Field Hockey Set For BIG EAST Tournament

Friday, November 5

Storrs, Ct.

1:00 P.M.

Temple University

No. 8 Liberty

Photo by: Robin Hsiao

Field Hockey Set For BIG EAST Tournament

11.4.21 | Field Hockey

Live Stats Live Stream

PHILADELPHIA - For the second-straight season, the Temple field hockey team will face off against the No. 1 seed at the BIG EaST Tournament. The Owls will see No. 8 Liberty for the second time this season on Friday, Nov. 5 in the semifinal round of the tournament with the winner to play either No. 2 UConn or No. 3 Old Dominion in the championship game on Sunday.

Scouting Temple
> The Owls are 8-10 (4-3 BIG EAST) and snapped a five-game skid with a win against No. 20 UConn to close out their conference slate before falling 2-0 at Penn last week.
> Temple finished fourth in the league standings, qualifying for the BIG EAST Tournament for the second-straight season.
> The Cherry and White is 5-4 on the road and has recorded three of its five shutouts away from Howarth Field.
> The Temple offense has spread the love, with eight Owls scoring so far this season. Julianne Kopec leads the team with six while Kerrie Lorenz's three and Grace Angelella,
McKenna Burkhardt, and Tess Muller's two round out the multiple goal scorers.
> Graduate transfer Megan Ragusa is a force in the cage, recording 65 of the team's 72 saves and posting five clean sheets to rank second in the conference. Ragusa has allowed 29 goals for a 0.691 save percentage and entered the weekend 30th in the nation with a 1.61 GAA.
> The last time Temple defeated a top-10 team was in 2014 when the Owls topped No. 10 UMass 2-0.

Scouting Liberty
> Liberty is 15-2 (8-0 BIG EAST) on the season and earned the regular-season crown after going undefeated in league play.
> The team is on a 12-game winning streak, dropping its only two games in early September in back-to-back games against top-10 opponents.
> The Flames lead the NCAA in goals per game (4.0) and scoring average (4.0), averaging a scoring margin of 2.88 to rank second in the nation.
> Daniella Rhodes leads the team's offensive effort, scoring 1.07 goals per game to rank fourth in the nation.
> In the cage, Azul Iritxity Irigoyen is 12th in the NCAA in GAA (1.22) and has allowed just 19 goals this year.

Series History
> The teams have met 11 times, with the Flames holding a 10-1 advantage.
> Temple and Liberty met four times in the spring 2020-21 season, with Liberty taking all four games.
> The Flames are on a 10-game winning streak after taking the regular-season matchup 6-1, and the only time Temple has defeated the team was in a 3-0 victory at home in 2011.

Tournament Bound
> For the second-straight season, the Owls are headed to the BIG EAST Tournament.
> The Cherry and White needed a win over UConn or a Georgetown loss to qualify.
> Temple topped No. 20 UConn for the first time since 1989 and topped a ranked team for the first time since 2016 on its way to the tournament.