Losing continues for Owls

Coach Steve Mauro thought there would be a boost in his team’s performance on Wednesday as the Owls played their first home match of the season.

While Mauro said he believed his team competed at a higher level against Drexel, the team fell 4-3 to the Dragons.  Although the Owls (0-6, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) have been shut out once this season and managed one point in three others, Mauro has maintained that the team was not far from a victory after each match. Wednesday was no different.

“I thought Drexel played well but again there were a lot of close matches,” Mauro said. “The match could have gone either way.  I thought the difference was doubles,” Mauro said.

Mauro said his doubles teams were not as aggressive as they needed to be to secure the doubles point for Temple.

“We played too defensively on the baseline in doubles,” Mauro added.

Junior Kristian Marquart, sophomore Hicham Belkssir, and sophomore Nicolas Paulus all won singles matches. Mauro said he was pleased with the play of this trio.

“As a team we played better singles today,” Mauro said. “We fought harder compared to the Old Dominion match. We have another match soon and hopefully we’ll turn this thing around.”

The Owls return to action on Saturday at home against Xavier.