Volleyball Comes Up Short in Battle at UCF

Sunday, September 29

Orlando, Fla.

12:00 PM

Temple University

9-4

UCF

9-5

Temple

UCF

Photo by: Mike Apice

Volleyball Comes Up Short in Battle at UCF

9.29.19 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Temple volleyball team battled hard against defending conference champion UCF, but came up short in a 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-22) loss to the Knights on the road on Sunday afternoon. Temple moves to 9-4 on the season, but 0-2 in The American, while UCF improves to 9-5 on the season, 2-0 in conference play.

Keys to the Match
> Temple rebounded nicely from a slow first set and battled the league's top team well in the final two frames.
> The Owls had leads in both the second and third sets, but timely runs from UCF put the match in their favor.
> UCF hit .301 for the match, holding Temple to a .116 attack, while the Knights held a 79-62 advantage in digs.

Quotable: Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam
> "Obviously we're disappointed we didn't get the win, but I feel much better today because of the progress that we've made. I think that we're on the right track, we took a step forward, we're not quite there yet, but we made progress. Yes, we battled back and played better, so our next step is not to be in those situations, and to find ways to close out those sets. So that's the next step in our evolution, to find the sides to seal those sets for us."
> "Coming out of the match on Friday, we wanted to do three things, we wanted more stability on serve-receive, to be consistent and make better quality passes, we wanted to do a better job making adjustment on the court, be more effective and more consistent. And the third thing was to have a better presence on court, creating a positive environment where we could be more productive."
> "So those were the three goals going into the match, and I think we made definitely made improvements and excelled in some areas even. We really made some adjustments after the first set that helped us in the second and third sets. I thought our serve-receive was really consistent, it was 10 times better than it was on Friday. And overall, the environment on the court was much better."
> "At this moment, I really believe we're on the right track, and if we continue this way, we will get those conference wins."

Individual Highlights
> Temple junior Katerina Papazoglou and sophomore Gem Grimshaw and both played solid all-around, notching eight kills each, while Papazoglou tallied 10 digs, and Grimshaw had eight to go along with three aces.
> Senior Dana Westfield finished with seven kills, while freshman Naomi Janetzke have five kills on just 12 swings.
> Junior Averi Salvador led Temple's defense with 21 digs.
> Sophomore Tyler Lindgren tallied a double-double with 16 assists and 10 digs, while her setter counterpart, junior Selina Merfol, had nine digs and seven assists.

Set One: UCF 25, Temple 14
> A back-and-forth set changed course midway through the action, as UCF broke open a one point game (12-11) with a 10-2 run.
> Temple was unable to stop the Knights' late surge in the match falling 25-14.
> The Owls were out-hit .3 and got blocked six times during the frame.

Set Two: UCF 25, Temple 21
> Temple rebounded to start set two in the drivers seat, rattling off a 5-0 run.
> UCF slowly chipped away, but the Owls led 10-8, before a 5-0 UCF run put them in the lead 13-10.
> Temple trailed by as many as four, before getting to within one point at 21-20, however, UCF closed out the frame with a 25-21 win.

Set Three: UCF 25, Temple 22
> Both teams had significant runs in a tight third set, but in the end it was UCF who got hot when they needed too.
> UCF had control early, leading 7-3, but a 9-1 Temple run pushed the Owls on top.
> Temple led by 18-14, but a 4-0 UCF run tied the match.
> After back-to-back Temple winners make it 20-18 Owls, UCF continued their run/
> Six straight UCF points made it 24-20 Knights, and despite Temple cutting it to 24-22, the hosts finished it out.

Up Next
> Temple hosts its home conference opener on Friday, taking on UConn for School Day at 12:00 p.m.