TTN: Flight cancellation dooms volleyball

http://temple-news.com/sports/2011/10/17/flight-cancellation-dooms-volleyball/

(October 17, 2011)

Uncooperative travel arrangements and a duo of straight-set losses to Atlantic Ten Conference opponents caused the women’s volleyball team to fall to a 2-5 conference record (6-14 overall) with Friday and Sunday to Saint Louis and Duquesne.

The Owls’ flight to St. Louis was canceled Thursday and the team didn’t arrive until Friday morning, several hours after they were scheduled to be there. Coach Bakeer Ganes attributed the long delay and lack of sleep on the team’s poor performance against the second-place Billikens.

“I thought they tried to compete, but they were just physically not able to perform to the best ability,” Ganes said after Sunday’s loss.

“I hate to blame it on other circumstances, but at the same time you can’t discount them either,” he added.

Temple hit just .070 on the day, compared to Saint Louis’s .351. Senior outside hitter Collin Wallace and sophomore outside hitter Gabriella Matuatia led the team with just eight kills each. Wallace managed 10 digs as well, but the offense was unable to generate any momentum in a 3-0 loss.

The Owls didn’t fare any better against Duquesne on Sunday, losing again 3-0. Sophomore outside hitter Elyse Burkert managed the team’s only double-digit kill total for the weekend, with 11 kills and 10 digs. Once again Temple was out-hit .054 to .311.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We were definitely hoping to steal one,” Ganes said.

Ganes said he felt like the girls had a shot against the Dukes after getting some much-needed rest, but the team struggled with slow starts in all three sets, losing 25-10, 25-16 and 25-21.

“Once you’re down by eight, nine points it’s really hard to come back,” Ganes said. “Overall it was a really disappointing weekend.”

The losses knock the team further down in the A-10 as they currently sit tied with Fordham—who the Owls lost to on Oct. 1 in McGonigle Hall—for seventh place. Only Charlotte and LaSalle have worse records in the A-10.

However, Ganes isn’t entirely discouraged by the early returns in the conference schedule.

“Three of those matches we played against the three top teams [Dayton, Xavier and Saint Louis] in the conference,” Ganes said.

The weekend also put a spotlight on a suddenly struggling offense. Burkert was the only Owl to record at least 10 kills (Saint Louis and Duquesne each had two players in double-digits against Temple), and Matuatia and Wallace were the only other players to get close.

“Collin [Wallace], Elyse [Burkert], Gabbie [Matuatia], they have to find ways to score,” Ganes said. “They have to find a way to finish plays. And we’re going to work on it this week in the gym.”

The team has a lot of work to do on all phases of the offense, Ganes said, and they will spend this week working on them as they prepare for George Washington and Charlotte.

“We’re going to go back to the gym and we’re going to work on definitely finishing plays,” Ganes said. “We’re going to work on our offense and at the same time we’re going to work on a lot of serve-receive, because that goes hand-in-hand. Our offense has to pick it up.”

The Owls return to action on Friday night at home against George Washington (4-3 in the A-10). The match will be a breast cancer awareness event, called Dig Pink, and the team will fundraise money to donate to a local hospital.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Volleyball drops second A-10 game in straight sets

http://temple-news.com/sports/2011/09/26/volleyball-drops-second-a-10-game-in-straight-sets/

(September 26, 2011)

The Owls lose their second A-10 road game at Dayton.

ANDREW THAYER TTN FILE PHOTO The volleyball team embraces during its game. The squad is 4-11 overall on the season and 0-2 in the conference.

After weeks on the road and a 1-6 record, the women’s volleyball team is ready to return to the confines of McGonigle Hall.

The Owls dropped their first two games in the Atlantic Ten Conference in the opening weekend of conference play, falling in straight sets to conference powers Xavier and Dayton. The losses wrapped up a three-week road swing that saw the young squad get overmatched on more than one occasion.

“It might not look that way, if you look at the win and loss [record], but this team is actually getting better,” coach Bakeer Ganes said after [the Sept. 23] loss to Xavier. “We’re really progressing in the right direction.”

The Owls’ roster, which features four freshmen, faced competition away from North Broad, losing to Pittsburgh, Villanova and New Mexico. The coaching staff hopes that the tough non-conference schedule and the opening weekend in A-10 play prepares the team for the remainder of the season.

