Temple has now been shutout in three of its last four games, after Friday night’s 3-0 loss to Princeton University.
The Owls only took one shot during the game but coach Seamus O’Connor said they had many chances and the stats didn’t tell the whole game.
“Instead of making that last pass to the girl that was open we went right at a defender and lost the ball,” O’Connor said. “The groundwork is there, the players are there, they’re in position to make the plays but we just gotta make that pass. I’m actually very, very pleased with how they played.”
Princeton had 22 shots on the night, nine on goal and scored all three of their goals in the first half.
Senior forward Tyler Lussi, Princeton’s leading scorer, put the Tigers on the board in the 30th minute.. She then followed up with her second goal on the night with a header assisted by sophomore Samantha McDonough with a few minutes remaining the first half.
Freshman forward Tomi Kennedy knocked in Princeton’s second header of the night to make it 3-0 heading into halftime. Princeton scored its three goals in a span of about 15 minutes.
O’Connor said the amount of injuries and freshmen the Owls have on their team really took on a toll on them against Princeton.
“We had to change our lineup with a minute to go before the game started, and that’s never the way you want to start a game,” O’Connor said.
Temple’s starting defender freshman KJ Waghorne rolled her ankle minutes before the game, which sidelined her for the night. Freshman Lacey Powell started in her place. Powell had never played more than 42 minutes in a game before playing 70 Friday night.
Freshman defender Emily Keitel left the game in the beginning of the second half after colliding heads with a Princeton player on a fifty-fifty ball. Keitel was bleeding from the face and left to go to the nearest hospital to get stitches, O’Connor said.
A foot injury also forced junior forward Gabriella McKeown to leave the game. The Owls’ leading scorer played only played 31 minutes in the game.
The Owls, now 2-4 on the season, will travel to Vestal, New York to face off against a 3-2-2 Binghamton University team on Sunday.
McKeown said she’s confident the Owls will be able to turn things around on Sunday.
“I think it’s important to always stay confident, it’s good to learn from games,” McKeown said. “But when you do learn, to move on. I think we are pretty confident… I just think it’s good to go and look to win, obviously.”
Tom Ignudo can be reached at thomas.ignudo@temple.edu or on Twitter @Ignudo5.
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