Volleyball Nearly Knocks Off #21 Utah; Owls Ultimately Fall 3-2

Saturday, September 8

Villanova, Pa.

11:00 a.m.

Temple University

1-7

Utah

6-2

Temple

Utah

Volleyball Nearly Knocks Off #21 Utah; Owls Ultimately Fall 3-2

9.8.18 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

VILLANOVA, Pa. - Temple volleyball (1-7) nearly pulled off an upset over #21 Utah (6-2), suffering another heartbreaking 3-2 loss in day two action at the Villanova Classic. The Owls led 2-1, but came up just short in the 23-25, 27-25, 25-27, 25-20, 15-8 loss to the Utes.

Keys to the Match
> Temple played an outstanding match against their second nationally-ranked opponent of the season, but ultimately came up just short.
> The Owls had a hitting advantage until the deciding fifth set, as Utah finished with a .250 to .245 edge on the attack.
> Temple out-blocked the Utes, 12-10, with Utah holding a slim 86-83 dig advantage.

Individual Highlights
> Graduate student Iva Deak was outstanding in the five-setter, recording a career-high 15 kills, hitting .520. She also tallied a collegiate-best seven digs to go along with five blocks.
> Freshman Gem Grimshaw shined for the Owls with a career-best 14 kills, recording just one error to hit .448.
> Senior Carla Guennewig had 10 kills and five blocks, while sophomore Katerina Papazoglou tallied a double-double with 10 kills and a team-high 21 digs.
> Junior Dana Westfield had eight kills while freshman Miray Bolukbasi came off the bench to tally four kills and five digs.
> Senior Mia Heirakuji had 15 digs with sophomore Averi Salvador adding 11.
> Senior Hannah Vandegrift finished with 30 assists and eight digs, while her freshman counterpart, Tyler Lindgren tallied 20 assists and eight digs

Quotable: Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam
> "Today was a vast improvement from yesterday's performance. I thought our consistency was much better, one of the things we wanted to do was control the ball on our side as much as possible and I thought we were pretty good with it. We could have done a better job of that in the fifth set, but I thought overall we did a good job controlling the ball on serve-receive, serving tough, and finding solutions at the net."
> "I thought we did a better job managing the other teams runs, I thought we made some plays when we needed to, either to stop a run or to close the gap, so that was much better."
> "For us, it's about improvement. We need to come together as a team, and I thought from yesterday to today we took a big step forward and we want to keep going along that path."

Set One: Temple 25, #21 Utah 23
> A battle for points in the first set, saw the match tied at 11-11.
> Utah surged ahead using an extended run to take a 22-19 lead.
> Temple responded with a remarkable surge, scoring six of the final seven points, to finish out the a 25-23 win.

Set Two: #21 Utah 27, Temple 25
> Utah had control early, opening play with a 7-2 run.
> Temple responded with a 7-3 surge to get within one, but Utah stayed on top until late.
> With the serve and trailing 14-13, Temple seemingly tied the set, but a close ball was called out, and Utah kept its advantage.
> Again the Owls battled back, tying the match at 23-23 on a Grimshaw winner.
> Both teams saw set points spoiled, but in the end, it was Utah who strung together enough to grab the 27-25 win, tying the match at 1-1.

Set Three: Temple 27, #21 Utah 25
> Temple needed another fantastic comeback to take the third set, as Utah led much of the way.
> With the Utes up 14-10, the Owls cut it to a one-point lead on three separate occasions.
> Utah kept its edge late, going up 24-22 as Temple seemingly was going to be down 2-1.
> However, the Owls fought off set point after set point, and then won it on a Grimshaw kill, 27-25, going up 2-1.

Set Four: #21 Utah 25, Temple 20
> Another back-and-forth set saw the teams knotted early, taking it to 7-7.
> Utah followed with five unanswered points to take its largest lead of the frame, 12-7.
> Trailing by six (16-10), the Owls made their move, battling back to within two late (20-18) in the frame.
> Utah pushed ahead 23-18 and Temple responded by making it 23-20. However, a final Utah surge saw them get the final two points of the frame, and force a fifth set.

Set Five: #21 Utah 15, Temple 8
> Utah had the hot hand early in the fifth set, taking a 5-1 lead out of the gate.
> The Owls battled back to within two, 7-5, on a Deak kill.
> However, after the changeover, Utah went on a 5-1 run to open a 13-6 lead.
> Temple got back-to-back kills from Bolukbasi to close it to 13-8, but Utah finished out the 15-8 win.

Up Next
> Temple closes out the Villanova Classic with a home match against the Wildcats on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. in McGonigle Hall.