Ferris and Wernert Lead Volleyball Over DePaul in Five Games
November 12, 2004 | Volleyball
East Carolina (11-16, 5-7 C-USA) had four players with double-digit kills on the night. In addition to Ferris and Wernert, junior middle blocker Paige Howell (17) and junior outside hitter Erica Wilson (12) each reached double-figure kills for the Pirates. Krug set up the Pirate offense with 62 set assists, her third-highest mark of the season. ECU out-hit the Blue Demons, .190-to-.185.
The Pirates were led on defense by junior libero Johanna Bertini who finished with 25 digs, one shy of her career-high total. Bertini has reached the 20-dig mark seven times this season and now has 1,022 career digs, becoming just the sixth Pirate to reach the 1,000 dig mark in a career. Sophomore setter Heidi Krug and redshirt freshman Caitlin Daly each finished with 11 digs a piece.
DePaul (12-17, 5-7 C-USA) was led by Morgan Ingersoll who finished with 20 kills on 55 attack attempts. Mandy Moorberg collected 19 kills and 14 digs for a double-double. Five Blue Demons reached double-digit digs with Amy Holmes (21) and Ellen Hayes (20) leading the defense.
The Blue Demons took game one by a score of 30-22. The Pirates were out-hit .316-to-.106. ECU was hurt by nine attack errors in game one while DePaul committed only five on 38 attack attempts.
The Pirates bounced back and took game two, 30-26. Ferris collected six kills, with an attack percentage of .455. Wernert collected five kills, giving her 10 through the first two games. DePaul hit just .115 with only nine team kills in the game two loss.
East Carolina had a 20-13 lead in game three and let it slip away, giving DePaul the win, 33-31. The Blue Demons finished the game on a 20-11 run. Ingersoll collected a game-high eight kills for DePaul and Ferris led the charge for ECU with seven kills. Bertini led the Pirate defense with eight of the team's 23 digs in the game.
ECU won game four, 30-27, forcing a deciding fifth game. Howell led the Pirates in game four with six kills and a .417 attack percentage. ECU hit .160 as a team while DePaul was only able to record 12 kills on 44 attack attempts.
Behind Daly's serving, East Carolina started off game five on an 8-0 run. The lead was increased to 11-1 and ECU was able to hold off the Blue Demons in the end, 15-5. Wernert added four kills in the fifth game including two early on, putting ECU up 3-0 and changing the momentum of the match in the Pirates favor.
ECU will play their final game of the regular season at home Saturday versus Marquette at 7 p.m inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. The Pirates will then travel to Louisville to participate in the 2004 Conference USA Volleyball Tournament, Nov. 19-22.
