Temple volleyball continued its winning ways this past weekend, extending its win-streak to 15 games.
The Owls defeated Duquesne 3-0, last Saturday and are a shoe-in for the Atlantic-10 Conference Championships.
Temple dominated from the get-go.
Junior Yamit Haba contributed three points and Charity Hill four points in the early going.
This helped Temple establish a lead that they would not let go of for the rest of the first game.
Duquesne was able to keep it somewhat competitive, adding points here and there with the help of Sarah Brown, but it wasn’t enough to over take the taller and dominant Temple team. The first game ended with a score of 30-24.
The second game started similarly to the first, with Temple pulling ahead early.
They held Duquesne to one point, scoring five unanswered points, ending with Duquesne capitalizing on a few mistakes made by Temple.
The Lady Owls then extended its lead to seven points with a virtual scoring blitz.
Duquesne never found a rhythm in the game, allowing the Owls 11 points. The second game ended with a 30-21 win for Temple.
The third game created a bit more excitement for the crowd than the previous two, with Duquesne trying to garner at least one win against the tough Temple team.
It seemed that every time Temple would score, Duquesne would answer, playing bigger than there size.
With the score tied 4-4, Temple was able to capitalize on a service error by Duquesne and remained in the lead for the rest of the game, scraping out a close 30-27 win, and the match.
Haba led the Lady Owls with 10 kills and 11 digs and Margaret Majewska had 11 kills and seven digs. Xu Yun posted 13 kills and four digs. Though the win was impressive, head coach Bob Bertucci still feels there are things that need to be improved.
“Our serving needs to be more consistent,” he said.
The two players who made a motivating impact were departing seniors Solana Lee and Raluca Olteanu, who played their last home game, and finished in fashion with a dominating win.
“Tonight worked out well for our seniors,” Bertucci said. “Solana did very well and Raluca was able to get that last score in, which was nice.”
Lee had a big send off, with 43 assists, making her presence felt on a special night.
“It all went so fast. This team has the best chemistry that I’ve seen in a long time,” Lee said.
Olteanu was not able to play much, do to a plaguing knee injury, but was able to score the last point of the match.
“I feel great,” she said.
“As long as we stick together, we will win A-10s. We’re trying for the 2nd round of NCAA’s, that’s what I want to do.”
Saudia Mitchell can be reached at Saudrae@hotmail.com.
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