Volleyball Begins Second Half of AAC Season on the Road at #23 Houston and Tulane

PHILADELPHIA – The Temple volleyball team begins the second half of the AAC season this weekend on the road as they take on No. 23 Houston and Tulane. On Friday, the Owls will face the nationally ranked Cougars at 8 p.m. ET and then face off against the Green Wave on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. Both matches will be available on ESPN+.

QUICK SETS

Coming into this weekend, the Owls are tied for ninth in the AAC with an 8-13 overall record and a 2-8 conference record. Last weekend, the Owls lost both of its matches against SMU and Memphis. On Friday, Temple fell to SMU by the score, 22-25, 21-25, 25-23, 14-25. On Sunday, the Owls dropped in five to Memphis, 20-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-27 12-15.
The Cougars won both of their matches last weekend to improve to 19-2 overall and 10-0 in AAC play. On Friday against Wichita State, it took five sets to defeat the Shockers, 25-20, 25-27, 22-25, 25-18, 15-11 and then defeated Tulsa on Sunday in straight sets, 25-19, 25-19, 25-23.
Tulane split last weekend's pair of matches to Tulsa and Wichita State to move to 7-14 overall and a tie for ninth in the AAC with a 2-8 record. On Friday versus Tulsa, the Green Wave lost in straight sets, 17-25, 23-25, 20- 25, but rebounded to win on Sunday in five sets versus the Shockers, 25-17, 19-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-4.

OWL ABOUT TEMPLE IN 2022

As the season begins, the Linda Hampton-Keith Era has started as head coach for the Temple Owls volleyball team, making her the ninth head coach in school history. Hampton-Keith comes into the season with a career record of 67-56, an NCAA Regional appearance in four years at NC State between 2016-19. Hampton-Keith takes over an Owls team that went 7-24 overall and 3-17 in AAC play a season ago. This year's roster includes 11 returners featuring one red-shirt senior, two juniors, and nine sophomores.
Temple dropped both matches last weekend, falling to 8-13 overall and 2-8 in AAC play. On Friday, the Owls dropped to SMU in four sets and lost to Memphis on Sunday afternoon in five sets after being up two sets to one, falling to 6-3 on the season in five-set affairs.
With available records dating back to the 2008 season, the Owls recorded a program first against Memphis on Sunday as it had three players with 20 kills in a match, including junior Jelena Prolic and sophomore Taylor Davenport leading the match with 22 kills, along with a career-high 20 kills from redshirt senior Peyton Boyd.
The sophomore Davenport continues to be one conference's offensive leaders. In the Oct. 23 match versus Memphis, Davenport recroded her seventh match of 20 or more kills this season. So far this season, the Columbia, S.C. native has an AAC best 339 kills and has as she's averaged 3.85 kills/set, good for third in the conference.
Davenport had a career day from the service line on Oct. 21 versus SMU where she recorded six service aces.

TRANSFER EXPERIENCE

The Owls began this season with two new faces to Philly, but not new faces to DI collegiate volleyball. Junior Jelena Prolic and sophomore Chudear Tut were added to head coach Linda Hampton-Keith's roster in April and will look to bolster the Owls' offensive attack in 2022. Prolic spent the past three seasons with Coastal Carolina, earning herself two Sun Belt East Championships and two trips to the conference championship round. The Subotica, Serbia native played in 73 matches for the Chanticleers from 2019-21, tallying 176 kills and digging 197 balls from the outside hitter position. Tut, a former MEAC Rookie of the Year, Second Team All-MEAC, All-Tournament Team from Coppin State will help hold the middle for the Owls. During the spring season of 2021, Tut led the team with 56 blocks and second with 151 kills. Additionally, she recorded 10 or more kills 10 times and double-digit blocks in all but one contest. Just last season, the Minneapolis, Minn. native missed the first half of the year due to injury but finished with a school-record .353 hitting percentage on 98 kills.
So far in 2022, Prolic has been key to the offense, tallying double-digit kills in 11 of the 21 matches. Prolic is second on the team with 212 kills and had a career-high 24 putaways versus East Carolina on Oct. 5. Additionally, Prolic has recorded seven double-doubles this season, including back-to-back matches on Sept. 30 versus Tulane with 15 kills and 13 digs and then 11 kills and 15 digs on Oct. 2 versus Houston. Most recently, in the five-set loss to Memphis on Oct. 23, Prolic recorded 22 kills and 12 digs. Defensively, Prolic is second on the team with 217 digs and second on the team with 17 aces. Tut was big in the four-set victory over Army on Sept. 3 as she recorded 12 kills, her first double-digit kill match in an Owls uniform. The Minneapolis, Minn., native has 79 kills and 38 blocks.

