Temple Volleyball Defeats Cincinnati 3-1
By Melissa Payavis
Sunday’s game was a part of the Sideout Foundation’s “Dig Pink” Breast Cancer initiative. The Owls hosted conference rival Cincinnati on Sunday and took the match 3-1. The Bearcats came off of a loss against Florida State last year in the first round of the NCAA Championship. Temple leads the all-time series with Cincinnati 9-4.
Temple seemed to be the early favorites in the match by winning the first two sets 25-20 and 25-18, respectively. However, Cincinnati was determined to prove that they traveled to Philadelphia for a reason and came out on top for the third set 25-19. The Owls ultimately were too much for the Bearcats when they sealed the match in the fourth set, 25-18.
After coming off a tough loss to ECU on Friday, Temple was forced to regroup and come out strong against Cincinnati. The Owls had just 4 total team blocks on ECU, as compared to 14 on Cincinnati. Freshman outside hitter Katerina Papazoglou had a double-double with 11 kills and 18 digs.
“We were so slow at making adjustments. It was just hard for us to fix some things and I think we responded much better today, we went much faster,” junior middle blocker Iva Deak said. Coach gave us his feedback on Saturday and we went through everything and I like we just listened much better than on Friday.”
The Owls will travel to Florida for a tough conference road trip against the USF Bulls on October 13th and the UCF Knights on October 15th.
