Temple Volleyball (3-0, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) started its season off 3-0 and without dropping a set for the first time since 2019. The Owls swept the Cherry & White Challenge this weekend, winning every set against Iona (1-2, 0-0 MAAC), Long Island (0-3, 0-0 Northeast Conference) and Lehigh (2-1, 0-0 Patriot League).
“People keep telling me something is different about this team,” said Temple head coach Linda Hampton-Keith, who is in her second year as head of the program. “This is a pretty cool team.“
First Game vs. Iona
Temple started the tournament on a high note, beating Iona in three sets (25-16, 25-18, 25-16). Outside hitter Taylor Davenport led the way, scoring 23 points. Right-side hitter Avery Luoma, who made first-team all-Ivy League last season at Princeton, had a strong performance in her Temple debut with six kills, five digs and two blocks.
Hampton-Keith noticed Davenport, particularly her offensive impact.
“She [Davenport] went through the ups and downs of learning a new position, and today, she just owned it,” Hampton-Keith said.
The Owls were more efficient than Iona, as Temple had a hitting percentage of .316 while Iona finished at .054. Temple’s ability to reduce their number of errors allowed them to go on small runs of points throughout each set.
The Gaels’ offense was led by outside hitters Mackenzie Wiggins and Greta Stjade with 13 kills combined.
Second game vs. LIU
A day later, the Owls struggled in the first set against Long Island compared to their performance against Iona. Temple jumped out to a 15-11 lead, but Long Island took advantage of six Temple attack errors, including four in a run of five points, to take a 21-17 lead.
However, Temple, was resilient and won the first set 25-23. Temple then won the final two sets by at least seven points, taking set 2 25-18 and set 3 25-16.
“We showed some resilience and kept our cool, and continued to execute when things were tough,” Hampton-Keith said.
Davenport followed up the previous game with a 20-kill performance. Luoma and middle blocker Chelci Banks made impacts as well, adding 16 combined kills.
Final Game vs. Lehigh
In the Owls’ final tournament game, they swept Lehigh 25-19, 25-21 and 26-24. Davenport finished the game with 19 kills, and outside hitters Jelena Prolic and Luoma had eight kills each.
Following the Lehigh game, Luoma and setter Patrycja Zielinska made the all-tournament team for their respective positions, and Davenport was named the MVP.
The Owls will remain at home to face Delaware State (2-1, 0-0 MEAC) on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m.
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