From 0-25 to 6-0, Silva and San Francisco enjoying early season success

The University of San Francisco’s athletic history is noteworthy for many reasons. 

But volleyball is not one of them — yet. 

The Dons are the school that boasts basketball greats Bill Russell and KC Jones and is the only program to ever have three future NFL Hall of Famers (Bob St. Clair, Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti), on one team. Meanwhile, USF, a charter volleyball member of the West Coast Conference since 1985, has never won a conference championship, had a conference player of the year, or freshman of the year and has had no All-Americans in its history. 

Oh, and the Dons went 0-25 last season.

That’s why this year’s 6-0 start by San Francisco is so significant under first-year coach Diogo Silva.

“I am like a freshman as a coach,” Silva admitted. “But I truly believe if you do not have a good character, they (the players) will not follow you.”

The followed to victories over Montana State, St. Thomas, Grand Canyon, Louisiana Tech,  Seattle U and Fresno State, the last two in five.

Friday the Dons get to play at home when they face CSUN before playing Penn on Saturday.

The transformation “started one year ago,” said the 44-year-old Silva. “It seems like we came from nowhere, but we are getting the players we want into the program. We brought players in who have good ball control and good serve receive. Then we can have better options.” 

After longtime coach Frank Lavrisha retired, Silva, who had been with the program for a year as an assistant coach, was promoted to head coach last May.

Silva got busy and said he combed through footage of no less than 2,000 players between the transfer portal and high school. Accordingly, the USF roster is like the United Nations of volleyball. Of the 16, nine come from outside the U.S. including Argentina, Russia, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Israel, and two from Brazil, which happens to be where Silva is from. To balance that out a bit, three are from Southern California and two from Texas. 

Bulgarian sophomore Maria Petkova, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter, was the MVP of the early season Montana State tournament. Petkova transferred from Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers. Claire Crijns, a physical 6-2 right-side grad student from Maastricht, Netherlands, is second on the team in blocks and kills and first in aces.

Freshmen Abby Wadas is a freshman libero from…