Four in a Row for Volleyball as Owls Top Tulsa

Sunday, October 26

McGonigle Hall

Noon

Temple University

16-6, 7-3

Tulsa

13-8, 5-5

Tulsa

Temple

Tyler Davis had a career-best 26 kills for the Owls

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Four in a Row for Volleyball as Owls Top Tulsa

10.26.14 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Temple volleyball won its fourth match in a row, defeating American Athletic Conference opponent, Tulsa, on Sunday afternoon at McGonigle Hall. The Owls won the first two sets and then held on for the 3-1 victory, with set scores of 25-18, 25-20, 35-37, and 25-14.

Temple moves to 16-6 on the season, 7-3 in the American, snapping Tulsa's five-match winning streak. The Golden Hurricane dips to 13-8 overall, 5-5 in the American.

Head coach Bakeer Ganes stressed the importance of winning at home this weekend "I thought it was really important to take care of business at home," he noted. "It was not an easy task, but I think the team did a very good job executing to make sure we got two wins this weekend."

The Owls had a number of outstanding performances, led by Tyler Davis who recorded 26 kills, while hitting .324. It was a career-best kill total for the sophomore, and also the most kills in a four-set match in over five years for the Owls. Sophomore Kirsten Overton also had a career-day, matching her best effort with 15 kills, while hitting .458 and tallying four blocks. Junior Sandra Sydlik had a double-double with 60 assists and 14 digs, while freshman Dara Peric recorded nine kills and a team-high 22 digs. Rounding out the box score for Temple, juniors Alyssa Drachslin and Kayla Yingling each recorded 21 digs.

Sets one and two were close through the early going, before Temple pulled away to record wins in both. In set one, the Owls held a slim 16-14 lead before closing out the set with a 9-4 run, backed by four Tulsa attack errors. Set two followed a similar script, with the match tied 16-16, before Temple closed it out on another 9-4 run, taking a 2-0 match lead.

72 points were played in a marathon third set that saw Tulsa come away with a 37-35 win. The set was tied 23 times and 12 match points were spoiled before the final Hurricane winner. Tyler Davis had 11 kills in the set for the Owls, while Valerie El Houssine and Erica Bohannon combined for 19 kills for Tulsa, including Bohannon putting down the final two points for the 37-35 Hurricane win.

Ganes said the team was confident heading into the fourth set, despite dropping the marathon third. "I think the third set showed how competitive we are, but we knew we were up 2-1 at home, and we knew we are a very well-conditioned team," he said. "Even though it was a very hard match on Friday, we had an advantage because we're at home and Tulsa had to travel. So we knew we had some insurance there and we were pretty confident heading into the fourth set."

Temple came out firing in set four, quickly jumping out to a 10-3 lead. The Owls increased their advantage to 11 on a Davis kill at 18-7, before Tulsa whittled it down to eight at 20-12 on a Paige Panfill winner. Temple didn't allow the visitors to get any closer, closing out the set on kills from Overton and Davis and a pair of service errors from Tulsa, setting the final to 25-14 and giving Temple the 3-1 match win.

The Owls are back on the road next weekend, playing American matches on Friday against Memphis (8:00 p.m.) and Sunday against Cincinnati (1:00 p.m.).

Box Score | Post-Match Interviews