Temple 'Thinking About the Now' as it Chases Best Season Since 1988

All but two members of Temple’s 2025 roster filed into Philadelphia’s Howarth Field for the program’s Feb. 6 season opener against Delaware.

Last season, the Owls endured a 4-12 campaign, tying their lowest win total under head coach Bonnie Rosen. That experience galvanized the team’s returning core.

“We are never going to experience that ever again,” senior defender Madison Moten said. “Not just because of how awful it felt, but because we know how good we are. We know how much work we put into practice every single day, lifts every day and scouting. We’re all here for a reason. We work our butts off every day and want it for each other.”

Nearly 20 years ago, Rosen departed a UConn program she’d guided into the Division I ranks for an opportunity to coach the North Philadelphia institution that once stood at the sport’s pinnacle. Her native of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., is less than 10 miles from Temple’s campus.

Rosen, who played lacrosse and field hockey at Virginia and won a 1991 lacrosse national title with the Cavaliers, said the Owls’ storied history helped entice her to take the Temple job in 2006.

“It’s always been on my mind to continue to honor the history of the program and build the program in Temple fashion,” Rosen said. “It’s a program that wins, a program that does things right on and off the field and treats people well. This team is just a reflection of all the classes that have come before.”

The Owls are 7-0, their first such start since 1988. That year, Temple went 19-0 en route to its second NCAA championship and third national title, having won the last-ever AIAW lacrosse championship in 1982 and its first NCAA crown in 1984.

The team’s flying start includes a 14-9 win over crosstown rival Penn on Feb. 25. Entering the matchup, the Owls were 0-5 in their all-time series with the Quakers. Temple’s juniors and seniors had dropped their past two meetings with Penn by a combined margin of 25-9.

“Leading up to that game, through practice and even in our team group chats, the energy and positivity was really transformative,” Moten said. “Everyone believed we could do this. We were manifesting everything.”

More than a foot of snow accumulation caused a would-be Owls home game to shift into a road affair. Rosen’s squad had just one day of on-field practice to prepare for its Ivy League foe.

“We talk a lot about being adaptable — that anything can happen,” Rosen said. “We’ve had lots of things this year that have demonstrated that anything and everything will happen. That’s a bit of our superpower at this point.”

Lexi Culp, a senior attacker who produced six points against Penn, has ignited Temple’s offense amid a breakout campaign. She has 17 goals and 13 assists in seven games this season, doubling her career points tally since the season’s inception.

Culp is one of three Owls with at least 20 points in 2026. She, Amelia Wright, Sabrina Martin and Sarah Gowman have combined for 87 points this year.

“We don’t just have one person who does it all,” Culp said. “We have so many different threats, and that’s why we’ve been doing so well. It’s so exciting to see everyone make big plays.”

Culp said the Temple defense instills confidence in the group as a whole. The Owls allow just 7.29 goals per game. That figure has plummeted from 13.75 goals allowed per game in 2025.

Apart from a new starter between the pipes in senior goalkeeper Riley Horoshko — the nation’s save percentage leader at 62.6 percent — Temple returned a comprehensive nucleus of defensive starters in 2026. Moten said the unit has developed an uncanny understanding of individual strengths and the defensive scheme through countless repetitions together.

“We are trying not to be scripted in anything that we do,” Rosen said. “Our defenders are learning how to read, play, communicate and problem-solve all the time. One of the things they’re doing so well on game day is freeing it up, reading the game that’s actually being played on the field and not predetermining anything.”

Moten and Culp are two of the Owls’ dozen seniors and graduate students. The two players who grew up just outside of Philadelphia took a chance on the program when their recruiting processes were almost entirely virtual. Now, they want to carve out a new chapter in Temple’s decorated legacy.

“All the different experiences that we’ve had for the past three years — good and bad — have brought us closer together,” Culp said. “We don’t let one season or one moment define us. Last season, we knew who we were as a team. We took each experience, and we learned from it.

“That’s why we’re doing so well this year. We’re playing for each other, and all the experiences leading up to this moment have helped us do that.”

It’s not lost on Rosen that the American Conference landscape presents considerable parity this year. The Owls will look to make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2021, but Rosen contends that she and her players haven’t ventured beyond a Wednesday game at Towson.

“No matter the outcome or no matter what we go through — being in pain or whatever — we realize that we’re all in it together for one last time,” Moten said. “We’re just taking that and thinking about the now.”