Temple Holds Off East Carolina’s Rally In Four Sets

Friday, October 21

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

13-6, 3-6AAC

Temple

13-6, 6-3AAC

Temple

East Carolina

October 21, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Temple captured the first two sets Friday night and outlasted East Carolina in the end, winning an American Athletic Conference volleyball match 3-1 (25-15, 25-22, 26-28, 25-17) inside Minges Coliseum.

Team Records: East Carolina: (13-6, 3-6 AAC) | Temple: (13-6, 6-3 AAC)

Torbett's Take: "It was definitely an up and down match. I thought our middles did a great job and our outside hitters started to come alive late. Temple is a very solid team ranked in the top 100 nationally. I saw some really good things from our squad tonight but we needed more of those moments. We have learned to win away from home but now need to focus on successfully defending Minges. We have a chance to do that Sunday against another very good team in UConn that just pushed Cincinnati to five sets."

The Rundown: East Carolina Senior outside hitter I'Tiana Taylor led three Pirates in double figures offensively, putting down 13 kills, while senior middle hitter Ashley McRae and junior middle hitter Natalie Montini checked in with 12 and 11 respectively. Montini committed just one attacking error to wind up with a .417 hitting percentage and McRae was not far behind at .385. Senior setter Sabrina Gonzalez, the conference leader in double-doubles, tallied her fourth in the last five matches by notching 41 assists and a team-best 11 digs. Freshman libero Brandee Markwith also picked up double-digit digs, ending the evening with 10.

Irem Asci led Temple with a match-best 17 kills and added 10 digs while Izzy Rapacz contributed 13 kills and 13 digs to the Owls' cause.

Temple racked up 61 kills to ECU's 53 and hit .320 while holding the Pirates to .221 efficiency. The Owls also held the upper hand in aces (6-2) and digs (52-38) but East Carolina had the better of the blocking 10.0 to 6.0.

Set One: The teams played to a tie at eight to begin the evening but Temple began to pull away midway through the set. The Pirates took a timeout trailing 16-11 but could not find their footing after that. An ECU attacking error made it 23-13 before the sides traded the final four points to provide the final margin.

Set Two: The stanza was hotly contested throughout with no timeouts taken until very late. With the score knotted at 17, Tyler Davis put down a kill and the Pirates had an offensive miscue to push the Owls in front by two. East Carolina answered with three-straight points to take a 20-19 lead and prompt a Temple timeout. A kill by junior outside hitter Lael Ceriani kept the Purple and Gold in front at 21-20, but the visitors would net five of the last six points to seal the set and take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.

Set Three: ECU came out of the locker room and looked to establish some momentum, winning the first three points of the frame. The Owls responded with three straight to tie the score and another tight battle ensued. A kill by Montini kept the Pirates close, trailing just 18-17, but Temple used an Asci kill and East Carolina attacking error to push the lead to 20-17. Following a Pirate timeout, the Owls were able to move in front 22-18 thanks to a service error and attacking miscue. ECU made a push from there, scoring five consecutive points to forge into the lead at 23-22. A kill by Janine Simmons deadlocked the score, but the Purple and Gold was able to complete the comeback, clinching the set on a kill by senior outside hitter Sydney Darden.

Set Four: Determined not to see a fifth set, Temple raced out to a 10-4 advantage in the fourth and forced the Pirates to use a timeout. Despite a late push by the home side, the Owls would up hitting .652 in the stanza and closed out the contest.

Bits and Pieces: Temple improved to 7-0 in true road matches while East Carolina fell to 1-4 at home ... The Owls stretched their lead in the all-time series to 5-0 ... The Pirates lost for the first time this season when winning the third set (11-1) ... ECU racked up double-digit blocks for the fifth time in AAC play this campaign ... East Carolina needs to win just three of its final 11 matches to record its first winning season since 2006.

Up Next: ECU wraps up the weekend Sunday against UConn with its annual "Dig Pink" match. First serve at Minges Coliseum is scheduled for 1 p.m.