East Carolina University
Sam Houston State
Volleyball Ends Invitational With Two Losses
September 04, 2010 | Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2010
Sam Houston State 3, East Carolina 0 
NEWARK, Del. - The East Carolina volleyball team suffered a pair of sweeps on Saturday to Delaware (17-25, 11-25, 17-25) and Sam Houston State (10-25, 11-25, 15-25) to close out play at the Delaware Invitational. The Pirates are now 0-6 to start the 2010 season.
Delaware jumped in front 3-0 in the day's first affair, but the Pirates responded with four-straight points to take their first lead. ECU led by as many as four, 14-10, but the Blue Hens came on strong and ended the frame on a 15-3 run - capped off by a block in the middle of the court.
Delaware took control from the start of the second set, scoring 11 of the first 12 points. The Pirates then used two kills from Britney Roper and Whitney Campbell to pull within 11-4 but the Blue Hens took leads of 18-5 and 22-8 to cruise to the intermission up two sets to none.
East Carolina kept things much closer to begin the final set, trailing just 6-4 after the first 10 points. Delaware began to push from there, racing out to a 14-6 advantage. With the Blue Hens in control at 20-13, the Pirates made one final push and scored four-straight to make things interesting and draw a Delaware timeout. However, ECU did not score again and the home team closed the match on a 5-0 run.
The Blue Hens had the better of the hitting (.281-.043), kills (41-23), digs (44-34) and blocking (7.0-1.0) while committing only 14 attack errors on 96 attempts. They also dished out 39 assists for the 41 kills.
Roper led the Pirate offense with seven kills while Kelly Derby racked up five on 11 attempts with no errors for a percentage of .455. Andrea Queck dished out 20 assists while Shelby Beasley fell just short of the double-digit plateau in digs with a team-best nine. Derby also picked up a block assist, giving her 12 blocks in her last two matches.
The first set of the second match of the day was tight early at 3-3, but Sam Houston State went on a 14-0 run to make the score 17-3. ECU reached double-digits but the Bearkats ended the frame by taking eight of the last 15 points.
Sam Houston State went ahead again in the second set, 11-4, and would maintain a 10-point or more advantage the rest of the way. The Pirates scored three of the final five points but the Bearkats made 14 points the final margin.
ECU did not score in the final set until Sam Houston State had an 8-0 lead. The Pirates rallied to within six at 11-5 but it was as close as they would get as the Bearkats ended the match on a 14-10 run.
Lutzow led the offense with seven kills while Beasley racked up double digits in digs for the fourth time in six matches with 10.
SHSU out-hit East Carolina .372 to -.022 and also held the advantage in digs (44-29) as well as blocking (6.0-2.0). The Pirates committed 20 attack errors on 92 attempts while the Bearkats had just eight on 86.
The Pirates return to action next weekend, Sept. 10-11, traveling to Winston-Salem, N.C., for the Wake Forest Black and Gold Challenge. ECU faces Campbell in the team's lone match Friday at 4:30 p.m.