SETTING SITUATION

Setter Patrycja Zielinska has guided Temple's offense this season to a 4-8 overall record. A season ago, Zielinska recorded 827 assists in 31 matches. This season, the sophomore is seventh in the AAC, averaging 7.91 digs/set. In 2022, the Francizkow, Poland native has dished out 530 assists already. On three occasions this season, Zielinska has topped the 50-plus assists mark, including a career-high 63 versus SMU on Oct. 21. The sophomore is the team leader with 20 service aces.
Fellow setter Magdalena Rogalska has earned a 4-5 record as a starter. The Krakow, Poland native has 313 assists on the season. Like Zielinska, Rogalska has recorded 50 or more kills on multiple occasions this season. On Sept. 30 in a five-set win versus Tulane, Rogalska recorded 55 assists and followed it up with a career-high performance versus East Carolina with 58.

1000-CAREER DIGS CLUB

Going into 2022, Falanika Danielson had 797 career digs after a career-high 470 in 2021. The 2020 AAC Libero of the Year reached the elusive 1000th career dig mark on Oct. 5 versus East Carolina when she recorded 17 digs. So far, in 2022, the Ewa Beach, Hawaii native has tallied a team-high 275 digs, averaging 3.27 digs/set. Danielson set a season-high 23 digs versus Cornell on Sept. 10 and Oct. 16 at USF, marking the 16th and 17th time in her career Danielson has achieved the 20-plus digs mark.

MIDDLE MANAGEMENT

Middle blocker Samantha Jo Mikosky has been a steady force, not just as a middle blocker but also at the service line. So far this season, Mikosky has blocked 87 attacks, tied for second in theAAC, and has averaged 1.12 blocks/set, tied for sixth in the conference. Additionally, Mikosky has recorded five or more blocks eight times, including on Sept. 10 versus Colgate, the freshman tallied the third-best kills (11) total in school history.On Oct. 16 at USF, the freshman recorded nine blocks, the second most of her rookie campaign. From the service line, the Bethlehem, Pa. native has the fourth most service aces on the team with 11, including a career-high three in the five-set win versus Cornell on Sept. 10.

FRONT LINE DEFENSE

The Owls are tied for No. 2 in the AAC conference with 184 total team blocks and ranking No. 5 in the conference with 2.09 blocks/set. So far in 2022, the Owls have totaled 10 or more blocks in six separate matches, including 10 last weekend versus SMU, and a season-high 16 on Sept. 17 versus Penn.

FIVE-SET PRESSURE

The Owls have an overall record of 8-13; in those 21 matches, they have played nine five-set matches with a 6-3 record. Temple started off the season perfect in five-setters but has lost three of its last four.

SCOUTING HOUSTON

The Cougars' Abbie Jackson and Isabel Theut in the top 10 in the AAC kill rankings, fourth and seventh, respectively. Jackson currently is fourth with 3.84 kills/set, totaling 304 kills, while Theut is sixth, averaging 3.65 kills/set and 292 kills. Additionally, she averages a conference-best .46 aces/set and is second with 80.

TEMPLE VS. HOUSTON

Temple enters this weekend's match leading the all-time matchup with a 9-7 record, but earlier this season, on Oct. 2, the Cougars knocked off the Owls in Philadelphia, 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-14, 25-21) as Abbie Jackson had a match-high 21 kills, while the Owl's Taylor Davenport had a team-high 14 kills.

SCOUTING TULANE
Kayla Kaiser leads the Green Wave and is sixth in the AAC with a .323 hitting percentage on 180 kills for the season. However, Amarachi Osuji and Melissa Korbasi have combined for 415 kills. Osuji leads Tulane with 214 kills while hitting .197, and Korbasi has accumulated 201 kills while hitting .223.

TEMPLE VS. TULANE
Temple enters this weekend's match with an 8-7 all-time record against Tulane. Earlier this season (Sept. 30), the Owls took the series lead after defeating the Green Wave for one of its six five-set wins this season. In the match, Temple was led by Taylor Davenport with 24 kills in addition to Jelena Prolic's double-double of 15 kills and 13 digs.

Volleyball Begins Second Half of AAC Season on the Road at #23 Houston and Tulane

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Peyton Boyd

Falanika Danielson

Taylor Davenport

Samantha Jo Mikosky

Jelena Prolic

Magdalena Rogalska

Chudear Tut

Patrycja Zielinska

Temple University Athletics

Volleyball Begins Second Half of AAC Season on the Road at #23 Houston and Tulane

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Peyton Boyd

Falanika Danielson

Taylor Davenport

Samantha Jo Mikosky

Jelena Prolic

Magdalena Rogalska

Chudear Tut

Patrycja Zielinska

Related Videos