Team 1 2 3 Temple 25 25 25 USF 17 14 23

TAMPA, SEPT 25, 2015 – USF held a lead late in the third set, but could not take a set from one of the top teams in the American Athletic Conference in a 3-0 loss to Temple Friday night.

The Bulls (3-10, 0-1) scored eight-straight points against the Owls (10-3, 1-0) to grab a 17-12 lead in the third set. USF built a 20-17 lead, but Temple ended the match on an 8-3 run to win the final set 25-23 after winning the first set 25-17 and the second set 25-14.

“Temple is one of the best teams in our conference,” said head coach Courtney Draper. “They are really well balanced. Their setter is one of the best in the conference. It was a tough night for us.”

USF was led offensively by junior Alexus Heidelberg (Winter Garden, Fla.) who finished the match with 10 kills. On the defensive side, senior Wylie Devlin (Winter Park, Fla.) had a team-high 13 digs. Natalia Soares and Molly Burkhardt each finished with double-digit assists. Soares, a senior from Brazil, led the Bulls with 15, while Burkhardt (St. Augustine, Fla.) finished with 13.

Temple, which was picked third in the preseason conference poll, entered Friday's match as the conference leader in hitting percentage and hit .333 against the Bulls. USF hit .204, better than its season average of .196.

“I think they beat us in the serving and passing game,” said Draper. “Offensively, we were fine. We held one of their top attackers (Irem Asci) to .074. We missed too many serves and when we kept them in the court we probably weren't as aggressive as we could have been on the serve.”

USF had seven service errors to just two from Temple.

The Bulls will host UConn (6-5) at 1 p.m. on Sunday.