Volleyball Falls to High Point in Villanova Classic

Friday, September 7

Villanova, Pa.

4:30 p.m.

Temple University

1-6

High Point

2-5

High Point

Temple

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Volleyball Falls to High Point in Villanova Classic

9.7.18 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- The Temple volleyball team (1-6) lost a tight three-set match to High Point (2-5), to open play at the Villanova Classic on Friday night at the Jake Nevins Fieldhouse. The Panthers took the match, 27-25, 25-20, 25-20.

Keys to the Match
> Temple out-hit (.277-.269), out-dug (38-34), and out-blocked (10-5) High Point, but the Panthers made keys runs when they needed to account for the win.
> The Owls held early leads in the first and second sets, but each time, High Point battled back to grab the momentum late in the frame.
> The hot-serving Panthers ended the match with eight aces, while suffering just three reception errors.

Quotable: Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam
> "High Point is a really good team, they had the same record going into this that we did, and they've made the NCAA tournament in back to back years. They've also played a really good schedule."
> "We need to be more consistent at a higher level and create runs for ourselves, we can't just trade points. We do a decent job siding out, but we need to be better at creating opportunities for ourselves to make runs. Contrary to that, we need to be able to stop the other team from going on multiple runs."
> "Moving forward, obviously we can't go back into the gym and practice for hours, so the only thing we can do is to be better prepared mentally for tomorrow. Attitude wise we need to be in the moment and be ready to perform. Every member of the team needs to take responsibility, and execute at a higher level."

Individual Highlights
> Freshman Peyton Boyd had an outstanding match for the Owls, racking up seven kills, hitting .500, with five blocks.
> Sophomore Katerina Papazoglou finished her night with seven kills ad eight digs, adding a pair of blocks.
> Senior Carla Guennewig had five kills and five blocks, while graduate student Irem Asci also added five blocks.
> Senior Mia Heirakuji led the Owls with 11 digs and added five assists.
> Freshman Tyler Lindgren had a team-best 17 assists, while senior Hannah Vandegift had seven.

Set One: High Point 27, Temple 25
> Temple held a slight edge early, going up 4-1 and holding the lead until a 5-2 High Point run made it 14-13 Panthers.
> Iva Deak sparked a 4-1 run with a block and an ace to put Temple back on top 17-15.
> From there, High Point used a 7-0 run to take its largest lead of the frame at 22-17.
> Temple battled back to tie the match at 24-24 and 25-25, spoiling a pair of Panther set points, but ultimately High Point finished out the 27-25 win.

Set Two: High Point 25, Temple 20
> Sideouts were the story in the early action of set two, as neither team led by more than two.
> Temple created some separation with a 5-1 run to go up 13-10, but High Point answered with an 8-1 surge to build an 18-14 advantage.
> A Gem Grimshaw kill stopped the bleeding for the Owls and keyed a 5-2 run ending with a Westfield block that cut the lead to 20-19.
> High Point answered with a 5-1 run to close out the frame, 25-20.

Set Three: High Point 25, Temple 20
> An 8-1 High Point run broke an early 5-5 tie in the third, as the Panthers went up, 13-6.
> Temple cut it to four points (18-14) on a block from Guennewig and Papazoglou and then with back-to-back Westfield kills (24-20).
> High Point finishes out the sweep with a Temple serve error, to take it 25-20, and 3-0.

Up Next
> Temple continues play at the Villanova Classic, taking on #21 Utah at 11:00 a.m. at Jake Nevins Fieldhouse.