Volleyball Falls on the Road at SMU

Sunday, September 23

Dallas, Texas

1:00 PM

Temple University

4-10, 1-1AAC

SMU

5-7, 2-0AAC

Temple

SMU

Volleyball Falls on the Road at SMU

9.23.18 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

DALLAS — Temple volleyball hung tight with SMU on the road on Sunday afternoon, but couldn't repeat Friday's comeback magic, falling 3-0 to the Mustangs. SMU took three close sets, 25-21, 26-24, and 25-22 to improve to 2-0 in The American (5-7 overall), while Temple fell to 1-1 (4-10 overall).

Quotable: Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam
> "SMU is a quality team. I thought we were evenly matched, but I think we made a lot of errors today, more than usual. If we would have kept that ratio down, we would have given ourselves a better chance."
> "Mentally we have to be better focused at those moments. We need people in those moments to step up. The mental aspect is a very complicated part of the game, but the point is we need to execute at a higher level. Mistakes can happen, but as a team we just made too many of those."
> On preparing for the next match: "We want to work on serve receive, we need to stabilize that going into the next match. We also need to keep working on our defense, and finishing plays at the net."

Keys to the Match
> Each set was close, but in all three SMU made late runs to close out the Owls.
> SMU hit .244 to Temple's .208, and out-dug Temple 67-55.
> Temple was hampered by seven service errors, snapping the Owls' three-match win streak.

Individual Highlights
> Sophomore Katerina Papazoglou led Temple with 13 kills, while graduate student Irem Asci had a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs.
> Graduate student Iva Deak had a great hitting performance with 10 kills and just one error, attacking at a .450 clip.
> Senior Hannah Vandegrift finished with 19 assists, while freshman Tyler Lindgren had 14 assists and eight digs.
> Sophomore Averi Salvador notched a team-best 17 digs, while senior Mia Heirakuji added 10.

Set One: SMU 25, Temple 21
> Temple had an early 9-6 advantage, before a 7-0 SMU run put them up 13-6.
> SMU held their advantage over four until a surge from Temple cut it to 20-19 on a Carla Guennewig kill.
> The Mustangs pushed ahead to make it 24-19, and Temple spoiled a pair of set points before SMU won it 25-21.

Set Two: SMU 26, Temple 24
> A tight set two saw it tied as late as 8-8.
> SMU broke the tie with four in a row to go up 12-8.
> Temple stayed within four, but SMU led 22-18 late.
> Trailing 23-20, Temple scored four-straight to go up 24-23.
> However, a service error gave the Mustangs the serve, tied at 24-24, and they completed the win, 26-24.

Set Three: SMU 25, Temple 22
> Temple erased a 5-1 SMU lead with a 7-0 run to go up, 8-5.
> The Owls held their largest lead at 13-9 on a block from Guennewig and Asci.
> SMU battled to close it to 15-14, and then tied it at at 18-18.
> There were four more ties late in the set, but SMU closed out the sweep on a 5-1 surge.

Up Next:
> Temple has a rare week with just one match — a Friday night home clash with UConn beginning at 6:00 p.m.