Owls earn split in second tournament of season

Temple University volleyball (2-3, 0-0 The American Athletic Conference) competed in their second tournament of the season this weekend. The team’s Friday morning game against Iona University was canceled due to Tropical Storm Ida. 

The Owls lost 3-2 against the University of Maryland ( 6-0, 0-0 Big Ten Conference conference) on Friday night, then finished the tournament defeating Long Island University(1-5, 0-0 The Northeast Conference) 3-0 on Saturday. 

In both games the Owls had a strong effort from their initial serves, and their communication on defense led them to easily attack the ball.

Maryland won the first set 25-6. Even though the Owls won the next two sets, they failed to execute in the final two, leading to a close loss.

“They felt like they were flat and not a lot of energy or communication going on, so we got to do better than that,” said head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam. “That being said, I thought it was a good reaction after the first set, and we competed and we got ourselves in a much better situation.” 

Graduate student outside hitter Katerina Papazoglou led the Owls with 16 kills and 13 digs while junior outside hitter Gem Grimshaw added 14 kills and 14 digs against the Terrapins. 

In Saturday’s match against the Sharks, Temple played aggressively throughout the first and second sets. 

“We worked together as a team, not like individual players on the court, but more cohesive as a team,” Ganesharatman said.

Grimshaw finished with 13 kills and consistently played aggressively on offense and defense against the Sharks. Freshman outside hitter Jaaliyah Evans finished with five kills. 

“The mix has to be right for us,” Ganesharatnam said. “You can’t do it with just young players, you can’t just do it with senior players. We need to mix and today [Evans] came in and had the opportunity to start because of the work she put in since she got here.”

The Owls will head on the road for the first time this season to Towson, Maryland to take on Norfolk State (1-3, 0-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) in the Tiger Invitational Tournament on Sep. 10 at 4 p.m.