Owls have bright spots in loss

Temple hung with a top-ranked team for much of the first half.

The score in the Temple Owls and Maryland Terrapins game in Sunday’s Conference Cup Tournament was in no way indicative of how well the Owls played.  The Owls fell to the #2 ranked Maryland Terrapins by a score of 5-1, but the score does not tell the entire story of what happened.

After limiting Maryland to just one goal through almost 35 minutes of play, the Owls were unable to keep the Terrapins off the scoreboard for much of the rest of the game.

Once Ali McEvoy started the scoring for Maryland in the ninth minute off a rebounded shot and save by Owls goalkeeper Lizzy Millen, the Owls were able to bounce back and score later in the first half.  The Terrapins, however, were able to build upon their early lead by scoring again just before the half, giving them a one point edge heading into halftime.

Coach Amanda Janney reflected on the importance of not allowing one’s opponents to score on the heels of one’s own scoring.

“You never want to give up another goal right after you score,” Janney said.  “I mean, I think that’s a big goal of ours, to make sure kind of the five minutes after we score, we control the game, the clock a little bit more, but it’s a good lesson learned that you can’t get too excited after scoring a goal and keep the other team off the boards.  I wanted to go into the half 1-1.  That would have been a good momentum for us, but again, a good learning experience for our team because they’re a talented team.”

Forward Lauren Hunt described the loss to Maryland as a building block that will help the Owls improve in future.

“It’s great to play a team like Maryland because they’re so good,” Hunt said.  “Now we know what we need to work on.  If anyone is going to capitalize on our weaknesses, it’s going to be Maryland.  So now, after that game, we can improve.  It’s always a hard game, but we’re always really excited when we get to play them because we do learn a lot about ourselves by playing them.”

Samuel Botwinick can be reached at samuel.botwinick@temple.edu or on Twitter @Avdbkr20Samuel.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*