SMU Volleyball Falls At Temple

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (SMU) – Avery Acker had a career-high 25 digs, and Morgan Heise had 28 of SMU’s 111 digs, which ranks seventh all-time in program history, but it was Temple taking a 3-2 victory at home Friday night (25-17, 25-22, 20-25, 25-27, 15-10). With the win, the Owls improved to 15-6, 6-3 in the American Athletic Conference, while SMU dropped to 16-5, 5-4 in The American.

Temple scored five straight to break a 10-10 tie in the fifth set, winning 15-10 to end the match. SMU was the first to eight, leading 8-7 when the teams switched ends, but the Owls scored three of the next four for a 10-9 lead before the final run.

All five SMU attackers finished with at least 10 kills, led by Abbey Bybel’s 16. Cailin Bula scored 15, Kristen Stehling recorded 13, and Janelle Giordano and Caroline Young each posted 10. Acker totaled 54 assists for her 16th double-double of the season, and Bybel tallied 17th digs for her 10th of the year. Young posted her sixth of the year with 12 digs, and Bula earned her first of the season with a career-high 15 digs. Julianne Scheidler added a season-high nine digs.

The Mustangs took the third set 25-20, holding Temple to a .060 attack percentage behind a

nine-dig performance by Acker. SMU had 29 digs as a team in the set to Temple’s 21. SMU took a 10-4 lead and held on for the win. The Mustangs stretched the lead to eight, 13-5, but the Owls scored the next four to get within four, 13-9. SMU kept the advantage at four or more the rest of the set for the victory. Bybel led the offense with four kills.

SMU won a thrilling fourth set 27-25 to force a fifth set. Rallying from behind 21-19, the Mustangs took a 22-21 lead, but two straight by the Owls gave Temple the lead back, 23-22. SMU scored the next to for the first shot at set point, 24-23. The Owls scored two of the next three before ended the set with a kill and a block by Young and Stehling. Bybel and Bula each had six kills to lead the Mustangs, and Heise had 10 digs in the set.

The Owls scored six unanswered to take a 9-5 lead in the first set, and didn’t trail again as they took a 1-0 lead in the match with the 25-17 set victory. Trailing 21-12, the Mustangs managed to get to within six, 23-17, but not any closer. Temple scored the next two points for the win. The Owls hit .316 in the match, but the Mustangs managed just a .083 attack percentage. SMU had three players with four digs in the set, trailing Temple by two, 20-18.

The Mustangs started strong in the second set, taking an 11-2 lead, scoring six unanswered to stretch the lead to nine. Then the Owls started chipping away at the lead, cutting it to one, 19-18. With the Mustangs leading 21-19, Temple scored six of the next seven for a 25-22 victory in the set. Heise had eight digs in the set to lead the SMU defense, but Temple recorded 24 as a team, holding the Mustangs to a .171 attack percentage. The Owls beat SMU 16-12 in the kills category to overcome four aces by the Mustangs, and didn’t commit any service errors while the Mustangs committed four.

SMU completes the road trip at Connecticut Sunday at 12 p.m. ET/11 a.m. CT. The match at Connecticut is the second of four straight road matches before SMU returns home to host Memphis Nov. 7.

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