March 14, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - The Temple women's gymnastics team (9-11) will head south on Saturday March 17 to Morgantown, West Virginia for its final meet of the regular season. The quad-meet will feature the 21st-ranked Mountaineers along with Rutgers and conference-rival Yale. The competition is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start at West Virginia University's Coliseum.

Currently, three Owl gymnasts rank among the conference elite with senior Noelle Moore ranked 14th on the vault, eighth on balance beam, and tied for first on the floor exercise with Penn's Marissa Rosen. On the uneven bars, sophomore Christine McNeill is ranked ninth, with senior co-captain Sarah Liebowitz in 16th.

The Temple women have had an up and down season thus far, yet head coach Aaron Murphy knows he has a team of fighters.

"The team is fully aware that their potential has not been fully reached this season. A strong showing this weekend will give this team the confidence it needs as they prepare for the post-season," said Murphy.

Murphy will once again have to shuffle around the line-ups with senior co-captain Jillian Kornett sitting out on the uneven bars.

"Jillian has taken a few rough bangs and bruises on bars in the past few weeks. We have the depth on bars to fill her shoes, but I absolutely need her to be healthy for vaulting and floor exercise," cautioned Murphy.

What head coach Murphy is alluding to is the fact that he'll have to be without the services of standout freshman Tiffany Shepherd on both the vault and floor exercise.

"I was set to do the all-around last week at West Chester, but injured myself when I missed the 8-incher on my double pike flyaway during the final one touch warm-up," said Shepherd.

The result was a bruised heel, one that will keep her on the sidelines as Temple wraps up their regular season. She is expected to be full strength for the championship season, however.

The Owls will look to seniors Sarah Liebowitz and Noelle Moore to lead a talented cast of specialists, including Winter Sneed, Nicole Catrambone, Desiree Meredith, Danielle Viens, Christine McNeill, Nina Oteri, Natasha Crawford, Monica Zuber and Nikki Berrian.

The Owls will enjoy an extra week to prepare for the ECAC conference championships on March 31 at Cornell in Ithaca, NY. The ECAC meet is scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. start in Teagle Gymnasium.