Last year, the Penn softball team shut out Temple for a decisive victory.
This year, however, the Owls got revenge, winning 7-6 in a hard-fought contest that saw the lead change hands several times.
Temple (9-16, 2-2 Atlantic 10) made its intentions clear early with two home runs in the bottom of the first inning for a 3-0 advantage.
The Quakers (11-17, 0-2 Ivy) answered in the fourth inning, however, scoring four runs of their own to take the lead.
Senior infielder Jen Nichols doubled in her first at-bat of the game, and was able to advance to third on a single by junior Casey Hare.
Sophomore Kaelin Ainley's subsequent double scored both Nichols and Hare's pinch runner to put Penn's first runs on the board.
Temple would pull ahead again with three runs in the fourth, but again the Quakers made a comeback.
With two outs in the fifth after a well-executed double play by the Owls, Penn junior second baseman Stephanie Reichert connected for a single to tie the score at 6-6.
"Our offense was definitely on," Reichert said. "We were hitting really well, and we had really timely hitting."
But the Owls continued their assault, sending another ball out of the park in the bottom of the fifth for a solo shot and the game-winner.
This time, Penn did not answer offensively and wasn't able to generate any hits for the remainder of the game.
"Their pitchers did a lot more location pitching inside, outside, high, low and that threw us off," Reichert said. "They got the strikeouts when they needed them."
She led the Quakers offensively, hitting 2-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored.
Junior Teresa Leyden also put in a solid performance, hitting 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Freshman pitcher Emily Denstedt started the game for Penn, allowing seven runs on nine hits, all of them earned.
In her six innings pitched, Denstedt walked none, while striking out six Temple hitters.
Junior Olivia Mauro pitched the last inning for the Quakers, and held the Owls to six runs.
"We definitely kept it close with our defense," Reichert said. "We pitched well, our outfield played the wind great, and we made some great plays in the infield also."
Looking ahead to the weekend, the Quakers will try to earn their first Ivy win of the season as they face Brown Saturday.
"We will be working on our hitting and bunting and on our defense," Reichert said. "I don't think Brown is better than us, and I don't think we should have trouble with Brown. It's just a matter of being on our game and playing at the level that we're used to playing at."
