Monthly Archives: February 2014

Crew heads to Florida

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The men’s crew team is heading to Florida on Friday ahead of its first race of the season in the Stetson Invitational on March 8.

With the exception of two juniors, all the sophomores, juniors and seniors will be heading to Delanco, Fla. to row on a lake during spring break. The men will row twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening. The freshmen will be staying behind to train with an assistant coach.

The men will row for the first time this year on water in Florida because the Schuylkill River has been frozen for much of the winter.

Fitzgerald receives weekly honors

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This week, freshman guard Feyonda Fitzgerald was named to the American Athletic Conference and Philadelphia Big 5 Honor Rolls.

Collectively, Fitzgerald has now been honored by The American and Big 5 on eight separate occasions, including four American Freshman of the Week honors, being named to the Big 5 Honor Roll three times, and making it onto the American Honor Roll once.

In Temple’s most recent game, a loss to visiting South Florida, Fitzgerald was the Owls’ offensive leader, recording 23 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Against the Bulls, Fitzgerald shot 8 of 21, and was perfect from the charity stripe on seven attempts.

Fitzgerald has been an offensive threat for the Owls since her first collegiate start, averaging 12.4 points and four assists, which both lead the team.

Bats explode in opener

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After having its first series snowed out last weekend, the baseball team was anxious to get this season – the program’s last should the cuts not be reversed – underway.

Seven Owls recorded multi-hit games as Temple stormed past Rider University 15-8 in Wilson, N.C., on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Josh Mason smacked four hits and drove in a run and senior Robert Amaro had three hits while driving in four runs.

Right off the bat, it was clear that the Owls were ready to get started.

Temple got RBI hits in the top of the first inning from Amaro, Mason, sophomore catcher Michael D’Accunti and senior outfielder Bobby Heitzman. The Owls had a 5-0 lead before pitcher Matt Hockenberry even took the mound for Temple.

Once he took to the rubber, Hockenberry was solid. The senior right-hander earned the win after going five innings, giving up six runs – three earned – and striking out two.

When he exited the game in favor of junior reliever Phil Gianakos, the score was 12-6 Temple.

Gianakos gave up two runs in the bottom of the sixth but Temple answered right back in the seventh.

D’Accunti blasted a long solo home run, extending the lead to 13-8. Then in the top of the eighth, Derek Peterson and Amaro added an RBI each and the score was 15-8.

Sophomore Tim McCarthy pitched a scoreless eighth and freshman Pat Vanderslice closed out the game in the ninth.

Temple gets back on the field for a double-header on Sunday, taking on UMass-Lowell at 10 a.m. before again playing Rider at 1:30 pm.

Gymnastics to host final home meet

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The men’s gymnastics team will host its last home meet ever Saturday night, as coach Fred Turoff’s squad is set to be cut on July 1.
The Owls will face University of Illinois at Chicago and the Air Force Academy starting at 7:30 p.m.
Turoff expects a similar crowd to the one he saw against Springfield two weeks earlier.
“I think we’re going to have a terrific crowd, and last meet the crowd was applauding everybody,” Turoff said.  “Last time there were a lot of ‘Save Gymnastics’ t-shirts, so I expect to see that again Saturday.”
Freshman Antone Wright is also optimistic about Saturday’s meet.
“I’m really excited, the first home meet was a success, and it’s only going to get bigger,” Wright said.  “We have a lot of support from our athletes that also had their teams cut, and a lot of the local communities around here.”
The fight to save the program hasn’t ended yet, Wright added.
“We’ve done a good job of spreading the word across the nation,” Wright said.  “USA Gymnastics has acknowledged us, so we’ve been just spreading the word for support and donations from whoever wants to.  I’m really excited to see how much larger we can get this movement going.”
–Steve Bohnel

Third week of honor rolls for Shipp

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For the third time this season, fifth-year guard Shi-Heria Shipp has been honored in both the American Athletic Conference and Philadelphia Big 5 weekly honor rolls.

After being out of the starting lineup for seven consecutive games, Shipp started in Temple’s last two games against Houston and Memphis. Both games resulted in comfortable wins for Temple, and ended a season-long four game losing streak.

Against the Owls’ last two conference foes, Shipp has averaged a double double of 11.5 points and 12.5 rebounds, while shooting 11 of 20 from the floor. In both games, Shipp registered game-highs in rebounds, grabbing 12 boards against Houston and 13 boards against Memphis.

Shipp’s 15 points against Houston were the most she had scored since a Dec. 19 victory against Howard, when she scored 22.

The transfer from George Washington has continued to be one of the Owls’ top producers, averaging 9.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, and nearly two steals and assists, per game.

Owls defeat top ranked team at Northwestern University

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At Northwestern University Multi-Meet on Feb. 1-2, the fencing team went 9-3, including a win against No. 5 Notre Dame 14-13. The Owls’ three losses were to No. 1 Princeton 17-10, No. 5 Ohio State 21-6 and No. 7 Northwestern 17-10.

The Owls went 4-2 on day one of the competition with wins over Tufts, Lawrence, Notre Dame and Wayne State. Against Tufts and Lawrence, foil went a combined 15-3. The two loses were to Northwestern and Ohio State.

Senior epee captain Chantal Montrose had a strong performance all weekend. She went 16-4 over the two day meet, including perfect performances against Notre Dame and Stanford. In her bout against Stanford, Montrose defeated Vivian Kong 5-3. Kong was a 2013 NCAA semifinalist.

On Sunday the Owls had two consecutive 26-1 victories over Detroit Mercy and California Tech. They followed up those dominant performances with 18-9 win over Stanford. The Owls then had another 26-1 victory, this time over Cleveland State and a 22-5 victory over UC San Diego. Temple finished the day with a 17-10 loss to Princeton. The Owls epee team defeated the Princeton epee team, which has an Olympic medalist and two members of the USA National team, 6-3.

Sophomore foil Fatima Largaespada also had a strong day. She defeated two Princeton fencers and tallied a 9-1 record on day two. Senior Tasia Ford, sophomore’s Jessica Hall and Petra Khan all went 2-1 against Notre Dame.

-Michael Guise

Anderson no longer at university

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Robby Anderson, the football team’s leading receiver in 2013, is no longer with the team due to academic reasons.

The news was first reported by OwlScoop.com. Anderson’s reason for dismissal is reportedly due to academics. He is not listed on Temple’s public student directory.

Anderson redshirted in 2011 and played sporadically in 2012. After being switched to cornerback in spring practice last year, he left the team for personal reasons to be closer to home. Toward the end of the summer, he was allowed back on the team as a walk-on.

After not playing for the first three games of 2013, he broke out with 791 receiving yards and 9 touchdowns, leading the team in both categories. No other Temple player caught more than three touchdowns last season.

Men’s tennis falls to William and Mary

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It’s been a tough start to the season for the men’s tennis team and it didn’t get any better on Sunday at William & Mary.  The Owls dropped a 6-1 decision on the road falling to 0-4 for the spring season.

Temple was never really in the match against the Tribe, as all six of the points for the Tribe were earned routinely in straight set victories.  One of the few bright spots for the Owls was junior Kristian Marquart’s straight sets victory in singles.

However, Marquart’s victory came at a time when the match was already clinched for William & Mary. Marquart, who lost a competitive three-set match in singles against UMBC on Friday, bounced back to win in straight sets on Sunday.

Friday’s match against UMBC was even worse for Temple, as the team lost 7-0.  After a difficult weekend, the Owls now look to regroup.  They will travel to Old Dominion on Saturday in search of their first victory of the season.

-Greg Frank