NORMAN, Okla. — Saturday's finale in McCasland Field House brought Gonzaga volleyball's most dominant outing of the weekend in Katie Wilson's first win as head coach, a sweep of Florida International (25-22, 25-22, 25-21) that saw the Bulldogs (1-2) maintain pressure late in each set.
Zoe Thiros led the Bulldogs in kills for the second game in a row with 14, and four other Zags (Kelsie White, Dani Batenhorst, Kennedy Croft and Alyssa Hughes) added at least five each. Alisa Kim connected on three of GU's five service aces while racking up a team-high 27 digs, and Keau Kamake'eaina assisted on 35 of the Bulldogs' 43 kills in the winning effort.
GU hit .234 as a team overall, but the Zags brought their most efficient hitting so far this season in set one, connecting on 15 kills with just two errors for a .419 clip. Thiros supplied six of those kills and four other Bulldogs added at least two each as GU leaned on a pair of timely 3-0 swings to retake control for their first set win of the season, 25-22.
A 4-0 outburst from the Panthers in response to start the second put them up 10-4 and forced GU into a timeout, but the Bulldogs poured in 15 more kills and three service aces to retake control, never trailing again after an ace from Croft put them up 21-20.
Another back-and-forth in a decisive third set was brought to an end by the Zags' longest scoring run of the day — a 5-0 run capped off by Kim's third ace of the day to make it 15-11. GU's lead only grew by match point, when Thiros picked up her 14th kill of the day to secure the sweep with a 25-21 final.
The Zags play their first games at home next weekend as part of the GU Invitational, set to get things started with a matchup against Idaho State on Thursday at 6 p.m. Check GoZags.com for live stats and streaming options and follow @Zagvolleyball on Instagram and Twitter for updates.