Owls fall 3-1 after winning the opening set to A-10 foe Charlotte on Saturday.
The volleyball team seemed to be on pace to win against Atlantic Ten Conference opponent Charlotte on Saturday. But after a 1-0 set lead, the Owls fell 3-1 and their record dropped to 6-16 overall and 2-7 in the A-10.
After winning 25-21 in their first set, Charlotte won the next three sets 25-19, 25-22, 25-23.
“It’s frustrating cause we’re not playing badly,” freshman setter Tiffany Connatser said. “It’s like an undeterminable factor.”
Connatser had a team-leading 39 assists in the game. Both Connatser and sophomore outside hitter Elyse Burkert had double-doubles.
“I think parts of it were good, parts of it were things you can’t have,” Burkert said. “It’s just so hard to lose by such a close margin.”
Burkert led the team in scoring with 19 points. Two other players also had more than 10 points. Sophomore outside hitter Gabriella Matautia had 16 points and sophomore middle blocker Emily Frazer had 10.5 points.
Although disappointed with the loss, coach Bakeer Ganes was able to take away some positives.
“I thought this was an exciting match, of course we want to make the [A-10] tournament and improve,” Ganes said. “The most important thing at this point is that we improve as a team.”
All three of the lost sets were close and the second set had 12 ties and four lead changes. The third set had 10 ties and four lead changes while the fourth set had 11 ties and five lead changes.
Next weekend Temple will be at home against La Salle and Saint Louis. The Owls play La Salle at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28.
“We have to continually work on our offense,” Ganes said. “Our defense did good but we need to be more stable and consistent [on offense.]”
“We’re going to practice hard this week and work on things we didn’t do as well,” Burkert added. “Hopefully we can use this game to be fired up for the next one.”
James Reagan can be reached at james.reagan@temple.edu.
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