Temple entered its game against Charlotte Sunday afternoon on a three-game losing streak and in desperate need of a momentum shift. The Owls were on the receiving end of sweeps in those three matches, but won the first set with ease Sunday and shifted its sights to a sweep of their own.
The next two sets posed more of a challenge for Temple as the 49ers began to put up more of a fight. Charlotte competed with the Owls for the entirety of the second set, but Temple held them off to take a two-set lead.
The Owls created a 24-14 in the third set and needed just one more point to win and secure the sweep. Instead, Charlotte stormed back into the set, ripping off 11 straight points to take a 25-24 lead. Temple composed itself and scored the next three points to escape with a sweep.
Temple (9-12, 2-6 American Athletic Conference) swept Charlotte (4-17, 1-7 AAC) 3-0 Sunday afternoon at McGonigle Hall. The win marks the Owls’ sixth sweep of the season and their second in conference play.
“We’re obviously thrilled with the win, we can’t take them for granted,” said head coach Linda Hampton-Keith. “This is a tough conference so every match counts and every team is tough.”
Both teams traded blows during the first set and were tied at eight apiece before Temple blew the doors open. The Owls began to pick up momentum and completely took off. Charlotte recorded seven kills in the first set but only one happened after the set was tied early on. Temple ended the set with three straight kills to comfortably take the first set 25-14.
The second set started close once again but Temple eventually found its momentum from the previous set when the game was tied at five . A 5-1 Temple run extended the Owls’ lead to six and put them in total control of the set at 14-8. Charlotte middle blocker Selanny Puente looked to be putting together a comeback, Puente recorded four kills to cut the Temple lead down to two.
The run pressured Hampton-Keith to call a timeout to try and slow the 49ers’ momentum. The Owls responded from the timeout by scoring three straight to bring their lead back up to five at 21-16. A powerful kill by outside hitter Taylor Davenport ended the set for Temple who won 25-20.
“We’ve been in the gym working hard, we knew that the conference was going to be tough,” Davenport said. “It’s all about resilience and being relentless, continuing to go after it even when we aren’t getting the results we want.”
Temple walked into the third set looking to complete the sweep and pick up its second conference victory of the season. Similar to the first two sets, the teams exchanged points to start, but the Owls quickly went on a five-point run that gave them a lead they wouldn’t give up.
Temple was looking to break away and extended its lead to 16-7 after a five-point run. However, Charlotte was determined to keep up with the Owls and continued to trade points. Temple had a comfortable lead at 20-11 and a kill by Davenport set up the Owls’ match point. Charlotte was fighting to stay in the match and scored five straight, threatening Temple’s decreasing lead.
Hampton-Keith called a timeout to try and ice Charlotte’s momentum, but the 49ers continued their scoring run. They tallied on three more points to get the set at 24-22 and caused Temple to use its second timeout.
Charlotte still could not be deterred and recorded back-to-back kills and an ace to take the lead 25-24. With the set on the line, Davenport broke the scoring drought with a kill to tie it up. Middle blocker Chelci Banks then recorded a block followed by outside hitter Sydney Jones making a crucial kill to win the set 27-25.
“We hadn’t sat in that rotation, they had kept missing in that rotation before so we hadn’t really sat in it and then they started making their serve which put some stress on us,” Hampton-Keith said. “We were caught off guard, but we responded well enough. I would have liked to see us respond a little sooner, but I’m very proud of the resiliency we showed being able to take a run like that.”
Temple will look to carry the momentum into the week as they travel to face Rider (7-14, 6-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) on Oct. 23 at 6 p.m.
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