East Carolina University
Marshall
Volleyball Falls In Final Regular Season Contest
November 15, 2008 | Volleyball
Nov. 15, 2008
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - In the final regular season contest for the East Carolina volleyball team, the Pirates fought hard but came up just short in falling to Marshall 3-1 (21-25, 25-14, 29-27, 25-22). With the loss, ECU is now 13-18 overall, with a 3-13 mark in Conference USA contests. Marshall improves to 12-14 overall and 5-11 in conference play with the win.
The opening set could not have been more closely contested, as the score was tied at points one through 12 to begin the action. Marshall then eased out to two point leads at 14-12, 16-14 and 17-15, but ECU responded each time. The Pirates were able to knot the score at 17 before taking their own two point lead at 20-18. Clinging to just a one point advantage at 22-21, the Pirates ran off three straight points to win the set 25-21. Junior right side hitter Stephanie Turner led the offense in the first set, racking up seven kills and a .556 attack percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Lizzy Bruin, junior outside hitter Melissa Zentner and redshirt freshman outside hitter Britney Roper all collected two kills while sophomore setter Katie Koop finished with a team-best six digs.
The Pirates kept the points rolling their way to start the second set, taking a quick 3-0 lead. Marshall rallied to tie the score at 5-5 before ECU again answered, taking an 8-5 advantage. Another Thundering Herd run knotted the score at 12-12 before the hosts scored 11 straight points to lead 23-12. Marshall went on to win the second set 25-14. In the second frame, the Pirates managed just five kills and finished with a -.065 hitting percentage.
In the third set, the teams played to a 3-3 tie before Marshall went ahead by a 6-3 score. The Pirates then stormed back, winning six straight points to take a 9-6 lead, only to see the Thundering Herd come back to deadlock the score at 10 points each. The squads then exchanged points, resulting in a 15-15 tie before ECU took a 17-15 advantage. The Pirates also held leads at 23-21, 24-22 and 24-23 before the Thundering Herd tied the score at 24 and then took its own 25-24 lead. Back-to-back kills from Turner and Roper gave the Pirates another set-point at 26-25, but Marshall again tied the score, this time at 26 each. East Carolina had one more set-point chance at 27-26, but the Thundering Herd ran off three straight points to gain the 29-27 set win.
The final set again started the way of the Pirates, as they held leads of 5-1 and 7-3 before Marshall ran off seven straight points to take a 10-7 lead. ECU cut the lead down to one at 12-11, but the Thundering Herd pushed the lead back to three at 15-12. The Pirates managed to tie the score at 15-15. The teams then alternated points, resulting in a 19-19 tie, after which Marshall three straight points to grab a 22-19 advantage. ECU got within one point at 22-21, but could not force the tie and fell 25-22 in the final set.
For the match, Turner led the team in kills with 13 while Roper finished with 12 and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Erica Banning pounded down seven. Bruin and Zentner pounded home six and five kills, respectively. Junior setter Hannah Fenker led the team in digs with 14 and senior defensive specialist Monroe added 13. With her 13 digs in the match, Monroe also moved into third-place on the Conference USA digs in a career list, passing Stephanie Bishop (1998-2001) of DePaul. Monroe now has 1,849 digs in her career.
East Carolina now prepares for the Conference USA tournament, which begins on Thursday in Memphis, Tenn. The opponent and the game time are still to be determined.
