Temple volleyball wrapped up their season long five game home stand Sunday afternoon, beating Rutgers in straight sets (25-18, 25-16, 25-23) to finish 5-0 on the homestand. The overall record is 15-4, and 6-1 in conference play which puts them in sole possession of second place in the American Athletic Conference, one game out from first place Louisville.
Tyler Davis and Gabriella Matautia each recorded 10 kills while Alyssa Drachslin led the Owls on defense with 22 digs. No player on Rutgers totaled double digits in kills, as Lauren Cloyd led the Scarlet Knights with eight. Ali Schroeter played solid defensively for Rutgers as she totaled 15 digs.
“It was great we won in three sets”, coach Bakeer Ganes said. “We have been working on this for a while, I think it’s really important for us to close out these matches strong and finish in three sets like we did today.”
“This was not an easy match for us, Rutgers plays at different pace and tempo then we prefer,” Ganes added. “We like to play a high speed, high pace kind of match so it was difficult for us to maintain our pace as we fell into the trap of playing at their speed.”
Rutgers came in to the match Sunday without a conference win so Ganes knew it was important to stress to his players that Rutgers is still a challenging team.
“Rutgers is a good team”, coach said. “They have been in really tough matches, they have not gotten blow out at all this season so we knew it was going to be a competitive match and that we would have to bring our best game to beat this team.”
Seniors Gabriella Matautia and Elyse Burkert have been consistent all year and have led this young team to a winning record.
“We really wanted to finish out our home stretch going 5-0” Mautatia said. “We have a home court advantage for the first time in really all of my time here, it’s awesome to play in these home games when the fans come out and support us like this.”
“So many people have come out to watch us play,” Elyse said. “It’s fantastic; it makes it so much fun for us. It feels really good to win here at home.”
The homestand is over and now the Owls will hit the road next weekend for matches against UCF and USF.
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