Owls end trip with sweep of Murray State

The men’s tennis team has traveled a total of 1,548 miles over the past two weekends, as it journeyed 540 miles to Ohio last weekend and 1,008 miles to Tennessee this weekend.

Despite being shut out Friday by conference opponent Memphis, the Owls responded by blanking the Racers Saturday, 7-0.

Temple won each of its matches in straight sets, controlling each from the beginning.

Coach Steve Mauro said he was happy with how his team responded after a 7-0 defeat to Memphis Friday. He also said that the team got used to the environment and played better.

Juniors Santiago Canete (6-2, 6-2), Nicolas Paulus (6-2, 6-1), Hicham Belkssir (6-4, 6-1) and Ian Glessing (6-0, 6-1) each won their matches easily. Sophomores Filip Stipcic (6-2, 6-1) and Vineet Naran (6-3, 6-3) contributed singles points to the effort, as well.

The doubles pairings made quick work of the Racers to secure the doubles point, which the team struggled to get against Memphis.

“In singles and doubles the guys played well,” Mauro said. “The guys didn’t lose a set and were more focused. We didn’t make as many mistakes in the match today … this was a solid win for us.”

Throughout the course of the season, the Owls have seen its share of inconsistencies in its on-court performances.

Mauro said that traveling a lot can take its toll on his players. He said that the inconsistent play could be attributed to these trips. After traveling for long periods of time, Mauro said the team takes a match to get warmed up and used to the new environment.

“Traveling is part of college tennis and every team has to do it,” Mauro said. “We just grind [traveling] out and do our best.”

The Owls (6-5, 0-1 American Athletic Conference) will travel to conference opponent East Carolina on March 4.

-Dalton Balthaser

Fernandez bests two records in conference meet

At the 2015 Indoor American Athletic Conference Championship meet at the New Balance Center in New York, graduate-junior Blanca Fernandez set new meet records in both the mile run and the 3,000-meter run.

Fernandez’s mile mark of 4 minutes, 50.11 seconds surpassed the previous meet record of 4:53 set by Laura Williamson (Connecticut) last year, while Fernandez’s 3,000 mark of 9:29.77 shattered the previous record of 9:36.65 seconds set by Emily Durgin (Connecticut) last year.

Fernandez won the conference’s Most Outstanding Performer award for her performance.

Forde said Fernandez and the team should soon hear as to whether or not her recent performances have been enough to allow her entry into the NCAA National Championship meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas on March 13-14.

-Tyler DeVice

Owls top Lafayette in bounce-back victory

Temple didn’t need its usual late-game heroics to beat Lafayette College on Saturday. The Owls won, 17-7, thanks in large part to a 10-0 goal run that extended from the first to the second half.

Junior midfielder Nicole Tiernan, who notched her second consecutive hat trick against the Leopards, opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game. Lafayette responded with a 4-1 run that put it up by two goals with just under 11 minutes left in the half.

It was all Owls from there on out. Junior midfielder Megan Tiernan’s first goal of the game at 10:40 started a streak of 10 goals that blew the game open. Within that stretch, eight different players scored, including two from junior Megan Tiernan, two from junior attacker Avery Longstaff and one from freshman attacker Nicole Barretta.

The streak ended when Lafayette sophomore attacker Ashley Tedesco scored with 18:52 left in regulation. After surrendering its first goal in almost 22 minutes, Temple ended the game on a 5-2 run, clinching the 17-7 win and its fourth win on the season.

The Owls’ dominance of possession marked a critical factor in the game, as they secured 19 draw controls after struggling in that department in its blowout loss to Cornell last weekend.

Temple (4-1) will travel to New York next week to play Wagner College in Staten Island on Wednesday and Iona College in New Rochelle on Friday.

-Matt Cockayne