Volleyball Wins Hilton Philadelphia Penn's Landing Cherry & White Challenge with Sweep of Lehigh

PHILADELPHIA – Temple volleyball remained undefeated (3-0) after a sweep (25-19, 25-21, 26-24) of Lehigh on Sunday afternoon in McGonigle Hall as it closed out the 2023 Hilton Philadelphia Penn's Landing Cherry and White Challenge.

This year's Owls team has matched the best start to a season since the 2019 campaign. Just like 2019, the 2023 team has not allowed a set win to any of it's opponent.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Senior outside hitter Taylor Davenport tallied a match-high 19 kills with a .279 hitting percentage in the 3-0 victory.
Temple split its time at the setter position with junior setter Patrycja Zielinska starting the first two sets accumulating 19 assists, while freshman Ava Blascziek finished the match by playing in the final two sets, dishing out 18 assists.
Graduate transfers Jelena Prolic and Avery Luoma had eight kills a piece in the Temple win.
Davenport earned the tournament's MVP award with 57 kills while averaging and impressive 6.33 kills per set in the three day span. Luoma and Zielinska also earned all-tournament team nods for the Owls.

SET 1 (TU 25, LEH 19)

Temple jumped out to a 15-11 advantage going into the media timeout, but the Mountain Hawks turned the momentum around by scoring eight of the next ten points and taking a 19-17 lead. Lehigh got kills a pair of kills from Madison McCartney and one from Makenna Smith during that span.
The Cherry and White closed out the set by going on an 8-0 run with help of back-to-back kills by sophomore middle blocker Samantha Jo Mikosky and Davenport.

SET 2 (TU 25, LEH 21)

The Owls and Mountain Hawks played the early stages of second set very closely with the score knotted up a 9-9, but then TU started to pull away. With the score 14-11, Davenport reigned down with three of her set-high seven kills to extend her team's lead to 18-11.
Lehigh battled back to cut Temple's big advantage down to five, 21-16. During that span, the Hawks used a kill from Abby Felkai and two straight service aces from Katrina Kaburov.
Temple controlled the remainder of the set with Davenport sealing the set victory with her 13th kill of the match.

SET 3 (TU 26, LEH 24)

For the third straight set, the Columbia, S.C. native Davenport led all players in kills. In the final set, she would go onto to finish with six kills on 15 total attacks, finishing with a .333 hitting percentage.
Lehigh led 15-14 at the media timeout, but it was the resilient Cherry and White squad that finished off the match strong.
Late in the set after a Davenport kill that ties the score 19-19, defensive specialist Falanika Danielson went to the service line and gave her team four straight points, two straight aces, and three total.

Temple leaders
Kills: Taylor Davenport – 19
Assists: Patrycja Zielinska – 19
Blocks: Samantha Jo Mikosky – 4
Aces: Falanika Danielson - 4
Digs: Taylor Davenport, Patrycja Zielinska, Nalani McBride - 7

UP NEXT
Temple will be back in action on Tuesday in McGonigle Hall as it hosts Delaware State at 6:00 p.m. The match will be available on the ESPN+ app.

For complete coverage of Temple volleyball, follow the Owls on social media @Temple_VB (Twitter), facebook.com/TempleOwls (Facebook), @temple.vb (Instagram), or visit the official home of Temple University Athletics at owlsports.com.