On Oct. 4, the St. John’s women’s volleyball team made the trip to Tampa, Fla. to take on South Florida, but the game was postponed early in the first set due to a power outage.

On Sunday, the Red Storm made the trip to Tampa yet again, this time for the game’s make-up date. Still, the Red Storm came away empty-handed, except this time, a game was actually played.

The Red Storm failed to win a set against USF, as they were swept (25-15, 25-11, 29-27).

The loss drops the Red Storm to 8-16 on the season and 1-7 in the Big East just a season after winning the Big East Championship. The loss also marks the Red Storm’s seventh
consecutive loss. USF improves to 13-6 overall, and is now 6-3 in the Big East.

The Red Storm learned after Saturday’s home match against Connecticut that they would have to travel back to Tampa to take on the Bulls to make up the postponed match from earlier in the month. But St. John’s head coach Joanne Persico-Smith is not looking at it as an excuse for losing in consecutive sets.

“We knew going to USF would be
difficult after a five-gamer with UConn. We had less than a 24-hour turnaround,” Persico-Smith said. “We know we need to continue to perform at a high level no matter what position we are put in in a match.”

USF took the first two sets from the Red Storm, winning by 10 and 14 points, respectively, but the Red Storm would not go down without a fight.

The Red Storm trailed 17-10 in the third set before going on a 7-2 run to pull within 19-17. They managed to tie the set up at 20, and both teams would exchange points before USF would finally score two points in a row to end the St. John’s
threat, taking the set and match.

“After a tough match, we can come back and understand that we can’t go down two games on the road in a
conference matchup,” Persico-Smith said.

The loss to South Florida marks the seventh consecutive conference loss for the Red Storm. But the team is not
focused on the losing streak, according to Persico-Smith.

“We don’t look at streaks,” Persico-Smith said. “We have to take it one game at a time, and we have been in a lot of close matches this season. We are working hard to fix a few things and get two wins over two very good Big East teams this weekend.”

Sophomore Darlene Ramdin and junior Kun Song each led the team with 10 kills apiece.

Freshman Ashley Asing had a match-high nine digs, and Song also added seven digs. Freshman Gabriela Petkova led
the team with 23 assists.

The Red Storm returns to Carnesecca Arena this weekend to play their final two home games of the season. The Red Storm takes on Pittsburgh Friday at 7 p.m., and then will celebrate Senior Day on Nov. 1 against West Virginia at 2 p.m.