The Owls completed their fall season with a second-place finish at the Barnabas Health Intercollegiate Tournament on Monday, as sophomore Brandon Matthews won the title.
Expectations for Temple were high going into the fall season, but as the Owls wrapped up their schedule yesterday, members of the team have mixed reactions on how well they performed.
“I would probably say not so good,” senior Matt Crescenzo said. “For as good as we are, we definitely probably should have won two of the tournaments so far. We set ourselves in position after the first round or two. We had a little trouble finishing it.”
Temple entered the season with a proven Top 3 in Matthews, junior Matt Teesdale and Crescenzo, but the last two positions were up for grabs. The Owls finished in the Top 5 in three tournaments: The Doc Gimmler, the Hartford Hawk Invitational, and the Temple Invitational. After one round of play at the Barnabas Health Intercollegiate, the Owls were in first place.
Inconsistency with finishing tournaments plagued the Owls for much of the fall season.
“We would play alright the first two rounds and we never really played terrible the last round, we just never had a good round,” Crescenzo said. “We probably played average the first round, we just never had that final good round to help us get a win.”
Eighth-year coach Brian Quinn is taking a different outlook on how things played out this fall.
“Overall it’s been a good season,” Quinn said. “We’re trying to find a four and a five guy. We’ve had [senior] Russell Hartung step up a little bit in the last couple of tournaments. Hopefully he’ll solidify that five spot. Evan Galbreath, the freshman, I think he’ll really come into his own this spring, so that will help us moving forward.”
Matthews and Teesdale continue to be looked upon for leadership.
“Brandon is a great example for all his teammates,” Quinn said. “Matt and Brandon’s work ethic, without a doubt, you just can’t get enough. They work extremely hard.”
Crescenzo, a veteran of the team, said he can fine tune some aspects of his game to become a stronger player. Crescenzo ended his fall season with a fifth-place finish at the Barnabas Health Intercollegiate.
“Definitely not as good as I’d like,” Crescenzo said of the fall season. “I had a chance to win one of the tournaments and I kind of just played bad on the second round. I’m a little disappointed with how I played at my home course and our home course [the Philmont Counrtry Club].”
Quinn has been patient with the youth on the team, and is looking forward to new additions to the roster – including Patrick Ross, who transferred from the University of Hartford.
“We have a lot of young talent on the team,” Quinn said. “Next year we’re going to be really good. We have Pat Ross waiting in the wings. He’ll be a redshirt senior, so we’ll only have him for one year. He is a phenomenal player, though.”
Temple will face a tough spring schedule, Quinn and his players said. Based on previous seasons, the Owls will return to action sometime around March.
“We have a really tough schedule this spring, so if we have a couple of good finishes there, that’s going to be huge for our program,” Quinn said.
Chase Senior can be reached at chase.senior@temple.edu or on Twitter @Chase_Senior.
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