#13 Oregon Proves to be Too Much for Temple Volleyball

Friday, August 28

McGonigle Hall

6:00 p.m.

Temple University

0-1

Oregon

1-0

Oregon

Temple University

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

#13 Oregon Proves to be Too Much for Temple Volleyball

8.28.15 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA -- Visiting Oregon proved worthy of its No. 13 national ranking, as the Ducks topped Temple Volleyball, 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-16), in the season opener for both teams on Friday night. The match was the second of the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West Temple Invitational, and was played in front of a packed home crowd at McGonigle Hall.

Oregon hit .394 as a team and also exhibited precision passing and tight defense. Temple put up a fight, battling back from several deficits with long rallies, but in the end, couldn't keep the lead against the nationally-ranked opponent.

Head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam cited the teams' resiliency and the attack as positive takeaways from tonight's match. "We kept competing all the way to the end, especially after the beginning of the third set," he noted. "It doesn't matter who we have on the other side of the net, we still want to compete and we did that today."

"The other good thing is that we were able to attack and didn't have to focus on just defending them," added Ganesharatnam. "It's a good sign. We have some good pin hitters who did a good job today, and our middles, who had a tough task, did everything they could."

Sophomore transfer Irem Asci led Temple's offense in her first match in cherry and white. The Charlotte transfer tallied 16 kills on the night, while also adding five digs. Junior Kirsten Overton had six kills and a pair of blocks on the night, while sophomore Dara Peric added five kills and seven digs. Senior setter Sandra Sydlik distributed 28 assists, while adding three kills on six attempts without an error. Senior Alyssa Drachslin paced the Owls' defense with a team-best 13 digs.

Temple opened the first set with a slim lead, but Oregon quickly turned things around, going up 7-3 on a Kacey Nady kill. The teams traded sideouts before Temple used a Ducks error and an Asci kill to cut the advantage to 11-8. The Owls held to the slim three-point deficit, until Oregon used an 7-2 run to increase their advantage to 21-14. An Izzy Rapacz kill made it 21-15, but that was the last point that Temple scored as the Ducks grabbed set one, 25-15.

Set two was a much closer affair. Overton and Asci heated up for the Owls, leading Temple to an early 6-4 advantage. After Oregon cut the lead to two, the Owls responded with kills from Rapacz and Dara Peric, pushing their advantage to 11-7. The Ducks were able to tied the match at 12-12, putting together a 5-1 run, and four sideouts later, the match was again tied, this time at 14-14. Oregon was able to break the deadlock, taking a small 17-15 lead on two more Nady kills. Temple kept the set score within three points, until a kills from Janine Simmons and Overton made it a 21-20 set. Oregon, however, closed out the set on a 4-1 run, earning the 25-21 victory to go up, 2-0.

The Owls were hampered by unforced errors at the start of set three, as the Ducks quickly jumped ahead, 5-0. Temple rebounded and kept the lead to around four points as late as 12-8. Oregon pulled away with a 6-2 run, making it 18-12 on another Nady point. The Owls got kills from Asci and Overton down the stretch, but the Ducks put the finishing touches on the match with a 25-16 set win, completing the sweep for the visitors.

Oregon was paced by Martenne Bettendorf's 13 kills, while Lindsey Vander Weide added 12. Nady finished her night with six kills and no errors to hit .545.

In the first match of the invitational, St. John's swept Navy, 3-0, using set scores of 25-15, 25-19, and 25-19.

The Crowne Plaza Philadelphia West Temple Invitational continues tomorrow with four matches. Navy and Oregon meet in the first match of the day (10:00 a.m.), followed by Temple vs. Navy at 1:00 p.m. St. John's will try its hand against Oregon at 3:30 p.m. and the Owls will close out the tournament with a 7:30 p.m. match against St. John's.

Box Score (PDF)