Philadelphia, PA -The La Salle Explorer volleyball fell in 3-0 in their Atlantic 10 conference opener against the neighboring Temple Owls Tuesday night at Tom Gola Arena. The Explorers stand at 7-11 overall, while the Owls continue to improve at 4-6.

After scoring the first point in Game 1, the Explorers watched Temple complete a seven point run to up the score to 7-1. La Salle hoped a substitution would stop the run, but after another Temple point, the Explorers called a time-out to regroup. After the break, Temple landed yet another point before Temple's Yamit Habba (Kiryat Ata, Israel/Rogozin) hit the ball into the net to give the Explorers a sideout.

The teams traded a couple of points, and the Explorers landed their first kill by freshman Kristen Kelsey (Buda, TX/Jack C. Hays) to make it 11-3. Temple continued to run away with game one, as the final score stood at 30-11.

Temple notched the first point in game two, and on the second serve of the game, senior Robyn Wright (Salem, OH/Salem) nailed a kill to get La Salle on the scoreboard early. The Explorers took the lead at 5-4, but Temple scored the next four points to take an 8-5 advantage. Setter Caitlin Conner (Willow Springs, IL/Lyons Township) dumped the ball to give the Explorers a point to rally La Salle.

The Owls pushed on and eventually went on a nine point run to take a commanding 18-8 lead. With the scored sitting at 23-10, junior Lauren Woods (Akron, OH/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) went down with an ankle injury and missed the remainder of the match. Temple went on to take game two 30-21.

Although the Explorers kept game three close for a bit, Temple went on a 7-2 run to push the game to 18-11. Temple ran the game out and claimed its first Atlantic 10 match of the season.

Wright and Kelsey led the Explorers with seven kills apiece. On defense, junior Caitlin DeJong (Lansing, IL/Marian Catholic) tallied 14 digs.

For the Temple Owls, Liu Shu (TianJina, China/Tian-Jin) topped all players with 10 kills. Shu and Habba posted 12 and 14 digs respectively.

La Salle will hit the road for more conference action this weekend when they travel to Ohio to face the Dayton Flyers on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and then visit the Xavier Musketeers on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.