Volleyball Begins 2012 Season This Weekend at South Carolina Gamecock Invitational

Friday, August 24

Columbia, SC

12:30 PM

Temple University

South Carolina

Senior Chelsea Tupuola

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Volleyball Begins 2012 Season This Weekend at South Carolina Gamecock Invitational

8.23.12 | Women's Volleyball

Owls set to face South Carolina, East Tennessee State, UNC Asheville and Akron

PHILADELPHIA - The 2012 season begins on the road for the Temple Volleyball Team, as the Owls are set to face four opponents this coming weekend at the South Carolina Gamecock Invitational. First up for Temple is a match at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 24 against the host team South Carolina. Check the volleyball schedule or the Gamecock Invitational website for links to Gametracker for all four matches. The South Carolina match will also have live video available for subscribers HERE.

The team will play its second match of the day at 5:30 p.m. on Friday against East Tennessee State. On Saturday the Owls begin by playing UNC Asheville at 10:00 a.m., and will finish the tournament with a match against Akron at 5:00 p.m.

Second-year head coach Bakeer Ganes and student-athletes Chelsea Tupuola and Elyse Burkert recently spoke about the upcoming season. The links to those videos are below:

Chelsea and Elyse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eB6ei0lR2g&feature=youtu.be
Ganes on preseason and opening weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpydRKg2F0w&feature=youtu.be
Ganes on leadership and team goals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcdoMNZjrYQ&feature=youtu.be

With one year of head coaching under his belt, Ganes looks to continue making strides with Temple volleyball in the 2012 season. The second-year head coach helped the Owls double their win total from 2010 in his first season at the helm, and believes this year's team will only keep improving.

Ganes returns seven letterwinners this season, including four starters and the team's starting libero. Tupuola, the libero and the team's most experienced senior, has played in every match for Temple over the last two seasons and will anchor a team that prides itself on defense.

Leading the attack are juniors Gabriella Matautia and Burkert, who ranked first and second in kills last year, respectively. Sophomore setter Tiffany Connatser also returns to the starting lineup after leading the team in assists as a freshman in 2011. Sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Iacobini also returns after starting in 18 matches a year ago.

Outside hitter Caitlin McMillen will return for her senior season, and sophomore Alex Schmitt will look to make an impact at the middle blocker position after struggling with injury a year ago.

Fans will see many new faces for the Owls this year, as six newcomers join the team. Four of those are true freshmen: Alyssa Drachslin, Sandra Sydlik, Regina Trabosh and Alicia Wennberg. Annemarie Boehm joins the team as a junior after two years playing in her home country of Germany, and Jingyu Zhang, a native of Tianjin, China, will join the Owls for her senior season.

“As far as our goals for the season, we really just want to take it game by game,” said Ganes. “We always want to increase the number of wins, but I really just want us to focus on the process of getting better as a program. If we do that, the wins will come.”

South Carolina returns four starters and its starting libero from the 2011 team, which, similar to Temple, doubled its wins from the previous year under coach Scott Swanson. Returning for the Gamecocks is the leading attacker by kills, junior outside hitter Juliette Thévenin.

Five starters return for Akron, who posted a 4-25 record last year and a 1-15 mark in the MAC. Ron Arenz is in his fifth year leading Akron's volleyball team. East Tennessee State returns four starters under 10th-year head coach Lindsey Devine. The Bucs went 14-16 last season, including a 7-6 mark in the Atlantic Sun. Five starters return for UNC Asheville under coach Frederico Santos, who led the team to a 15-14 mark a year ago.