ORLANDO, Fla. (SMU) – The SMU volleyball team was eliminated from the American Athletic Conference Championship in a 3-0, semifinal loss to UCF on its home floor (25-17, 25-13, 25-23).

The Mustangs, seeded second in the tournament after winning the west division, fell to 18-9, while No. 3-seed UCF improved to 23-7 and advanced to the conference championship match Sunday.

SMU scored just 34 kills in the match, while the Knights finished with 50, including a match-high 19 by McKenna Melville. Montana Watts recorded 24 digs for SMU, and Kendall Patterson tallied 10. Hannah Jacobs led the SMU offense with nine kills, and Rachel Woulfe scored seven.

In the third set, SMU erased a late, three-point UCF lead, 18-15. The Mustangs scored four of the next five points to tie the score, 19-19. It was the first tied score since 10-10. Jacobs scored back-to-back kills to give SMU a 21-20 lead, its first since the score was 2-1. Melville answered with two straight kills to start a 4-1 run for the Knights. Woulfe scored a kill on the first match-point chance, but the Knights blocked the SMU attack on the next chance to complete the sweep, 25-23.

The Mustangs final regular-season match is Nov. 29 against North Texas in Moody Coliseum at 2 p.m.