Drachslin Digs No. 1000 as Volleyball Sweeps Tulane

Wednesday, November 26

McGonigle Hall

7:00 PM

Temple University

23-8, 16-3

Tulane

5-26, 3-16

Tulane

Temple

Junior Alyssa Drachslin notched the 1,000th dig of her career

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Drachslin Digs No. 1000 as Volleyball Sweeps Tulane

11.26.14 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Junior Alyssa Drachslin recorded her 1,000th-career dig and the Temple volleyball team hit .422 in a three-set sweep of conference-foe Tulane. The Owls moved to 23-8 overall, 14-5 in the American, topping the Green Wave (5-26, 3-16) using set scores of 25-11, 25-15, and 25-14.

Temple hit .343 or better in each set and made just seven total errors, marking the fewest errors for the team in a match all season. Sophomore Kirsten Overton led the accurate offense with 10 kills on just 13 swings to hit .692, while also recording five blocks. Freshmen Dara Peric and Izzy Rapacz each hit over .450, with Peric notching 12 kills and 10 digs for a double-double, and Rapacz tallying nine kills and three blocks. Junior Sandra Sydlik tallied 42 total assists in the win, while senior Jennifer Iacobini (6 blocks, 4 kills) and sophomore Tyler Davis (9 kills) rounded out the box score.

Defensively, Drachslin tallied 12 digs, including the 1,000th of her career, which came in the first set. The junior has now reached double figures in digs in all 19 of Temple's conference matches this season.

Head Coach Bakeer Ganes pointed to Drachlin's work ethic as one of the reasons for her success. "Alyssa has a lot of qualities that make a good libero and she's one of the hardest workers I've ever coached," he explained. "She's very coachable and very driven and ambitious. She was patient when she came in, and had an advantage to play behind a great libero in Chelsea Tupuola and now she's ready and stepping up big for us."

The Owls hit .500 in the first set, recording 13 kills on 26 attempts, without recording an error. Tulane grabbed the first point of the set, but Temple quickly built a six-point lead at 9-3 after a Peric kill. A block from Overton and Peric grew the Owl advantage to 13-4, and Tulane got no closer than nine points the rest of the way, as Temple closed out the 25-14 win.

Tulane had the early advantage in set two, going up 6-2 on a kill from Tea Juric. Temple battled back to take the lead at 13-12 on a block from Sydlik and Overton before an Owl attack error tied the match at 13-13. From that point on, it was all Temple as a long serving run from Sydlik boosted the Owls to eight unanswered points, making it a 21-13 game. The Owls faulted just slightly with a pair of service errors down the stretch, but closed out the set with a 25-15 win, punctuated by a block from Rapacz and Iacobini.

Temple wrapped up the sweep with another hot offensive performance in set three, as the Owls recorded just two hitting errors, attacking at a .448 clip. Junior Kayla Yingling got the cherry and white off to a fast start, serving five straight, including a pair of aces to give the team an early 6-1 lead. Temple's advantage grew to 13-5 on a huge winner from Overton, before Tulane battled back to get themselves within five points on a Sarah Ray kill at 13-8. The Owls allowed the Green Wave to get no closer than six points the rest of the way, finishing out the three-set win with an Overton kill to set the final score in the frame to 25-14.

Ganes stressed the importance of tonight's win after the match. "It was a really important win for us, to rebound and to do it in such an impressive way was really great," he noted. "We have one more and we really want to make the most out of our opportunities."

The Owls are back in action on Friday at 7 p.m., hosting Houston in the final conference match of the season. After the action, Temple will honor the class of 2015, seniors Tiffany Connatser, Alex Schmitt, and Jennifer Iacobini.

Box Score (PDF) | Post-Match Interviews