Comeback Bid Falls Short as Houston Sneaks by TUVB, 3-2

Friday, October 23

McGonigle Hall

7:00 p.m.

Temple University

15-6, 6-3American

Houston

15-6, 5-4American

Houston

Temple University

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Comeback Bid Falls Short as Houston Sneaks by TUVB, 3-2

10.23.15 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Temple volleyball team dropped a tight 3-2 match to Houston on Friday night, falling 25-23, 14-25, 25-22, 14-25, 15-13. The Owls move to 15-6 overall, 6-3 in the conference, while Houston improves to 15-6 with a 5-4 mark in The American.

Temple's three set losses came with a combined deficit of just seven points. Meanwhile, the Owls' wins were lopsided, as the cherry and white out-scored Houston, 50-28, in sets two and four.

Temple's middles were nearly unstoppable, as sophomore Janine Simmons (8 k, 5 b, .636) and junior Kirsten Overton (13 k, 2 b, .478) combined for 21 kills, hitting .530 with seven blocks. At the pins, junior Tyler Davis had 15 kills, hitting .306, sophomore Izzy Rapacz had 10 kills, hitting .300, and junior Caroline Grattan struck for seven kills, hitting .455. Rounding out the offense, sophomore Irem Asci had 11 kills, while senior Sandra Sydlik recorded 31 assists and freshman Hannah Vandegrift added 17.

Defensively, senior Alyssa Drachslin led four Temple players in double-figures in digs, recording a team-best 20. Classmate Kayla Yingling notched 13 on the night, while Sydlik and sophomore Dara Peric added 10 each. Sydlik rounded out the box score with three aces, while Drachslin and Asci added two apiece.

Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam pointed to some early struggles as the difference in the match tonight. "I felt like we had a lot of unforced errors, especially at the beginning of the match, that put us in a little hole," he explained. "Houston is a really good team, they were the only team to beat the top-team in the conference, SMU, so that tells you a lot about them. At the same time, I thought we made it a little easy on them at times."

Temple held a considerable edge on the attack, hitting .291, while Houston was held to .209. The Owls also carried a 69-53 advantage in digs, but were out-blocked by the Cougars, 9-7.

"Not everything was bad tonight," continued Ganesharatnam. "In fact, we did a lot of good things. Look at the sets we won, we dominated there. That's a good sign for us overall, we just have to find a way to be more consistent."

Temple had a slow start to the match, but hung within a few points of Houston in set one. At the end, it was the Cougars who nabbed the two-point win, out-hitting Temple, .213 to .154. In set two, Temple rebounded, hitting a massing .351, holding Houston to under .150, tying the match at 1-1 with a resounding 25-14 victory.

Following intermission, Houston came out strong in set three, opening a 4-0 advantage to start play. Temple whittled the lead down to two points on several occasions, but couldn't grab the lead, as the Cougars won another tight one, 25-23.

The Temple offense on fire in the fourth set, opening a 4-0 lead and not looking back. The Owls hit .571 in the stanza, connecting for 14 kills with just two errors, led by four kills each from Grattan and Overton. Houston would get no closer than a three-point deficit in the set, as the Owls tied the match at 2-2 with another 25-14 win.

Temple started strong in set five, taking an early 3-1 lead. However, one serving rotation for the Cougars proved to be too much for the Owls to handle. Houston rattled off six-straight points to go up, 7-3, forcing a Temple timeout. After the break, the Owls battled back to within two points at 8-6, and then later tied the set at 12-12 with a big block from Rapacz and Simmons. Houston nabbed the next two points to go up 14-12, before a Rapacz kill spoiled match point. The celebration was short-lived, however, as Houston put one to the floor on the next serve, taking the set, 15-13, and the match, 3-2.

Temple is back in action on Sunday, hosting Tulane at 1:00 p.m. The Owls will be available to sign autographs following the action, and fans will receive free team posters to get signed.

Box Score (PDF)