Volleyball Drops Back-and-Forth Five-Set Match at Maryland

Saturday, August 26

College Park, Md.

7:00 PM

Temple University

1-2

Maryland

3-0

Temple

Maryland

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Volleyball Drops Back-and-Forth Five-Set Match at Maryland

8.26.17 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - After fighting back to force a fifth set, Temple volleyball suffered a 3-2 loss to the host Terrapins (3-0) in the Owls' final match of the Maryland Invitational. Temple (1-2) and Maryland traded sets the whole way, but the Terps ultimately won by scores of 25-17, 22-25, 25-23, 21-25 and 15-11.

Keys to the Match
> Although Temple only scored seven fewer points than Maryland overall, the Terps recorded 73 team kills to the Owls' 45.
> The blocking battle went squarely to the Owls on the night, as Temple recorded a total of 18 blocks to Maryland's six.
> The Owls recovered from a lackluster first set to lead most of the way in the second and even the match at 1-1.
> After hitting just .111 in the opening set, Temple out-hit Maryland .292 to .241 in the second and committed just three attack errors to the Terps' seven.
> Temple was up 24-19 in the second set, but Maryland battled back with two kills and an ace to make it 24-22 before senior Irem Asci won the set with a kill for the Owls.
> The Terps used a 7-1 run to take an 11-5 lead in the third set, but Temple battled back and eventually tied the score at 18-18.
> Three more ties followed late in the third set, the last at 22-22 before Maryland put down kills on three of the final four points to take the set and a 2-1 lead in the match.
> The Owls were the first to 15 in the fourth set after leading all the way to that point, but the Terps tied the set for the first time with a 4-0 run to even the score at 15-15.
> Temple later found itself down a point, 20-19, but used its own 4-0 run capped by a kill from senior Izzy Rapacz to take a 23-21 lead.
> Rapacz added another kill for set point, and was part of a block assist with junior Iva Deak for the winning point (25-21) that sent the match to a fifth and final set.
> The Owls did well to limit attack errors in the fourth set, committing just three to Maryland's 10.
> An early 6-0 run for Temple got the Owls out of a 3-0 hole and into the lead, 6-3, but the Terps gained momentum to the finish.
> After a 7-7 tie, Maryland's Samantha Drechsel exploded for four kills as the Terps took a 13-9 lead. Teammate Erika Pritchard followed with kills for Maryland's final two points as the Terps won 15-11.

Individual Highlights
> Junior Iva Deak finished with a match and career-high 10 blocks, while senior Janine Simmons tied her career-high with eight blocks and Rapacz added seven.
> Junior Mia Heirakuji led Temple with 17 digs, and sophomore Dana Westfield was the Owls' leader in kills with eight.
> Simmons posted seven kills with just a single attack error on 11 attempts for a hitting percentage of .545.

Next Up
> Temple will head to another three-match tournament, this time at Albany on Sept. 1-2. The Owls will face Colgate on Friday at 5 p.m. before taking on St. John's (10:30 a.m.) and host Albany (7 p.m) on Saturday.