Volleyball Faces West Virginia in NIVC Second Round on Wednesday

Wednesday, November 29

Morgantown, WV

6:00 p.m.

Temple University

West Virginia University

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Volleyball Faces West Virginia in NIVC Second Round on Wednesday

11.28.17 | Women's Volleyball

Live Stats Watch Live Match Notes (PDF)

MORGANTOWN, W.V. -- The Temple volleyball team will play host West Virginia in the second round of the 2017 National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) on Wednesday night. The match begins at 6:00 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum.

THE OWLS
> Temple opened the 2017 NIVC with a 3-0 sweep over Campbell in the tournament's first round.
> The win improved Temple's overall record to 20-9, marking the fourth-straight 20-win season for the Owls.
> The Owls finished the regular season with a 19-9 overall record, earning the American Athletic Conference's AQ to the NIVC.

POSTSEASON PLAY
> Temple is making a return to the postseason for the first time in 15 years.
> The Owls have four previous postseason appearances, all coming in the NCAA Tournament.
> The last time the Owls played in the postseason was 2002 when the team advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.

MOVING ON
> The third round of the tournament will run from December 1-3.
> The winner of Temple and West Virginia will take on the winner out of the Colgate bracket, which includes Colgate, Syracuse, Albany, and Towson.
> Semifinals will take place from December 4-9.
> The Championship will be held on Tuesday, December 12 at 7:00 p.m. and will air on ESPN3.

SCOUTING TEMPLE
> Senior Izzy Rapacz leads the team with 3.52 kills per set, also averaging 2.48 digs and 1.12 blocks per set.
> Redshirt Freshman Dana Westfield contributes 2.75 kills per frame.
> Junior Iva Deak (2.07 kills/set) and senior Janine Simmons (1.64 kills/set) and shore up the middle for the Owls.
> Simmons leads the team with 1.19 blocks per set.
> Coundourides averages 10.38 assists and 2.80 digs per set.
> Junior Mia Heirakuji tops the Owls' defense with 4.02 digs per set.
> Freshman Katerina Papazoglou adds 1.80 kills and 1.82 digs per set.
> Senior Dara Peric also contributes all around with 1.30 kills per set and 2.40 digs per frame.
> As a team, the Owls hit .248, holding opponents to a .187 attack.

LAST TIME OUT: Temple 3, Campbell 0 (11/28/17 at WVU)
> The Temple volleyball team opened their first postseason tournament in 15 years with a convincing 3-0 sweep over Campbell (25-18, 25-9, and 25-16) at the WVU Coliseum.
> Temple hit .316 holding Campbell to a negative team attack, as the Camels managed just a -.044 offense.
> Deak finished her night with 10 kills with no errors, hitting .667, while adding four blocks.
> Papazoglou and Rapacz tallied seven kills each, while Westfield had six.
> Simmons led the Owls with six blocks, while Heirakuji had 13 digs.
> Coundourides dished out 30 assists and added seven digs.

SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
> West Virginia enters the NIVC second round carrying a 19-12 overall record.
> The Mountaineers grabbed the Big 12's AQ to the NIVC and opened the tournament with a 3-0 sweep over Maryland Eastern Shore.
> West Virginia has won three straight matches, including a 3-2 win over #14 Kansas to close the regular season.
> The Mountaineers are led by All-Big 12 first team selection, Payton Caffrey, who averages 3.46 kills and 2.41 digs per set.
> Second team All-Big 12 selection, Mia Swanegan, was second in the conference with 1.25 blocks per set, hitting .261 with 2.26 kills per frame.
> Katelyn Evans is second on the team with 2.51 kills per set, while Natania Levak chips in with 2.15 kills per frame.
> Erin Slinde runs the Mountaineer offense to the tune of 9.29 assists per set, while Emma Anderson adds 6.93 per frame.
> Defensively, Gianna Gotterba leads WHU with 3.54 digs per set.
> As a team the Mountaineers hit .220, holding opponents to a 1.91 attack.

LAST TIME OUT
> West Virginia hit .379 as a team to open NIVC play with a 3-0 sweep over Maryland Eastern Shore.
> The Mountaineers won 25-18, 25-18, 25-14.
> Caffrey led WVU with a 17-kill, 17-dig double-double.
> Levak added 12 kills while Swanegan and Morgan Montgomery each added seven.
> Slinde dished out 23 assists, while Anderson added 18.

TEMPLE VS. WEST VIRGINIA
> West Virginia owns the all-time series against the Owls, 13-9, but Temple has won eight straight matches against the Mountaineers.
> The teams last met in 2002, when Temple claimed at 3-0 win over WVU in Philadelphia.

WEST VIRGINIA CONNECTIONS
> The Owls have two staff members with ties to West Virginia University.
> Temple Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam spent five seasons as an assistant coach for West Virginia before taking over the Temple program in 2011.
> Owls' Strength and Conditioning Coach Tim Teefy is a 1999 graduate of West Virginia.

20 x 4
> Temple's win over Campbell gave the Owls 20 wins for the season, for the fourth-straight year under Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam.
> Ganesharatnam now has an overall record of 135-76, taking over a program that went 4-25 in 2010.
> The Owls have 25 20+ win seasons in program history, but before Ganesharatnam's string of four-straight, the last Temple team to reach the 20-win plateau was the 2005 squad.

ABOUT THE NIVC
> The NIVC has its roots in another NCAA Division I event that ran for several years before the turn of the century.
> The Women's Invitational Volleyball Championship debuted in 1989, with 20 teams, in response to demand for another postseason opportunity within the sport.
> The teams played at one site, in four five-team pools, with each pool winner advancing to a single-elimination bracket.
> After two years, the event was renamed the NIVC.
> Previous event champions were: Wisconsin (1989, 1995), Houston (1990), Kentucky (1991), Washington State (1992), LSU (1993), and Cal-State Northridge (1994).
> The new incarnation of the NIVC was announced at the AVCA Convention in December of 2016.