Volleyball's Seven-Match Win Streak Halted by Nationally-Ranked Dayton

Saturday, September 29

McGonigle Hall

7:00 PM

Temple University

13-5, 3-1 A-10

Dayton

12-4, 4-0 A-10

Dayton

Temple

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Volleyball's Seven-Match Win Streak Halted by Nationally-Ranked Dayton

9.29.12 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The blocking strength of #20 Dayton proved too much for Temple volleyball, as the Owls had their seven-match win streak halted at the hands of the Flyers in three sets on Saturday night. Dayton (12-4, 4-0) remains unbeaten in the Atlantic 10, while Temple (13-5, 3-1) drops its first league match as well as its first home match of the season.

Elyse Burkert led Temple offensively with 10 kills, while Gabriella Matautia notched six kills along with a match-tying 14 digs. Also recording 14 digs was Chelsea Tupuola.

Isolde Hannan recorded a kill-block double-double to lead the Flyers, getting a match-high 13 kills along with a match-high 11 blocks. She hit .550 with just two errors, and as a team the Flyers hit .388 for the match. Megan Campbell and Rachel Krabacher each recorded nine kills and just one error for Dayton.

"This is just a different level of competetion than we have faced all season long," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes. "It's a good learning experience for our team. We really can't afford to make mental mistakes against a team like that...we're having a good season obviously and doing much better than we did for the last few seasons, but we're still worlds away from a team like Dayton. We just have to get back to the gym and keep doing what we need to do in order to improve, and hopefully down the road we can close that gap and compete with a program like Dayton."

Dayton's strength at the net made it tough for the Owls to get in their game, and a number of Temple hitting errors were the result of blocks by the Flyers. In the first set, Dayton recorded 14 team kills with just two errors, and led by a wide margin most of the way to win 25-16.

Temple looked much stronger for most of the second set, and was within a point or two of Dayton for a stretch midway through. The Owls trailed by just two, 17-15 when the Flyers began to pull away. Dayton combined five kills with three blocks en route to recording its final eight points, and won the set 25-18.

The Flyers saved their best hitting for the third set, getting 17 kills and recording just a single error. Temple tried setting its hitters from all spots but kept running into Dayton blockers, as was the story for most of the match. The Flyers won the set, 25-10.

Ultimately, Temple comes away 1-1 on the week after a thrilling, 3-2 win over Xavier and the 3-0 loss to Dayton.

"We're talking about a split between the two top teams here," said Ganes. "This was a great weekend for us as a program. Being 3-1 in the conference is great and we need to be aware of that. I think the program is heading in the right direction, and we're probably a couple years ahead from where we should be right now. At the same time, losing is never fun so we're going to do everything in our power to get better."

The Owls will play just one match next week and stay nearby, heading up the road to La Salle for a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday, Oct. 5.