Volleyball pushing for playoffs

The women’s volleyball team has yet to win consecutive matches on the road this season.

“Rhode Island played exceptionally well and I think we saw the best they can play. I thought we played really well. It was a great match.”

&nbsp&nbsp — Bob Bertucci, Coach

The streak continued this past week with a hard fought 1-3 loss to the University of Rhode Island after a dominant performance against the University of Massachusetts. Temple lost 2-0 to Rutgers on Tuesday in a non-conference game.

With the loss to URI, the team remained in fourth place in the Atlantic 10; URI jolted to first place with the win.

“Rhode Island played exceptionally well and I think we saw the best they can play,” Coach Bob Bertucci said. “I thought we played really well. It was a great match.”

Against URI, the Owls had multiple swings to end three games, but a woeful 34 errors kept URI a step ahead.

Despite the loss, the Owls have showed that they still have some gas left in the tank, for they never let up against the Rams.

“I thought our serving and passing game were very good, that’s what we’ve been focusing on all week,” Bertucci said. “We attacked very well with our serve and had a good number of aces.

“Yes, I think we can play better. In this group we still have a lot we can improve on.”

Improvements will have to come quickly as the team now shifts its focus to the Atlantic-10 tournament after virtually being eliminated from a regular season championship.

“If we lose the battle that’s OK, as long as we win the war,” Bertucci said. “We need to win the A-10 tournament. We need to focus on the tournament.”

Before the tournament begins on Nov. 16, the Owls will definitely need to trim errors off of the attack as well as the serve, which has been a slight problem for some players. The team needs to play a better brand of volleyball and a month from now, be the best team, according to Bertucci.

The team needs to find a way to win on the road, as they will travel to Duquesne to play an important conference match against a team who has already beaten the Owls this season.

With a loss to Duquesne, the Owls would share fourth place in the conference and could miss a shot at going to the postseason.

They don’t want to put themselves in a hole they can’t get out of, as they still have two conference matches on the road.

The only thing left for the team to do is master changes in defensive formations and show that they are a team that can adapt well.

“We made changes going into the second half of the season and we’re going to try to perfect those changes,” Bertucci said. “I think if we perfect those changes we can put a lot of pressure on everybody else.”