Temple University Athletics
Temple University
9-1
Fairfield
5-4
Volleyball Sweeps Past Fairfield and Lafayette to Open 2019 Season
8.30.19 | Women's Volleyball
CATONSVILLE, Md. — It was a great start to the 2019 season for the Temple volleyball team, as the Owls swept a pair of matches to open the UMBC Invitational. Temple opened the day with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-13) sweep over Fairfield and later topped Lafayette 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-16). The Owls improve to 2-0 and will look to remain unbeaten tomorrow against the host Retrievers at 2:00 p.m.
Quotable: Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam
> "I thought we did really good things today. We wanted to be really aggressive on serves and I thought we did that. We also had a good serve-receive and that allowed us to stay in system for the majority of play."
> "Everyone worked hard today and made adjustments. It was a really great team performance."
> "This is huge for our confidence. This team has been working hard since January, but until you play a match, it's hard to see it until you play. So it was great for us to win both today, and our goal is to keep improving."
> "UMBC tomorrow will be a really difficult match. They are very passionate and can go on runs very fast, so they're dangerous. We have to perform really well tomorrow."
Temple 3, Fairfield 0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-13)
> Temple got off to a hot start and made each set better than the one before.
> The Owls hit .135 in the first set but held Fairfield to a .077 attack, en route to a 25-20 win.
> The first frame proved to be the closest, as Temple forced a negative attack from the Stags in set two, winning 25-15.
> Set three was all Temple, as the Owls closed it out with a .333 attack, earning the sweep with a 25-13 win.
Individual Leaders
> Sophomore Gem Grimshaw topped the Owls with nine kills, adding five digs, and three blocks.
> Classmate Peyton Boyd notched eight kills with four blocks, while junior Katerina Papazoglou tallied five kills and eight digs.
> Freshman Kayla Spells made her collegiate debut, picking up three kills while leading Temple with six blocks.
> Sophomore Tyler Lindgren dished out 23 assists, while junior Averi Salvador added a team-best 17 digs.
Temple 3, Lafayette 0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-16)
> Temple completed the day-long sweep by downing Lafayette, 3-0.
> The Owls recorded just six hitting errors in the match, compiling a .376 attack, holding the Leopards to .109 on offense.
> Temple opened strong, cruising to a 25-16 first set win.
> The Owls did not record a single hitting error in the second frame, attacking at a .400 clip to take set two, 25-20.
> Temple then wrapped up the win with a 25-16 victory in the final set.
Individual Leaders
> Sophomore Gem Grimshaw shined, leading the Owls with 12 kills, adding six digs and four blocks.
> Papazoglou notched nine kills and five digs, while Boyd tallied seven kills with a pair of blocks.
> Spells had five kills without an error, hitting .714, and adding a team-best five blocks.
> Sophomore Tyler Lindgren ran the offense with 32 assists, nearing a double-double with eight digs.
> Salvador rounded out the box score with a team-best 24 digs.
Up Next
> Temple will play UMBC at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday to wrap up the tournament.
