Volleyball's Strong Season Ends in A-10 Semifinals at the Hands of #12 Dayton

Saturday, November 17

Pittsburgh, Pa.

3:30 PM

Temple University

19-11

Dayton (A-10 Semifinal)

24-4

Temple

Dayton

Photo by: Dave Denoma

Volleyball's Strong Season Ends in A-10 Semifinals at the Hands of #12 Dayton

11.17.12 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The best season years for the Temple volleyball team has come to an end in the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals, as the fifth-seeded Owls suffered a 3-0 loss to #12 and top-seeded Dayton (24-4). Temple advanced to the semis with a 3-2 win over host Duquesne, and now concludes the season with a record of 19-11.

The Flyers will advance to Sunday's championship match after beating Temple by scores of 25-19, 25-16 and 25-14.

Gabriella Matautia led Temple with 15 kills in the match, also adding seven digs. Tiffany Connatser recorded 29 assists along with eight digs, while Elyse Burkert notched 11 kills to go with six digs. In the final match of her Temple career, Chelsea Tupuola led the team with 11 digs.

"Even though we lost today, we played a good match," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes. "We really came out and fought hard, and stayed in the match even though we were down sometimes multiple points. The girls really fought hard and never gave up. That's how our team is and how they've performed throughout the season. Nobody really thought we would do anything, and to finish fifth in the conference out of 12 teams, and then come here and beat higher-seeded Duquesne to give them their only home loss of the season- it's huge. I'm very proud of my team, not just as volleyball players but as people. I'm honored and thankful to have had the opportunity to work with them this season. "

Dayton's Rachel Krabacher led all players with 18 digs. Teammate Isolde Hannan recorded a match-best 10 blocks, while Shayne Brown had nine kills with no errors along with six blocks.

In the first set the Owls held strong until the midway point, and were tied with the Flyers at 14-14 until a big run for Dayton started to put the set out of reach.

The second and third sets saw Dayton take big leads early, and while Temple put some pressure on at times, the Flyers' blocking game was too strong. Dayton finished with 13.5 blocks in the match, and hit .355 to Temple's .119.

Check back to owlsports.com on Sunday to see who from Temple's team earns All-Championship honors.