Towards the end of the third set, the Owls were down and losing momentum. Typically, Temple is a very vocal team. The players are always talking to each other, but at this moment, the communication stopped.
With the ball in the air, junior setter Kyra Coundorides and sophomore middle blocker Iva Deak ran to the same spot and collided trying save the ball.
Despite the home court advantage and the loud encouraging voice of the seventh man crowd, the Owls fell to the Cleveland State University in five sets on Friday night. Types of mishaps like the verbal miscommunication between Deak and Coundoride defined the game for the Owls
“It was direct mistakes that we made, like direct hitting errors,” junior outside hitter Irem Asci said. “The balls that dropped we all just looked at them. Those are things that happen in a game, but we need to be able to think faster and react better.”
The Owls finished Friday’s game with 26 errors, which was three more than the Vikings.
With all the mental errors that occurred, the team surpassed them in set one and four. The Owls took a commanding seven-point lead at one time leading 20-13 in set four, but right on cue, the mistakes reappeared. It was like that constant thorn in the side that they couldn’t escape. Temple barely survived the fourth only winning 25-22.
Between sets the Owls regrouped and tried to build some momentum for the game’s final points, but despite its best efforts, the team lost 15-8.
“The thing that they talked about the most was, just to be fired up,” Asci said. “In the fifth set its mostly the heart that plays rather than technique. We wanted to win, but not everything worked out. We’ll be ready tomorrow. “
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