PHILADELPHIA, PA - In the last week of competition, the La Salle Explorers hosted the Atlantic 10 East Division leading Temple Owls at Tom Gola Arena Thursday night. The Explorers fell in three games buy scores of 30-26, 30-22, 30-18 and now stand at 11-19 (1-11, A-10) for the season, while the Owls improve to 21-9 (10-2, A-10).

The Explorers hung tough in game one, trading points with the Owls for much of the game, including matching Temple's 17 points and then again at 18-18, but the Owls scored four straight points to take a 22-18 lead.  Despite scoring the next point after a timeout, the Explorers lost the game 30-26.

In game two, the Explorers again came out fighting kept the game close.  La Salle its only lead of the evening, other than the initial point 6-5 and tied the match at 17-17, but the Owls again went on a run, this time for five points and took a 22-17 lead.  The Explorers tried to counter but found themselves down 2-0 after a 30-22 final in game two.

After the 10-minute intermission, the Explorers came out flat and Temple jumped out to a seven-point lead at 11-4 before La Salle called a timeout.  The Explorers never got it together and fell 30-18 to end the match.

Brittany Hanley led the Explorers on offense with seven kills, while junior Stephanie Owen knocked down six kills, including three in game one.  With one match left in her career, senior Abby Means matched Owens' six kills and posted a .200 hitting percentage for the contest.  Setter Caitlin Conner assisted on 28 of La Salle's 34 kills in the match.

On defense, Carolyn Judge continued to dominate the defense, adding 20 kills to her season total.  At the net on defense, Christa Dominick and Means each assisted on three blocks, while senior Kara Branz assisted on a pair.

Temple was led by Christina DeMarco, who led all players with 12 kills and hit .476 for the match.  Zhen Jia Liu contributed nine kills for the Owls.  Setter Maira Mogollon assisted on 42 kills and turned in a .833 hitting percentage with five kills, no errors and six attempts.

On defense, libero Ying Sun Ling tallied a team-high 17 digs.

The Explorers will close out the 2005 season on Friday, November 11th, when they host the Fordham Rams at 7:00 p.m.