Only twice in coach Tonya Cardoza’s tenure as the head of the Owls’ program has her squad lost five consecutive games.

The only other time was last season when Temple dropped non-conference games against ranked opponents Ohio State, Texas A&M and Rutgers and non-ranked foe’s Northern Illinois and St. John’s.

Last season the Owls had the likes of senior guards Shey Peddy, BJ Williams and Kristen McCarthy to stop the bleeding and eventually lead the team to a 23-10 season.

This season there’s senior guard Victoria Macaulay, sophomore guard Tyonna Williams and not much else.

Cardoza called this one of the most challenging times in her five years at Temple.

“Most definitely,” Cardoza said. “And I don’t think it has anything to do with youth, I think it’s a mindset that you have to play when you play this game.”

The Owls have two more games before they start the Atlantic 10 Conference season. It’ll be interesting to see how she tries to right the ship.

-Jake Adams