Volleyball Wins Rematch Against Memphis to Move into Second Place

Friday, October 31

Memphis, Tenn.

8:00 PM

Temple University

17-6, 8-3AAC

Memphis

18-7, 8-3AAC

Temple

Memphis

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Volleyball Wins Rematch Against Memphis to Move into Second Place

10.31.14 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Temple volleyball team picked up a 3-0 sweep on the road at Memphis on Friday night in a match-up of the second and third place teams in the American Athletic Conference. The Owls won three close sets, 25-20, 25-21, and 25-20, moving to 17-6 overall, 8-3 in the conference. The Tigers fall to 18-7, with an identical 8-3 record in the American.

Freshman Dara Peric led the offense with 12 kills and also added 13 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Senior Jennifer Iacobini led the Owls with a .389 hitting percentage, piling on nine kills and a match-high seven blocks. Sophomores Tyler Davis (8 kills) and Kirsten Overton (7 kills) also aided the offense, while junior Sandra Sydlik notched 36 assists. Defensively, junior Alyssa Drachslin led all players with 23 digs, while classmate Kayla Yingling added 11.

Coming into the match, Memphis had allowed opponents just a .174 hitting percentage, a conference best number. Tonight it was the Owls with the strong defense, as Temple held Memphis to a .142 attack.

Earlier in the season, Memphis topped Temple 3-1 at home, and head coach Bakeer Ganes said although it's hard to compare the two matches, the Owls did make adjustments heading into tonight's clash. "Tonight, we wanted to make sure to run our middles," he noted. "We knew we had a quickness advantage there, and today we were able to do that consistently, which we weren't able to do the first time we played. We also wanted to put pressure on them with our serve and that was one of the keys to the win tonight."

Temple took control of a tight first set, coming out of an 11-11 tie with four straight points. After the Owl surge, Memphis answered with three straight to make it 15-14. Temple then regained the momentum with a 7-1 run, as three kills from Peric and a pair of aces put the Owls up 22-15. Memphis scored five of the next six points to close the gap to 23-20, but Temple got back-to-back kills from Halle McCullough and Tyler Davis to wrap up the set.

Temple grabbed an early 10-7 edge in set three, but Memphis fired back and tied things at 13-13 on a Caitlin Lilly kill. Temple went on a 5-1 run to take an 18-14 advantage, but Memphis again battled back, knotting the set at 18-18 after four straight points. The hosts were able to take a late 21-20 lead, but Temple closed out the set with by scoring six straight, with Iacobini and Davis each recording two kills in the final surge.

In the third and final set, Temple handed Memphis all tricks and no treats, using 7.5 team blocks to wrap up the Halloween win. The Owls opened with an 8-4 lead, forcing four early attack errors from Memphis. The Tigers rebounded and came back to tie the match at 9-9, but neither team was able to grab more than a two-point advantage. With the set tied 19-19, Temple used four blocks to score six out of the final seven points, taking the 25-20 set win and the 3-0 match sweep.

Ganes pointed to the block as the key to the set three win. "We had only one block heading into the set, but things were working -- the setup was very good," he said. "In the third, Tyler and Jennifer both had some really good blocks. Memphis kept attacking from the outside, but the block was there. It made a huge difference and it was the reason we won the set."

Temple will look to match its longest win streak of the season on Sunday, as the Owls travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats at 1:00 p.m.

Box Score