PHILADELPHIA - The No. 24 UCF volleyball team (25-1, 17-1 AAC) cruised past Temple (10-19, 4-14 AAC) in straight sets 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-22) Sunday afternoon inside McGonigle Hall.
"Temple was a much different team the second time around," said UCF head coach Todd Dagenais. "They had a fighting spirit that pushed us to give all you got, and we handled it well hitting .388 on the day. It felt a lot closer of a match due to the energy that Temple brought to the game."
UCF and Temple both opened the match strong, as the set was tied at 6-6 before the Knights scored five unanswered points to grab an 11-6 lead. Heidi Bonde sparked the run with a kill and a kill from Amber Olson capped the stretch. Temple rallied to trim the UCF advantage to 15-14, but Abby Hansen recorded a kill to ignite a 4-1 run for the Knights and they went on to win the set, 25-17.
Set two started off with Temple and UCF exchanging points. The Knights pulled away with a kill from McKenna Melville at 13-13 to go on 3-0 run. Followed by a 5-0 run, UCF opened up a 21-15 lead, with three of those points off kills from Kari Zumach. Melville ended the set with a kill, 25-20.
The Knights' offense was firing on all cylinders in the second set, as UCF tallied a .448 attacking percentage with 17 kills on 29 attempts with only four errors.
The third set featured nine ties with six of them occurring before each team reached 10 points in the set. Temple pulled ahead 15-9 to force a UCF timeout, but the Knights were able to regain their footing after the break by winning nine of the next 11 rallies to take an 18-17 lead. Leading 21-20, Claudia Dillon notched an important kill followed by a kill from Hansen. A block assist from Olson and Zumach gave the Knights match point and Melville finished it off a few points later to clinch the win.
Melville led the offense with 18 kills, while adding 10 digs and four blocks. Bonde, Hansen and Zumach each recorded seven kills.
Chloe Scheer paced the defense with 14 digs and tallied an ace. Dillon came up big for UCF at the net with five blocks.
UCF will finish American Athletic Conference play this week with a pair of home matches. The Knights host Tulane on Wednesday, Nov. 23 and Houston on Friday, Nov. 25. Both matches are scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and will air on ESPN+.
