Temple swept Killeen Ellison 25-16, 25-15, 25-19 on Tuesday night at Wildcat Gym to pick up its first District 12-5A win of the season.

The Tem-Cats (15-16 overall, 1-1 in 12-5A) will host Killeen Shoemaker and Harker Heights before they play College Station A&M Consolidated, Bryan, Copperas Cove and Belton in succession.

To knock off one of 12-5A’s top teams, Temple coach Susie Hughlett knew that her team couldn’t afford any setbacks before that difficult stretch begins.

“It’s one of those matches where we had to come out with a high intensity level and take care of business,” Hughlett said. “I’m very, very glad we did that. Even with the few mistakes we had, we still kept the intensity high and did what we needed to do to win.”

Temple jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first game after scoring five points in a row with senior Jordan Pickett serving. Patti Kabobel had a pair of kills during that stretch, and Pickett had a kill and an ace.

The Tem-Cats cruised through the rest of the game, with a Kaitlin Muniz kill closing out the win.

Temple continued to show that intensity Hughlett was looking for in winning the second game. Emily Vasek served the first five points and Shantae Hewins scored two of the first three.

“I was proud of them for the way we started and finished every game, and that’s something we haven’t done a lot of this year,” Hughlett said.

The Lady Eagles didn’t take their first lead of the match until early in the third game.

Ellison led 2-1 after a Temple attack error and hung around until the Tem-Cats pulled away late in the game to claim a sweep.

Kabobel had team-high nine kills, Pickett had eight and Hewins recorded seven. Lauren Mann had 14 digs; Ashley Schlieper had 16 assists and Hewins, Schlieper and Hewins each had three aces.

Hughlett was interested to see how Temple’s offense, the focus of practice earlier in the week, fared in the quicker style she wanted them to play.

“The kids did a good job of trying to do that,” Hughlett said. “Not everything was perfect, but it didn’t expect it to be.”

Making continued improvement is exactly what Temple needs to do before it begins what Hughlett called its “holy terror” part of the schedule.

“The next three weeks we have to focus on the little things and fix those in order to succeed against those big teams,” Hughlett said.

This was exactly the type of win the Temple volleyball team needed - a dominating effort as the Tem-Cats’ toughest stretch of the season quickly approaches.

Temple swept Killeen Ellison 25-16, 25-15, 25-19 on Tuesday night at Wildcat Gym to pick up its first District 12-5A win of the season.

The Tem-Cats (15-16 overall, 1-1 in 12-5A) will host Killeen Shoemaker and Harker Heights before they play College Station A&M Consolidated, Bryan, Copperas Cove and Belton in succession.

To knock off one of 12-5A’s top teams, Temple coach Susie Hughlett knew that her team couldn’t afford any setbacks before that difficult stretch begins.

“It’s one of those matches where we had to come out with a high intensity level and take care of business,” Hughlett said. “I’m very, very glad we did that. Even with the few mistakes we had, we still kept the intensity high and did what we needed to do to win.”

Temple jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first game after scoring five points in a row with senior Jordan Pickett serving. Patti Kabobel had a pair of kills during that stretch, and Pickett had a kill and an ace.

The Tem-Cats cruised through the rest of the game, with a Kaitlin Muniz kill closing out the win.

Temple continued to show that intensity Hughlett was looking for in winning the second game. Emily Vasek served the first five points and Shantae Hewins scored two of the first three.

“I was proud of them for the way we started and finished every game, and that’s something we haven’t done a lot of this year,” Hughlett said.

The Lady Eagles didn’t take their first lead of the match until early in the third game.

Ellison led 2-1 after a Temple attack error and hung around until the Tem-Cats pulled away late in the game to claim a sweep.

Kabobel had team-high nine kills, Pickett had eight and Hewins recorded seven. Lauren Mann had 14 digs; Ashley Schlieper had 16 assists and Hewins, Schlieper and Hewins each had three aces.

Hughlett was interested to see how Temple’s offense, the focus of practice earlier in the week, fared in the quicker style she wanted them to play.

“The kids did a good job of trying to do that,” Hughlett said. “Not everything was perfect, but it didn’t expect it to be.”

Making continued improvement is exactly what Temple needs to do before it begins what Hughlett called its “holy terror” part of the schedule.

“The next three weeks we have to focus on the little things and fix those in order to succeed against those big teams,” Hughlett said.

rschneider@temple-telegram.com