“The thing is when you train a team, or when you train young athletes, you work, and work, and work and you don’t see a big difference until they hit that spot and they just go out,” Ganes said. “I think we’re right there, we’re really close, and eventually we’re going to hit that spot and the results are going to come.”

The Owls went up against Xavier on Friday night and put up a fight throughout the match despite losing 3-0. Temple had one of its best hitting performances in the loss, tallying a .204 hitting percentage, but they were overpowered by Xavier’s .285 hitting percentage.

Once again the sophomore duo of outside hitters Gabriella Matuatia and Elyse Burkert led the team with eight and 13 kills, respectively. Matuatia, in particular, has been a big focal point in offense this season.

“A lot of these teams have lots of staff members and a lot of time, and they’ve been breaking down tape on us,” Ganes said. “So their game plan is basically to put an extra blocker on [Matuatia] and basically slow her down or stop her, which really opens up other opportunities for our outside hitters as well.”

Matuatia tacked on another nine kills Saturday night against Dayton, but the Owls still lost in three sets, 25-16, 25-18 and 25-14.

“Dayton is an absolutely tough team, one of the best teams in the country, and you don’t get a lot of chances to prove yourself or to compete against one of the top teams,” Ganes said.

Despite the consecutive A-10 losses, the team is staying positive about the rest of the season.

“The thing is, we’re losing some games to some really quality opponents,” Ganes said. “It’s not like we’re losing games to opponents we should be beating 3-0. We have to keep an eye on that and keep that in perspective.”

The Owls’ schedule finds them back at home against Rhode Island and Fordham for the first time in weeks.

“I can’t wait, I know the girls can’t wait,” Ganes said. “It’s been three weekends we’ve been on the road. That’s a pretty long time.”

The Owls take on Rhode Island as a part of ‘80s night. The theme is part of the new campaign trying to promote volleyball games on campus. Fans are encouraged to wear ‘80s inspired clothes, and there will be a “best dressed” competition.

“[We’re] trying to get a lot of students to come to our match to support us and have a home crowd and we want to make it a fun event for everybody,” Ganes said. “We’re really looking forward to being back home and having fun with the students that come to support us.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jake.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Volleyball kills five-game non-conference losing streak

http://temple-news.com/sports/2011/09/19/volleyball-kills-five-game-non-conference-losing-streak/

(September 19, 2011)

Volleyball loses to Pittsburgh and New Mexico, but sweeps Morgan State.

The women’s volleyball team wrapped up its non-conference schedule this weekend at the Pitt Blue and Gold Classic, going 1-2 in three games.

The Owls lost their first match 3-0 against Pittsburgh before sweeping Morgan State and losing in four sets to New Mexico. The win against Morgan State snapped a five-game losing streak.

Temple opened with a match against the Panthers and was outplayed for most of the match as they lost in straight sets. Sophomore outside hitters Gabriella Matuatia and Elyse Burkert tied with a team high seven kills.

The match against Morgan State finally ended the Owls losing streak as the team won 25-19, 25-16 and 25-14. Matuatia recorded a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs. No Morgan State player notched more than five kills.

In the final match against the New Mexico squad, the Owls brought pressure despite being the underdog. Matuatia, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, had another double-double with 14 kills and 11 assists while Burkert led the match with 19 kills, a season high.

“I felt good. I was really proud of myself, individually, and also as a team,” Matuatia said about the All-Tournament honor.

The Owls managed to steal the second set, and stayed close in the third and fourth sets but were overpowered in the end by the Lobos squad.

“I’m sure they didn’t expect us to come up with a fight, and they expected to kind of beat on us, but we came out and gave them a run for their money,” Matuatia said.

“If you look at their roster, if you look at the paper, we have no business even competing with that team,” coach Bakeer Ganes added.

Ganes was very pleased with the way his team fought against tough competition over the weekend, saying that playing against better teams will only help the team prepare for the Atlantic Ten Conference.

“What we saw this weekend was really good and I feel really confident going into [conference play] that we can certainly compete with a lot of teams in the conference,” Ganes said.

Temple now stands at 4-9 on the season heading into its A-10 schedule, which opens with away contests against Xavier and Dayton. Despite a tough schedule and a very young team, the squad has already matched its win total from last season and there are still 15 games remaining.

