dons now only needed to win two more sets to win the game against the Waves.
The second set begins similarly to the first set, but the Waves would end up scoring off the first serve instead of the Dons. In this set the Waves really seemed like they turned a new leaf as early on with great blocks from number nine Tristen Raymond and number 18 Ella Piskorz would lead to the Waves going on a streak where they would score five times in a row and find themselves up eight to three.
The Dons would make an attempt to creep back into the game with great blocks by Perez but would still find themselves down four points. However it just wasn’t enough; with a serve from Piskorz while the score being at 24-19, the Dons weren’t able to execute it making the final score of the second set 25-19 making the teams tied at a set each.
The third set then begins with Smart serving it for the dons. This serve was then blocked by number 22 Mariia Nikol Dvornikova to score the first point of the third set for the Waves. This initial scoring would eventually be too much for the Dons as Head Coach Silva would call a timeout for them as they were down nine to four early.
After a regather by the coach, the Dons would turn it up. They scored on multiple occasions led by a block by Fritz, then the Dons were only down by two. Head Coach Scott Wong calls a timeout for the Waves in seeing this thinking the group needs to huddle up. After the timeout the teams would go back and forth eventually making it a one point differential between each other. However, with an astonishing spike from Fritz, the Dons would then tie the game up getting the crowd hyped as they had come back from being down eight points early on in this set.
The score eventually landed on 26-25 and the dons needed to score one more point to win the set. The Waves however would serve out of a timeout twice and would unfortunately execute on both of them. Immediately after that, a great serve from Pravednikov would win the third set for the Waves, now making it two to one taking the lead over the Dons for sets won.
The Dons need to win the fourth set in order to send it to a fifth. USF would open the scoring of the fourth set with a brilliant block by Korhonen. The Dons strived to get closer to the lead and cut the difference smaller, but with a call against them being out of formation, the head coach of the Dons was driven to call a timeout. With this call the Dons gave a point and the possession to the Waves.
After the timeout the Dons would keep trying to make a comeback but after many attempts they couldn’t pull through. With a serve from the Waves that the Dons weren’t able to return, Pepperdine secured the fourth set 25-22 to win their second game in the WCC.
The Waves would lead in most categories against the Dons. The Dons would however have more digs by four and have the same amount of blocks as the Waves however it just wasn’t enough. Smart led the way for the Dons as she had the most assists, digs and aces from the team as the Waves were led by Raymond’s 43 assists and number 21 Laine Briggs 19 digs.
The Dons have still yet to get a win in the WCC and are now eight and seven on the season. USF plays back in War Memorial on Oct. 10 where they will face Santa Clara in hopes of winning in front of a home crowd for another WCC game.
