BATON ROUGE, LA — San Diego and North Florida traded nearly every point during the early stages of a hard-fought, back-and-forth first set at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Thursday afternoon. 

Then the Toreros (3-5, 0-0 WCC) ripped off a 5-1 run to take the opening frame and never looked back, sweeping the Ospreys (3-9, 0-0 ASUN) by scores of 25-22, 25-11, and 25-17 to win in straight sets for the first time this season as they opened play in a multi-team event hosted by LSU.

Freshman outside hitter Isabel Clark led the match with 13 kills, which she racked up by hitting a robust .444. Senior middle blocker Haylee Stoner (San Marcos High School) hit at a sky-high .625 clip enroute to 11 kills of her own, which were the most of any player besides Clark.

Service aces from Madi Allen and Kennedy Osunsanmi kept USD close with UNF as the first set got started. Kills from Stoner midway through helped San Diego stay there, and a combo block from Kristen Erland and Kylie Munday, a kill from Nemo Beach, and a service ace from Munday sealed the comeback victory for the Toreros in the opening period to earn them a 1-0 lead.

San Diego scored three times before North Florida got on the board in the second set, eventually racing to an 8-2 advantage with a 4-0 run that included a trio of service aces from Olivia Bennett and another kill from Beach. More service aces from Osunsanmi and Beach helped the Toreros extend their lead down the stretch ahead of a kill from Clark that made it a match-high 12-point advantage in USD's favor at 22-10.

Set three was closer, but San Diego still earned a wire-to-wire win after jumping ahead 4-1 early on. The Ospreys got within two points at 9-7 midway through before the Toreros pulled away for good, using a kill from Beach and another ace from Allen to create a 21-14 lead that prompted a UNF timeout. Osunsanmi and Clark went back-to-back with a pair of kills to close it out after the break, allowing USD to secure its third win of 2024 in comfortable fashion as it continued to navigate a challenging non-conference schedule. 

NOTABLE:

• Led by three from Bennett, a trio of Toreros notched multiple service aces on Thursday.
• Munday totaled 32 assists, four blocks, two kills, and a service ace. She has now recorded 30 assists or more in six consecutive matches and all but two of her college games thus far. 
• Erland paced the match with four block assists.
• North Florida head coach Kristen Wright (Hurst) played for San Diego head coach Jennifer Petrie at USD from 2001 to 2004 and helped the Toreros win the 2004 West Coast Conference Championship.

UP NEXT
The Toreros are back in action tomorrow afternoon, when they take on both Boston College (10:00 a.m. PST) and tournament host LSU (5:00 p.m. PST) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to close out their 2024 non-conference schedule. 

Only live statistics will be available for USD's matchup against the Eagles, while the weekend finale opposite the Tigers will be streamed live on SEC Network+.