Temple University Athletics
Temple University
7-1
La Salle
1-10
Volleyball Splits Matches on Final Day of the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West Penn Invitational
9.15.13 | Women's Volleyball
PHILADELPHIA (The Palestra) – On the second and final day of the Penn Invitational, Temple volleyball defeated La Salle 3-1 before falling in a tight five sets to Penn. It was only the second loss of the season for the Owls, snapping a seven-match winning streak. Temple now stands at 7-2 overall, matching its best start since 2001.
"I'm not too worried about the win streak," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes. "I say it over and over, but all I'm concerned with is how we improve as a team, regardless of wins and losses. Obviously we're disappointed because we wanted to beat Penn and we had opportunities, but we made too many unforced errors as a whole in the match. That's something we need to work on and we'll address that and work on that this week in practice."
Against La Salle (1-10), Temple won by scores of 25-18, 25-15, 20-25 and 25-16. Gabriella Matautia led the Owls with 14 kills and a hitting percentage of .414, while Emily Carlin knocked down 12 kills. Libero Alyssa Drachslin tallied a match-best 23 digs, and Tiffany Connatser led all players with 46 assists.
Freshmen Caroline Grattan and Halle McCullough both had very strong performances against the Explorers, recording nine and eight kills, respectively, with just one error apiece. Grattan nearly had a double-double, adding 13 digs to her nine kills.
Ganes was very impressed with his newcomers throughout the week, noting in particular the play of Tyler Davis, Grattan, Kirsten Overton and Kayla Yingling.
"That was the good thing about this weekend," he said. "Tyler was great all the way around. Caroline was very consistent and has been playing very well for two weeks now. Kirsten had a tremendous game yesterday. She had a sore back today so we were cautious and sat her out. So all the freshmen were great, and Kayla, even though she didn't play much, delivered what we asked her to."
After defeating La Salle, the Owls had only a short break before facing Penn (2-4). They lost a close first set, 25-23, but rallied to win the next two by scores of 25-13 and 25-19. The Quakers then evened the match with a 25-21 fourth-set win, and the final set went to extra points before Penn pulled out a 16-14 win.
Three Temple players notched double-doubles in the Penn match. Matautia and Tyler Davis recorded 15 kills apiece, with 12 and 11 digs, respectively. Sandra Sydlik added a team-best 23 digs to her match-best 44 assists. Grattan was once again extremely close to a double-double, leading Temple with 16 kills while also tallying nine digs. Drachslin was strong in the back row yet again with 20 digs.
The Owls trailed Penn 13-8 in the final set before surging back with a 6-0 run to have match-point at 14-13. The run ended just a little too early, as three straight kills for Penn ended the match in favor of the Quakers.
The La Salle match featured some big runs for Temple as well, as Matautia served during a 9-0 run in the second set, while Jennifer Iacobini served during an 8-0 run in the fourth set.
Temple will play at home for the first time this season next weekend when the Owls host their annual Temple Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 20-21. The round-robin action will also feature teams from Hofstra, Delaware State and Brown.
