Temple University Athletics
Temple University
18-11, 9-8American
USF
17-14, 11-6American
Volleyball Falls Short Against USF Despite Strong Matches for Burkert and Matautia
11.27.13 | Women's Volleyball
PHILADELPHIA - Despite double-doubles from seniors Elyse Burkert and Gabriella Matautia, Temple volleyball suffered a four-set loss to South Florida on Wednesday night, as the Bulls (17-14, 11-6) won by scores of 25-23, 24-26, 25-20 and 25-15. The Owls now stand at 18-11 overall and 9-8 in the American Athletic Conference with one match left to play.
Temple will play UCF in the final match of the season at home on Friday night, Nov. 29 at 7:00 p.m. The Owls will honor Burkert, Matautia and Emily Carlin for Senior Night prior to the start of the match.Â
Matautia added 12 digs to 14 kills for her double-double, while Burkert tallied a match-best 18 digs to go with 13 kills. Alyssa Drachslin and Caroline Grattan recorded double figures in digs with 16 and 11, respectively.
Andrea Rodriguez Gomez and Kayla Bivins knocked down 12 kills apiece to lead USF, and five other players notched 10 or more digs. Rodriguez Gomez had a strong game at the net with 10 blocks, while USF finished with a team total of 14 (four solo blocks and 20 block assists).
In discussing his thoughts on the match, Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes noted how he continues to make the same point about the sport of volleyball. "It's a game of unforced errors," he said. "Whoever can minimize the number of unforced errors, wins the game. If you're getting strong leads early and you still lose the set, clearly you're making too many mistakes, and that's what we did. Our execution was not very clear...I think we all need to step up and do a better job."
Despite USF making very few errors in the first set, the Owls hung tough with the Bulls and were tied as late as 19-19. Davis had four kills to lead Temple in the set, including one that fought off on of USF's three chances at set point. Ultimately, Bivins took advantage of set point number three with a kill to give USF a 25-23 win.
The Owls held a lead for much of the second set after the midway point, and were up by four at 23-19 before USF began to rally. The score was tied at 23 and 24 before Burkert and Matautia hit back-to-back kills to win the set for Temple, 26-24 and tie the match at one set apiece. Matautia came up big throughout the entire second set for Temple, knocking down eight kills and coming up with five digs.
Temple found itself trailing by just a few points for much of the third set. but the Owls trimmed a four-point deficit to two at 21-19. From there, the Bulls got four of the final five points to win the set 25-20. It was a strong set for Jennifer Iacobini, who recorded four of her nine total kills for the match.
Too many hitting errors made the difference in the fourth set as the Owls fell behind early and could not recover. USF's Alexus Heidelberg recorded three kills for the Bulls' final three points in a 25-15 loss for Temple.
