Temple hosting Big East field hockey tournament adds ‘a little fire’ to Michelle Vittese’s team

The Big East field hockey tournament will come to Temple Sports Complex in November, but whether Temple will be playing in it remains up to the Owls.

After narrowly missing the four-team field last season, Temple entered this fall knowing exactly where it wanted to be by November. Entering Friday’s matchup against Delaware, the Owls are 5-4 and 1-1 in conference play.

For coach Michelle Vittese, having the conference tournament on Temple’s home field has made the pursuit of reaching the postseason difficult to ignore.

“Definitely a little fire, definitely a little bit of anxiety,” Vittese said. “There’s a pressure element to that.”

» READ MORE: How Michelle Vittese turned Temple field hockey into a Big East tournament contender | From 2025

Vittese has tried to keep that pressure from becoming the Owls’ focus. Rather than measuring each result against whether Temple will qualify in November, she wants her team focused on improving enough to prove it belongs there.

“It’s about, can we provide an experience?” Vittese said. “Can we get to a place at which we hopefully prove that we deserve to be in?”

Temple recently won three straight games, which included a victory over Georgetown in its Big East opener, before Villanova ended the Owls’ streak on Sept. 25. The Owls sit fourth in the Big East standings.

Vittese said her team is still searching for consistency, which has led her staff to tinker with the Owls’ approach. Temple has shifted players between the forward and midfield line, altered its defensive penalty-corner setup, and emphasized increasing its work rate.

Some of those changes came after Temple allowed Lafayette to score on three of its five penalty corners in a 4-3 loss on Sept. 4.

“We were constantly making adjustments every day,” Vittese said. “Every practice, every day, depending on the opposition, we [were] also make in-game adjustments based on what we’re seeing.”

Temple has also changed how it measures effort. The Owls previously reviewed data from their GPS tracking system after games, but the coaching staff has begun using the system during training to receive immediate feedback on players’ work rates.

“It’s a real-time information feedback system,” Vittese said. “It’s a lie detector. Like, are you working hard or are you not? And so you can say you are, but the numbers really tell a story.”

» READ MORE: Temple’s Alex Lepore emerges as a top goalie in the Big East | From 2025

Goalkeeper Alex Lepore sees another area that needs improvement: how the Owls start games.

Lepore said Temple has often played its best field hockey after halftime.

“We’re very much a third-quarter, second-half team, which is great,” Lepore said. “We get back for the game, but we really need just to come out a little stronger, set the tone, and set the pace of the game early on.”

Vittese has emphasized the importance of connection and trust in practice, including how players react when a teammate makes a mistake. After noticing an instance when a struggling player received little encouragement during a game, Vittese challenged the Owls to become more deliberate about picking each other up.

“How relentlessly positive and empowering of our own teammates can we be?” Vittese said. “That’s actually been a practice point.”

Temple finished 3-4 in Big East play last season, the same conference record as Villanova, but the Wildcats claimed the fourth and final tournament spot.

Last year’s results have only motivated the Owls in 2026, says sophomore midfielder Lucia Magro.

“We always can do better,” Magrobut. “But we’re [feeling] really confident.”

Temple still has five Big East games remaining, including matchups against UConn, which is first in the conference’s standings, Old Dominion, and defending conference champion Liberty, before the tournament arrives at its home field.

And Vittese does not want her players consumed with where they could be in November.

“Thinking about anything other than what we can do excellently to be successful is a waste of time,” Vittese said. “We need to focus on ourselves.”