Volleyball Falls to UCF

Thursday, November 14

Philadelphia, Pa.

7:00 PM

Temple University

11-15, 2-13AAC

UCF

20-7, 13-2AAC

UCF

Temple

Photo by: Mike Apice

Volleyball Falls to UCF

11.14.19 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA — The Temple volleyball team battled second place UCF but fell 3-0 on Thursday night in McGonigle Hall. The Knights grabbed the sweep with set scores of 25-21, 25-18, 25-21 to move to 20-7 overall, 13-2 in conference play. Temple falls to 11-15, 2-13 in the American.

Keys to the Match
> Temple hit over .250 in each of the first two sets, but a .027 attack in the second frame limited the Owls' total attack to .200.
> Temple out-dug the Knights 41-34, but UCF compiled a .351 hitting percentage, also holding an 8-2 advantage in blocks.
> The Owls hung with UCF until midway through the frame when the Knights used a late run to earn a tight 25-21 set one.
> Temple had 10 errors in the second, as UCF went up 2-0 with a 25-18 win.
> In the final frame, there were eight ties before UCF finally pulled away to earn the sweep with a 25-21 set.

Quotable: Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam
> "We wanted to control the ball on the first touch on serve-receive and be more consistent than we were against Tulane and I think we did that."
> "I think our outsides did a tremendous job today, you have a lot of responsibilities as an outside, you have to play six rotations, pass the ball, play good defense, and most of the time you have to attack and score against a double block."
> "We have to put everything in perspective. We played a really good UCF team that rightfully is second in our conference. And they've been together for a couple of years now. We, on the other hand, are in the process of rebuilding, so we want to see progression and see the team getting better."
> "I think today's performance was better than we saw against Tulane, and the Tulane performance was better than what we saw against UConn and East Carolina, so that's what we want to see."

Individual Highlights
> Sophomore Miray Bolukbasi racked up 22 kills, a career best, while hitting .357 to lead the Owls.
> Sophomores Peyton Boyd and Gem Grimshaw each had seven kills to round out the attack.
> Junior Selina Merfol ran the offense to the tune of 34 assists.
> Junior Averi Salvador led all players with 18 digs, while Grimshaw and Bolukbasi each added seven.

Set One: UCF 25, Temple 21
> UCF opened with a .379 attack in the first set, leading a tight set from the start.
> Leading by two, UCF went on a 7-1 run to open up a 19-13 advantage.
> Temple got a number of kills from Bolukbasi to cut the lead to 21-20, but the Knights finished out the 25-21 win.

Set Two: UCF 25, Temple 18
> The most lopsided set of the night came in the second where the Knights out-hit Temple .324 to .027.
> Still, the Owls hung around until midway through the frame when a 7-2 UCF run created separation.
> Temple rallied to cut the lead to four down the stretch, but UCF won it 25-18.

Set Three: UCF 25, Temple 21
> A tight third set featured eight ties, but in the end it was UCF that finished out the sweep.
> Temple opened with the hot hand, taking an early 6-3 lead.
> UCF rallied to tie the match at 6-6 and the teams were knotted as late as 15-15.
> The Knights responded with an 8-1 surge that put them up 23-16.
> Temple had one more rally in them, scoring five of the next six points to cut it to 24-21, but UCF got the last point to take it.

Up Next
> Temple will wrap up the 2019 season at home on Saturday, hosting USF for Senior Day at 1:00 p.m.