After the first set against Memphis on Sunday afternoon, it seemed like the women’s volleyball team was on its way to a third straight win. However, the Tigers were able to adjust en route to winning the match in four sets.
The Owls cruised to a victory in the first set, winning 25-15. Heading into the second set, Memphis made a few adjustments that gave Temple headaches.
“I think Memphis did a good job adjusting their offense, they changed up the speed of the offense,” coach Bakeer Ganes said. “We also made some adjustments, we were just not consistent enough with the adjustments we were supposed to make.”
Although it may seem like Memphis ran away with the game after the first set on paper, the game was more competitive than the final score indicates. The Owls lost by a 25-22 score in both the second and third sets, and battled back a number of times to make the games that close.
Sophomore Tyler Davis was one of the bright spots for Temple, as she led the Owls with 17 kills and finished the game with a kill percentage of 27.3 percent. She believes this loss can serve as a learning experience for the team going forward.
“I think it’s a good learning lesson,” Davis said. “We came out with a lot of energy in the first game, and thought we could come out with less energy in the second game.”
“I think it just really taught us that no matter what we have to come out and play our game in every aspect and work hard,” she added. “Nothing’s going to be handed to us in this conference.”
Despite the loss, both Davis and Ganes believe the team can take something positive away from the match. In particular, Ganes was proud that his team competed throughout.
“There are always positives, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose,” Ganes said. “I think one of the main positives is that we still competed. We were down 2-1 and even in the losses, Memphis was up by at least four or five points, and the players still competed. It’s important to compete and improve.”
Davis echoed this, and she also believes that being competitive is crucial going forward for Temple.
“I think this game showed us that even if we come out and lose a match, we have to come back fighting even harder,” Davis said. “I think that’s what we need to work on.”
With the loss, Temple falls to 12-6 overall and 3-3 in conference play. The team will look to rebound next weekend when it takes on Houston on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Texas.
Daniel Newhart can be reached at daniel.newhart@temple.edu.
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