Weekend Roundup: Welcome To October

If for some crazy reason you missed any of our football coverage this weekend, make sure to read about a 61-31 USF win at East Carolina from someone who was at the stadium and some of us that were watching at home.

Here is what you may have missed elsewhere in USF Athletics.

Volleyball

Much like the football team, the USF volleyball team hit the road for a crucial conference road trip over the weekend. The Bulls first traveled to Wichita State on Friday night, dropping a straight-sets match to the #25 ranked Shockers (15-25, 17-25, 10-25). Wichita State (11-3, 3-0 The American) controlled the entire match with runs of 7-1 in the second set and 11-3 in the final set.

On Sunday, USF prevailed in a thrilling, five-set match (26-24, 25-18, 23-25, 16-25, 15-13) at Memphis to pickup their first American conference win of the season.

Despite seven lead changes in the first set, the Bulls used a late 5-1 run to push past the Tigers for the early advantage. Senior setter Alex Mendoza led the way with consecutive aces to make it a 19-14 USF lead.

In the pivotal fifth set, tied 12-12, senior middle blocker Joli Holland had a crucial kill followed up by a Maria McLamb ace to give the Bulls a match point. Holland ended the match with a final kill off a beautiful middle feed from Mendoza.

USF (6-8, 1-3 The American) will look to build momentum as they continue their road swing with a match at SMU on Friday night.

Soccer (Men’s and Women’s)

It was a solid weekend for soccer at Corbett Stadium. As usual, there is really no point in me explaining this because Carl was there and has us covered with what went down as both the men and women’s teams grabbed big wins.

Cross Country

It’s now October and cross country season is well underway, so let’s be sure to give these teams some love.

The Bulls have a huge test this coming weekend in Tallahassee at the FSU Invitational. The men's 8K will start at 7:40 a.m. The women's 5K is expected to start at 8:20 a.m.

For USF, three freshman, on the male and female teams, placed in the top six spots two weekends ago at the Mountain Dew Invitational in Gainesville.

The men are led by senior John Weaver, who has been the fastest male runner in each of the first three meets for USF. The women’s top performer has been freshman Rania Samhouri, who completed the 5K in 19:01.8, 39th overall in the Bulls last meet.

Men’s Golf

It was pretty cool to hear men’s golf head coach, Steve Bradley, make an appearance on the USF Coaches show this past Thursday night with Charlie Strong and company.

Bradley, again, leads a very talented men’s golf team who are currently competing at the Marquette Intercollegiate at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, site of the 2017 US Open. The Bulls grabbed an early two-shot lead in the opening round and will continue play on Monday and Tuesday.

Senior Cristian DiMarco leads the way for the Bulls after capturing an impressive individual title at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate in Louisiana last week.

You can actually follow of all the action from USF’s second tournament of the season in frigid Wisconsin with live scoring updates here.