Temple Wins First Conference Match of the Season

In an exciting day of play, the Temple Owls took home their first conference win of the season defeating the University of Houston in four sets.

In the first set, the Owls came out hot, but unfortunately, they let the lead slip and fell short with a score of 23-25. Determined to win the second set, Temple came back and won 25-21. From there, Temple’s offense and defense picked up allowing them to win the third set with a score of 25-17 and the fourth set with a score of 25-17.

Junior Irem Asci led the way with 26 kills which is more than double the amount of kills any other Temple player had during this match. Senior Tyler Davis also had 10 kills, and Junior Dara Peric had 11 digs.

“Oh thank god, I feel so good winning our first conference game.” said Asci. “That game wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard either. We did our job so I am happy.”

“It feels really good because it is very tough to get wins in this conference.” said Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam, “It’s a very balanced conference and even the so-called “bottom teams” are very, very good. Whenever you can get a win, you have to be happy.”

On Wednesday, the Temple Owls will hit the road to face University of Connecticut in their third conference match of the season.

“We will be resting a lot and watching film because we know it won’t be an easy game.” said Irem Asci.

“UConn is a very tough opponent, and it is hard to play there,” said Coach Ganesharatnam, “It will be a hard match, but it will be a good test for us especially since we will be on the road for a long time. We are just excited to finally be in conference play.”

The Temple Owls next home game will be Friday October 14 against University of Central Florida in McGonigle Hall.