The Owls Suffer Second Consecutive Shutout Loss after Falling to Tulsa

Written By: Adrian Maghacot

Photo Courtesy of: OwlSports.com

The Owls were back at home in McGonigle Hall to face off against the 10-8 Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Both teams were coming into the match following defeats from their previous opponents. Tulsa is 5-4 in AAC matches while Temple is 1-7.

Tulsa was off to a flying start in which they were leading 5-1 after two errors, a kill, and a service ace. Temple’s MB, Taylor Davenport, however, ended the Hurricane’s streak with a kill of her own. Halfway into the first set, the Owls started to gain momentum when they had four consecutive points off of Tulsa making the score 9-8 to the Hurricanes. The game was kept close, even bringing it to a 13-13 tie, but Tulsa took over late in the set in which they scored four consecutive points to make the game in their favor 22-15. Temple tried to keep the game close, but the lead was too much and Tulsa closed out the set 25-19 for a Golden Hurricanes win.

The second set started much closer as they traded in kills every attempt they had. Midway through the set, Tulsa managed to sneak a three-point run until Temple RS, Peyton Boyd shut the streak down quickly with a kill. Temple was fighting to keep the lead very close and they managed to do that, but the Golden Hurricanes kept playing very aggressively to make sure that the Owls didn’t take over. Tulsa ended the set with a 25-23 victory to make the overall match 2-0 in the Golden Hurricane’s favor.

Tulsa was looking to finish the game early by taking this third set. The Hurricanes scored three points to start the set off, but Temple responded back with three consecutive points of their own. The score was tied at four until Temple took their first lead of the game and managed to hold Tulsa behind them by a point. The Owls eventually extended their lead by having two three-point runs to put their lead at five. Temple had another scoring run with them having five and Tulsa with one. The Golden Hurricanes were down 12-20 but scored four consecutive points to decrease the lead. However, Temple scored to get their point total to 23, and Tulsa had 18. Tulsa then had a seven-point run to shock the Owls and take the third set along with the win.

Some individual highlights for the Owls are that Mary Bolukbasi had a team-high of 16 kills. Patrycja Zielinska had a team-high of 23 assists. Falanika Danielson had a team-high of 19 digs. 

This is the second consecutive match that Temple has won none of the sets after a loss to AAC powerhouse, UCF.