Temple University Athletics
Temple University
17-9, 8-6AACC
Houston
16-13, 9-6AAC
Volleyball Drops Four-Set Match at Houston
11.17.13 | Women's Volleyball
HOUSTON, Texas - Despite a double-double of a match-high 15 kills along with 15 digs from senior Gabriella Matautia, the Temple volleyball team dropped a four-set match at Houston (16-13, 9-6) by scores of 19-25, 25-17, 18-25, and 19-25. The Owls (17-9, 8-6) finished with more kills than the Mustangs, but struggled with hitting errors and on serve receive.
"We made some errors," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes, "and in general, we're just not playing well enough. We play well at home, and we have to be able to play well on the road too. We made some mistakes on serve receive. It's all about communication on the court and tracking the serve and we didn't do a good job with that. We didn't do a good job executing the offense. We have to go back into the gym and regroup and address all these issues and see if we can fix them in order to be ready for the next opponent."
Also recording a double-double for Temple was freshman Caroline Grattan with 10 kills to go with 10 digs. Alyssa Drachslin tied Matautia for team-high honors with 15 digs. Jennifer Iacobini recorded a team-best five blocks, while Matautia added four blocks to her impressive stat line.
The Cougars recorded five of their 14 total blocks in the first set, leading to a number of hitting errors for Temple, but the Owls recovered well in the second set. They recorded nine fewer errors in a 25-17 second-set win, and out-hit Houston .303 to .147. Temple led from the first point and never trailed as it went on to even the match at one set apiece.
Houston had its best hitting performance in the third set, making a difference down the stretch after nine early ties. Matautia helped the Owls put up a strong fight in the fourth set by knocking down five kills and committing just a single error, but a few errors by the Owls near the end of the set put a stop to their hopes of a comeback.
Sarita Mikals finished with a team-best 14 kills for Houston, and libero Natalie Keck had an impressive performance in the back row for the Cougars with a match-high 29 digs.
Temple will have two more matches on the road before finally returning home. Next weekend has the Owls traveling to both Rutgers and UConn for American Athletic Conference contests.
