East Carolina University
Rice
Owls Top Pirates, 3-0
November 05, 2011 | Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2011
HOUSTON, Texas - East Carolina fell to Rice 3-0 Saturday in the first of two weekend matches between the teams at Tudor Fieldhouse. The Pirates dip to 2-21 overall and 0-14 in Conference USA play while the Owls are now 14-11 and 9-5.
Playing in her first match as ECU's libero this season, senior Amanda Lutzow collected a team-best 14 digs. Offensively, Britney Roper put down eight kills and was complemented by six-kill performances from Kelly Derby and Whitney Campbell. Roper and Campbell were flawless from the floor, combining for 14 kills on 34 attempts with no errors.
Rice held the upper hand in every statistical category, including assists (46-26), digs (39-26) and blocking (4.0-1.0). The Owls also enjoyed a much better sideout percentage, producing a 75-percent mark as compared to 46 percent for East Carolina.
With the score at 7-6 in favor of Rice in the first set, the Owls scored 14 of the next 16 points to move in front 21-8. The Pirates would score just once more in the frame as Rice ended it with a Nancy Cole kill.
ECU grabbed a 5-4 advantage in the second interval when the Owls committed an atack error and kept an 11-10 lead when Rice hit the ball out of bounds. However, a 4-1 run by the home proved too much for the Pirates to overcome as the Owls rolled to a 25-16 win and 2-0 lead in the match.
A 7-7 deadlock in the third set was broken by Rice as it took advantage of two ECU attack errors to score three-straight points. Then, with the Pirates hanging around and trailing by just one at 14-13, the Owls captured seven of the next nine rallies to establish some breathing room and enjoy a 21-15 lead. East Carolina would fight off one match point with a Roper kill, but Cole responded with a kill of her own to clinch the sweep.
East Carolina and Rice play the final match of their weekend set tomorrow at 3 p.m.
