Volleyball Wins 2016 Big 5 Championship

Saturday, September 17

(at La Salle)

11:00 a.m.

Temple University

6-3

La Salle University

8-6

TEMPLE

LaSalle

Volleyball Wins 2016 Big 5 Championship

9.17.16 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score vs. La Salle (PDF)Box Score vs. Penn (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA -- The Temple volleyball team took home the 2016 Philadelphia Big 5 Championship on Saturday, with the Owls completing a sweep of the tournament with wins over La Salle (3-1) and Penn (3-0). Temple improves to 7-3 on the season with their third Big 5 title, which also marked the 100th win of Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam's career.

Sophomore Mia Heirakuji was named the tournament MVP, leading the Owls in digs in all three matches. She racked up 43 total digs, averaging 4.30 per set. Senior Tyler Davis was named to the All-Tournament team, racking up 21 kills during the event.

Temple 3, La Salle 1
Box Score (PDF)

Temple opened day two of the tournament with a 3-1 victory over La Salle at Tom Gola Arena. The Owls rallied from a first-set loss, to win 23-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-19, moving to 2-0 in the tournament, and 6-3 overall. La Salle falls to 8-6 on the season and 0-2 in the tournament.

The Owls' offense picked up after a slow first set, and the Temple defense held La Salle to just a .119 attack for the match. Three players recorded double-doubles for the Owls, juniors Irem Asci (15 kills, 11 digs), Izzy Rapacz (14 kills, 12 digs), and Kyra Coundourides (39 assists, 11 digs).

From the middle, senior Kirsten Overton and sophomore Iva Deak both notched six kills, while Overton adding four blocks and Deak, three. Senior Tyler Davis had seven kills, while classmate Caroline Grattan had four in two sets of action, while sophomore Mia Heirakuji led the team with 16 digs.

Temple struggled offensively in the first set, hitting just .174. The Owls faced a 3-0 deficit from the outset, and La Salle did not trail in the frame. With the Explorers leading 10-5, Temple rallied back to within two points (15-13) after an Asci ace and a block from Rapacz and Overton. Following the Owl surge, La Salle increased the advantage to 17-13, before Temple battled back to tie things at 17-17 with back-to-back blocks from Deak and Davis. La Salle kept the advantage however, and sealed the set with two kills down the strech, making it 25-23.

The Owls responded with a 25-17 win in set two, tying the match at 1-1. The teams went back and forth, with neither side leading by more than three points early. Finally, tied at 13-13, the Owls began to pull away. La Salle kept things close, cutting the Temple lead to one at 17-16, but The Owls went on an 8-1 run to nab the victory. Down the stretch, Temple got hot hitting from both Asci and Rapacz, with Coundourides on the service line for the bulk of the final run.

Set three was all Temple, as the Owls opened up a 7-1 lead and never looked back. La Salle made one run to get back to two, at 12-10, but Temple score the next five points, including kills from Rapacz and Overton, to make it 17-10. The Explorers got no closer than a five-point deficit the rest of the way, as Temple closed the set on a 7-2 run to make it 25-15 in the frame, and 2-1 in the match.

Temple 3, Penn 0
Box Score (PDF)

Temple closed out its Big 5 sweep with a 3-0 win over Penn. The Owls used set scores of 25-18, 25-16, and 25-17 to breeze by the Quakers (4-8).

Asci topped the Owls' offense with 14 kills, hitting .417. Rapacz ended the match with nine kills, eight digs, and three blocks, while Kirsten Overton had eight kills, hitting .667 with four blocks. Davis rounded out the offense with seven kills, while Coundourides had 25 assists. Heirakuji again led the defense, tallying 15 digs.

With the first set tied 5-5, Temple went on a 5-1 run, including kills from Asci and Davis to take control, going up, 10-6. After forcing a Penn TO, the Owls continued the run with six unanswered points, opening a 16-6 advantage. The Quakers rallied to get the Temple advantage down to six points, but the Owls pressed on, going to 23-13 on a Rapacz winner. Penn responded with a small run to get to within eight, but Temple ended things on a Davis kill, winning the set, 25-18.

Temple needed to rally in the second set to go up, 2-0. Trailing much of the first part of the action, the Temple used a 4-1 run to knot things at 13-13. From there, Temple again surged, this time to an 8-2 run, backed by aces from Coundourides and Asci and kills from Davis and Rapacz, making it 23-15. The Owls then closed things out on an Asci kill and a Penn attack error, winning the frame, 25-16.

Temple turned a close third set in its favor with an extended run mid-way through action. Trailing 9-8, the Owls put together a 9-2 run to make it a 19-11 score. Coundourides and Peric each had an extended serving streak during the run, which was also aided by multiple kills from Asci. Penn got no close than a seven-point deficit thte rest of the way, as the Owls won it on a Deak kill to make the set final, 25-17.

Temple closes its 2016 non-conference season with a 7-3 record. The Owls next begin play in the American Athletic Conference, opening the season on Friday against Tulane at McGonigle Hall.