“The way the schedule was filled out, it’s been great competition, quality competition, all the way to this weekend and I just wanted to see how we would do against some really good teams,” Ganes said.

“I think it’s definitely prepared us for conference, playing these good teams,” Burkert added. “They really challenged us and we really stepped up and competed with these teams and that was really good for us.”

After a rough first half of the season, the Owls are primed for an A-10 schedule that, while it has plenty of competition, does not match up to teams the Owls have already faced this season like New Mexico, Syracuse and Villanova.

Now the team seems to be embracing an underdog role, looking for a chance to surprise the A-10.

“That’s what our story has been all season, and that’s how it is going to be for the rest of the season,” Ganes said. “We certainly have no pressure. Not a lot of people are counting on us and we’re okay with that.”

But they aren’t taking anything for granted. While the Owls feel they can compete with anyone in the conference, they know that no match is guaranteed and that the next 15 games will be a tough ride.

“Regardless of who we’re going to play we don’t want to underestimate any of the teams,” Matuatia said.

“Anybody can beat anybody in a given day, especially us taking over that underdog role, we’re certainly not going to underestimate anybody,” Ganes added.

For now, the Owls have their sights set on taking on an Xavier squad that went 12-3 in the A-10 and finished second in the A-10 Tournament. The Owls will travel on the road to meet the Musketeers at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Jake Adams can be reached at jake.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Underclassmen inspire volleyball team to aim high

http://temple-news.com/sports/2011/09/13/underclassmen-inspire-volleyball-team-to-aim-high/

(September 13, 2011)

Women’s volleyball is focusing on making the 2011 season a year that the team can build upon.

ANDREW THAYER TTN The volleyball team celebrates a win against Rider in straight sets on Sept. 6. The Owls dropped its next three games at the Blackbird Invitational.

Despite being only a month into the season, it’s already obvious that this is a building year for women’s volleyball.

It’s the year they build up hope and prepare to make a run when next season tips off. It’s the year a strong and promising group of freshmen—not to mention a few talented sophomores—make their name and show what they can do next to proven veterans.

The Owls’ three losses this weekend in the Long Island Blackbird Invitational dropped the team’s record to 3-6, but those numbers shouldn’t be the focus.

Focus on 145, the number of assists freshman setter Tiffany Connatser had in those three games, showing how comfortable she’s getting with the offense early in her career. Focus on 13.67, the kills per game sophomore outside hitter Gabriella Matuatia had over the weekend. Focus on 4, 9 and 11, the number of kills sophomore outside hitter Elyse Burkert provided in each successive game as she regained her composure after a foot injury two weeks ago.

“It was kind of shaky because she hadn’t practiced in two weeks, but we’re back in the swing of it and she’s helping us out,” Connatser said of Burkert.

“This group is a really resilient group,” coach Bakeer Ganes added. “Of course everybody wants to win, there’s no question about that. But we’re trying to do something bigger than just focusing on wins and losses this year. We’re trying to create a program that’s going to be successful for years to come. So everything that we do right now is so we can build that team that can be successful the next couple years.”

The Blackbird Invitational was just another test for a team still proving itself. The Owls opened up the tournament on Friday against Lehigh, and got outplayed in every phase of the game. They had a .133 hitting percentage in the match, which they lost 3-1, and gave up seven aces.

“The loss we had against Lehigh, we just played the worst game all season,” Ganes said. “We were just not competing very well. The [other two losses] were totally different. We played against a Big East team, Syracuse, and we competed very well against them.”

Following the loss to Lehigh, the Owls would lose their next two matches 3-1. Four Owls reached double-digit kills in the last game against host Long Island with Matuatia making it three for three in the tournament. Connatser broke 50 assists in the same match, and Burkert continued to get back to the level she started at early in the season. And on top of that, the team hustled and fought through every point.

“I think in the beginning we started off slow, but definitely in the last two games we played a whole lot better and got into our groove. I think it’s the best we’ve played all season,” Connatser said. “We played really good teams and we really competed against them.”

“It’s awesome to be a part of it, and we all work really hard in practice and in games so I think we deserve what we’re getting because we worked so hard for it,” freshman middle hitter Alex Schmitt added.

The team continues to work consistently, even if it doesn’t show in the win column.

