BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic Owls (9-7, 1-2 AAC) closed out their American Athletic Conference home-opening weekend with a dominant four-set win, 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 25-19) against Temple (10-4, 1-2 AAC) to register their first AAC win of the season.
FLORIDA ATLANTIC 3 – TEMPLE 1
Valeria Rosado led all scorers in the match, tallying a season-high 16 kills on a .268 hitting clip. Rosado also tallied her first double-double of the season, adding 11 digs in the match. Victoria Hensley dished out a match-high 28 assists, while Noelle Stephens finished with 19. Hensley and Stephens both recorded double-doubles, Hensley’s second of the season and Stephens first, tallying 10 and 12 assists, respectively. Isabelle Northam led the Owls on the back row with a team-best 14 digs. At the net, Kaila Ru tied for a match-leading four blocks, including a solo denial.
Rosado scored first, but Temple opened the match on a 5-1 run to take an early lead. The Owls battled back, going on a 6-1 run to retake the lead 7-6. After battling through six ties, a kill from Alicia Hearn put the Owls back in front 17-16 to eventually spark a 5-1 Owls run to put Florida Atlantic in the driver’s seat at 21-17. Temple cut the Owls lead to two at 22-20, however it was too little too late as a kill from Madison Dyer and a pair of kills from Arianna Beckham closed out the opening frame to put Florida Atlantic in front first, 1-0.
After battling back-and-forth through a 10-10 tie, the Owls produced a 4-1 run following four-straight Temple errors to lead 14-11. Temple answered back to take a 20-17 lead late in the second, however the Owls locked in to outscore Temple 8-3 over the remainder of the second, capped off by a Beckham kill, to capture a 2-0 advantage, 25-23.
The Owls held a 5-4 advantage to open the third, but Temple produced a 7-1 run to take a 12-6 advantage and spark a Florida Atlantic timeout. The Owls battled back within three at 16-13, however Temple secured the third after a 9-6 run to force a fourth set, 19-25.
Temple led early in the fourth, opening the set on a 5-2 run, however a 9-1 for the Owls pushed Florida Atlantic back in front 11-6. Temple closed the gap to one at 13-12, however the Owls locked in to push their lead back out to three at 16-12 following a kill from Beckham. Florida Atlantic maintained a three-point advantage through 22-19 before scoring three unanswered to close out the set and secure the four-set win, 25-19.
UP NEXT
Florida Atlantic will head back out on the road next weekend as the Owls travel to Greenville, N.C. for a pair of matches against the ECU Pirates on Sept. 29 and 30. First serve on Friday is set for 6 p.m., while Saturday is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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