Volleyball Wins the Temple Invitational With a Sweep of Cornell; Chelsea Tupuola Named MVP and Best Libero

Saturday, September 15

McGonigle Hall

5:00 PM

Temple University

10-4

Cornell

2-7

Cornell

Temple

Owls with their team trophy from the 2012 Temple Volleyball Invitational

Volleyball Wins the Temple Invitational With a Sweep of Cornell; Chelsea Tupuola Named MVP and Best Libero

9.15.12 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

l Post-match interviews

PHILADELPHIA - It was three matches and three wins for the Temple volleyball team at its own Temple Invitational as the Owls captured the team title and improved to 10-4 on the season after a 3-0 sweep of Cornell. Chelsea Tupuola was named the Tournament MVP as well as Best Libero, while Jingyu Zhang earned the honor of Best Spiker.

The Owls completed the non-conference season with two tournament wins and a runner-up finish out of four tournaments, and are still having their best start to a season since 2002.

Tupuola averaged an outstanding 7.00 digs per set over Temple's three wins this weekend, including a career-tying 34 digs against Central Connecticut. She led all players with 13 digs as Temple swept Cornell by scores of 25-22, 25-19 and 25-17.

Gabriella Matautia knocked down a match-best 20 kills and committed only two errors against the Big Red, hitting .529 for the match. She made it a double-double with 12 digs, and also served up three aces. Zhang recorded 11 kills and eight digs, while Elyse Burkert tallied 10 kills and nine digs.

Having the best performance of her career at the net was Jennifer Iacobini with a career and match-high seven blocks. Tiffany Connatser and Annemarie Boehm also contributed to Temple's 11 total blocks with four apiece.

In each of the first two sets, Matautia recorded eight kills and zero errors, hitting over .600. Temple out-hit Cornell .302 to .125 in the opening set, knocking down 17 kills compared to 10 for the Big Red. The score was tied only twice in the first set but it was tight throughout with the Owls holding only a slim lead after midway point. Matautia recorded two of her kills in the final four points including the set-winner to prevent Cornell from catching the Owls.

As a team, the Owls struggled a bit more in the second set with their hitting, but the strength of Matautia on attack as well as the team's improved blocking kept Temple on top. There were nine ties and six lead changes, but after the final tie at 14-14 the Owls started pulling away. Zhang came up with a few key kills down the stretch and with a 25-19 win, Temple found itself up 2-0 for the match.

Temple dominated in the third and final set, hitting .500 compared to .233 for Cornell. Zhang, Burkert, and Matautia notched four kills apiece in the set as the Owls led throughout. An ace from Matautia gave Temple set and match point before Zhang knocked down a kill for the winner.