“If we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, the wins are going to come,” Ganes said. “The main thing for us is to develop and get better as a team.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jake.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: New volleyball coach registers first win

http://temple-news.com/sports/2011/08/30/new-volleyball-coach-registers-first-win/

(August 30, 2011)
Sophomore outside hitter and junior libero lead Owls to second place finish in Temple Invitational.

For the first time in two years, the Owls’ women’s volleyball team has a .500 record through the first two games of the season.

SAM OSHLAG TTN. Coach Bakeer Ganes calls for a huddle at a game during the Temple Invitational this past weekend.

Sophomore outside hitter Elyse Burkert led the Owls to a second place finish in the Temple Invitational throughout the weekend.

The Owls (1-1) beat Stony Brook University in five sets on Friday, but fell to the tournament champions, South Carolina, 3-0. Due to Hurricane Irene, Temple didn’t face Montana as originally scheduled.

The Owls were led by their rising star, Burkert who tallied a team high 32 kills in the two games.
“She’s undersized for her position,” coach Bakeer Ganes said. “So she’s doing a great job mixing up her hits, mixing up the tempo, just to keep the defense of the other team honest.”

Fellow sophomore outside hitter Gabrialla Matautia recorded two double-doubles over the weekend, totaling 23 kills and 25 digs. Junior libero Chelsea Tupuola recorded 39 digs on her way to winning Most Valuable Libero for the tournament.

The Owls opened the tournament with a close victory over the Seawolves, giving Ganes his first career win as head coach.

“I was not nervous,” Ganes said. “I was very excited. I was very excited for the girls just because they worked very hard during the preseason, and I was excited that we opened up at home.”

The Owls went up quickly on Stony Brook, taking the first two sets easily. But the Seawolves fought back, behind senior outside hitter Alicia Nelson’s 18 kills and 21 digs, to win the next two sets.

A close fifth set reached 13-13 before Stony Brook took the lead with game point on three separate occasions. Temple fought off all three deficits before walking away with an 18-16 victory in the fifth set.

The Owls then faced the Gamecocks (3-0) in the de facto tournament championship match, where the more experienced Southeast Conference team won in three straight sets.

SAM OSHLAG TTN. Coach Bakeer Ganes calls for a huddle at a game during the Temple Invitational this past weekend.

“South Carolina is a really good team,” Ganes said. “They play in the SEC and they’re usually bigger and more physical than a lot of teams in the [Atlantic Ten Conference].”

Led by sophomore outside hitter Juliette Thevenin’s 10 kills and 19 digs, South Carolina outplayed the Owls in virtually almost every category. Thevenin was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Temple fought throughout the match, giving the team the confidence that they can compete with anyone.

“I think it’s definitely putting us in a positive direction from last year,” freshman setter Tiffany Connatser said.

“The main thing I get out of this tournament is I believe in my team and they believe in themselves,” Ganes said. “We’re never going to give up.”

New Season, New Look

The discussion of the Owls’ 2011 season will certainly revolve around the “youth movement” the team is experiencing.

Led by rookie coach Ganes, Temple returns only three seniors. The freshman and sophomore classes have already provided a big impact just two games in and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

“That’s also what we’re taking away from this tournament,” Connatser said. “How to work together, when to set who, [and] in what rotation and all those kinds of things.”

The 2011 Owls are looking to rebound after a disappointing season last year, when they won just four games on their way to a ninth-place finish in the A-10. And the man behind the turnaround is the demanding Ganes.

“He wants us to win every game,” Burkert said. “It’s not about one game or doing better than last year, it’s about doing the best we can do and winning games and winning championships.”

“He’s helped me so much, giving me a lot of confidence, building me up and helping me a lot as a freshman trying to run the team,” Connatser added.

Ganes’ biggest challenge will be building chemistry on a very young and very inexperienced Temple team, starting with Connatser.

“[Connatser] is doing a great job running the team,” Ganes said. “There are moments the coaching staff really has to help her out, but most of the time she runs this offense by herself and she’s doing a tremendous job.”

The Owls plan to gel quickly and they hope this weekend’s games pushed them in the right direction.

“We just have to talk a lot, communicate and really work together and support each other all the time in order for us to be good because we are new and we don’t have anything established,” Burkert said.

“We want to get competitive as fast as possible, and I think we’re on the right track,” Ganes added.

The Owls take the court again next weekend in the Big Five Tournament, hosted at the Palestra at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jake Adams can be reached at jake.adams@temple.edu.