Volleyball Stays Unbeaten With a 3-1 Win Over Charlotte at the Temple Invitational

Friday, September 5

McGonigle Hall

6:00 PM

Temple University

4-0

Charlotte

4-3

Charlotte

Temple

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Volleyball Stays Unbeaten With a 3-1 Win Over Charlotte at the Temple Invitational

9.5.14 | Women's Volleyball

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PHILADELPHIA - Caroline Grattan's double-double of 16 kills and 13 digs led Temple volleyball to a 3-1 win against Charlotte (4-3) in the Owls' first match of their own Temple Invitational. The Owls remain undefeated at 4-0 overall, and will play Princeton on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. followed by a match against Holy Cross at 4:30 p.m.

Alyssa Drachslin recorded a match-best 22 digs, including nine in the fourth set. Sandra Sydlik earned her second double-double in three matches played, adding 13 digs to 43 assists. Tyler Davis was just one dig away from a double-double, finishing with 14 kills and nine digs. Freshman Dara Peric contributed 12 kills, and Jennifer Iacobini had a strong match with seven kills, a match-best hitting percentage of .400 and a match-best six blocks. The Owls lost the first set 25-20, but came back to win the next three by scores of 25-20, 25-16 and 25-21.

Temple's fans came out strong for the first home match of the season, and Davis commented on how much it helped the team.

"The band playing at timeouts was great," she said, "and the cheerleaders being here, and just having a lot of energy in the gym was really cool."

"The band makes a tremendous difference," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes. "They're unbelievable. Not just for us and to pump us up, but also kind of deflating the opponent too. They were on them, and that's a big advantage."

There were some first home match jitters for the Owls early on, who committed a few errors near the midway point of the first set to allow Charlotte to take the lead. The Owls then earned five of six points to tie the score at 20-20, but the 49ers' Irem Asci knocked down three kills in a row to put her team in the lead for good as Charlotte won, 25-20.

"We always have to keep in mind that we lost two excellent seniors in Elyse (Burkert) and Gabby (Matautia)," said Temple head coach Bakeer Ganes. "They were the ones who would lead us in situations like this, and now we don't have them. This team is very young, and they were nervous. So that was expected. As coaches we had to help them work through it."

Temple recovered well, as Grattan and Davis knocked down five kills apiece to lead the Owls to a 25-20 win in the second set. They hit six more kills as a team, and were much stronger defensively as well. Drachslin recorded eight digs in the second set, keeping the ball alive on a number of rallies that were won by Temple.

The Owls took a 7-0 lead to start the third set and never looked back. They hit .324 as a team compared to .135 for Charlotte, and won by a score of 25-16. Davis and Peric each recorded six kills with only a single error in the set, and Grattan was strong on defense with six digs. The fourth set was another big one for Grattan, who had six kills to help Temple to a 25-21 win.