Strong Defense Powers Temple Volleyball to a 3-1 Win Over Houston

Friday, October 11

McGonigle Hall

7:00 PM

Temple University

12-4, 3-1American

Houston (Dig Pink)

10-9, 3-2American

Houston

Temple

Jennifer Iacobini recorded a career-high eight blocks in a 3-1 win vs. Houston

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Strong Defense Powers Temple Volleyball to a 3-1 Win Over Houston

10.11.13 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - With a well-balanced attack and one of its best defensive performances of the season, Temple volleyball beat visiting Houston 3-1 in American Athletic Conference action on Friday night. The Owls won by scores of 25-16, 29-27, 19-25 and 25-21 to improve to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in league play, while Houston now stands at 10-9 for the season and 3-2 in the conference.

Temple's 10 blocks were its second-most in a four-set match this season, as were its 76 digs. The blocking effort was led by Jennifer Iacobini with a career-high of eight, while Alyssa Drachslin recorded a match-best 27 digs.

"We've been working on blocking for awhile," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes, "and I think today was probably a coming out party for us in that aspect. We had double-digit blocks which is really good for us. We're undersized and we know that, but we can still do things to slow down the attack of the opponent and I thought we did a good job of that today."

Caroline Grattan and Gabriella Matautia led Temple with 14 kills apiece, and Matautia made it a double-double with 10 digs. Sandra Sydlik also finished with a double-double, recording 46 assists and 20 digs, and had other impressive numbers as well with five kills and four blocks. Elyse Burkert was the Owls' third player with double figures in kills, recording 10.

Kirsten Overton was Temple's most efficient hitter of the night, recording nine kills with just a single error in 14 attempts for a percentage of .571.

"I think what worked for us tonight was not letting it affect our mindset that Houston was bigger than us and equally matched," said Grattan after the win. "We played our own game and focused on our side and what we could do to adjust. We stayed focus on our own skills and on executing what we needed to."

Temple out-hit Houston .280 to .083 on its way to winning the first set 25-16. The Owls' well-balanced attack saw five players record two or more kills, and Temple had 14 total kills in the set to the Cougars' seven.

The second set was a nail-biter down the stretch, with 12 total ties and five lead changes. The Owls were on the wrong side of set-point three times, but were able to get the next point each time.

Two of those set-points were thwarted by kills from Burkert, including the kill to make it 27-27. Matautia then gave Temple its own set point with a kill to make it 28-27, and Burkert came through once again for the set-winning kill.

Sydlik and Drachslin kept Temple in that second set defensively, with 11 and nine digs, respectively. Sydlik had a double-double in the second set alone, as she also recorded 14 assists.

Houston came back to have its best set after the narrow loss, hitting .238 and building a strong lead by the midway point. Temple narrowed a 20-11 deficit to 20-16, but the Owls were able to get no closer and eventually dropped the set, 25-19.

Temple took the momentum back early in the fourth set, surging out to 6-0 and 8-1 leads, aided by two early service aces for Sydlik. Houston chipped away throughout the set and trailed by only two points as late as 21-19. Back-to-back errors on the Cougars gave Temple a cushion, and kills by Matautia and Grattan in the final three points helped end the set and the match in Temple's favor.

The Owls will be back in action at home on Sunday, Oct. 13 against SMU at 1:00 p.m.