Xavier University Athletics
Xavier University
Temple
Five-Game Marathon Finds Xavier on Losing End
10.21.05 | Volleyball
Oct. 21, 2005
PHILADELPHIA - For the third time this season, Xavier played a five-game match to no avail as host Temple defeated the Musketeers 3-2 in Atlantic 10 action on Friday night. The Owls took the match with scores of 22-30, 30-28, 23-30, 35-33 and 11-15. With the loss, XU drops to 14-8 on the season and is now 6-2 in A-10 play. Temple is now 14-8 on the year and improves to 7-1 in conference play.
Game one found both teams ready to go as seven ties and three lead changes paced the stanza. XU would take the lead early at 3-1 but Temple would quickly tie the game at 3-3 and proceeded to take the lead on the very next point. TU would hold the lead until the Musketeers tied the score at 13-13 and took the lead after Danielle Skrajewski spiked one to the floor. A block by Jill Quayle would give XU the 15-13 advantage before a Temple timeout. The Musketeers would push the lead to three after the break but the Owls would battle back to knot the score at 17-17 and grab the 18-17 lead on the following point. The swing would mark the last lead change as Temple would open a 25-21 advantage en route to the opening game win.
Xavier would take game two in similar fashion as eight more ties and another three lead changes took place. XU would not take its first lead of the game until a kill by Carley Horvath made the score 14-13 in favor of the blue and white. The Musketeers would make another 6-2 spurt to push the lead to 20-15 before a Temple timeout. After the timeout, the Owls would take the next five points to tie the score at 20-20 and then take the lead 22-21. Xavier would bounce right back and knot the score on the next point and a kill by Astyn Bjorklund would put XU ahead for good at 23-22. Skrajewski finished the game with seven kills and a .455 hitting percentage.
Temple jumped out to the early 4-0 lead in the third contest. With the score 6-3 in favor of the Owls, Xavier mounted a 5-0 run to rally back and take the lead at 8-7. Xavier would hold the lead until TU gained the 17-16 advantage. Over the next eight points, five ties and three lead changes would take place with the Owls coming out with the last edge at 21-20. TU would take a 7-2 spurt and pull ahead 27-21 before taking the third game.
A marathon game ensued in the fourth stanza with XU finally surfacing with the two-point advantage and the victory. Xavier led up to the halfway point before Temple finally grabbed its second lead of the game at 15-14. The Owls could only extend the lead to four at 23-19 before the Musketeers mounted the comeback. XU finally tied the score at 26-26 and the back and forth see-saw would ensue. Eight ties would scatter the last 16 points of the game with XU gaining its first lead since the 14-13 mark at 31-30 before finally claiming the win seven points later.
Game five summed up the entire match as tight play continued. Within 16 points, eight ties and three lead changes took place with Temple emerging on top at the 8-7 mark. After the changing of sides, XU knotted the score at 8-8 but would not get any closer to the lead as the Owls claimed the last three points of the match to take the finale.
The Musketeers were lead by Bjorklund who posted a career and match-high 25 kills with a .429 hitting percentage and four block assists. Skrajewski posted her fourth straight double-double with 16 kills and 11 digs and the junior now has 30 in her career. Senior Kate Duchek also had 16 kills and added five digs, two block assists and one solo block. Quayle rounded out the Musketeers in double digits as the sophomore finished with 10 kills, four block assists and one solo block. Senior Carley Horvath notched a career-high 24 digs in the loss, while classmate Jordan Brightwell added 23 for her fourth match of the year with 20 or more digs.
Xavier will return to the court tomorrow afternoon as the Musketeers travel to La Salle. XU will take on the Explorers at 5:00 pm. Temple will take on Dayton tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 pm. The Flyers swept La Salle tonight in three games.
