East Carolina University
UCF
East Carolina Suffers Sweep Against UCF
October 12, 2014 | Volleyball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina volleyball team was unable to overcome a hot-hitting UCF squad that boasted a .444 attack percentage as the Pirates were swept by the Knights, 18-25, 12-25, 20-25, Sunday afternoon at Minges Coliseum. With the loss ECU drops to 9-6 overall and 2-4 in the American, while the Knights improve to 13-5 on the year and a perfect 6-0 to lead the conference.
The Pirates' offense turned in a positive effort with 40 kills on .212 hitting, but they were overpowered by the Knight's 46 kills and 44 assists on .444 hitting. Defensively, ECU struggled as the Pirates were limited to just 1.0 team block and 31 digs, while UCF was steady in its defensive game with 6.0 total team blocks and 42 digs.
"I thought we had moments out there where we looked really good," Head coach Julie Torbett said. "You can see that we're making great strides and if UCF is the team to beat this year, then we've got a lot of work to do. We know that. We talk about that every day. We're not where we can be. The potential in these girls is probably greater than they even realize. I thought we hung with them offensively for quite a bit of the match. It was point-for-point at times, but defensively, they outplayed us. And I think that was really the difference."
Offensively, Sydney Darden and Ashton Mares led the Pirates with nine kills each. Darden also added 11 digs, four assists and one block assist. Zarah Cecich contributed 29 assists, eight kills, two digs and the only service ace of the contest for ECU.
UCF's Loren Cory came off the bench and led the Knights with nine kills on 14 attempts without committing an error as she hit .643 in the match. Marie Reiterova and Dana Faught split the setter duties as Reiterova tallied 22 assists, while Faught added 18. Kia Bright led the defense with 10 digs to go along with eight kills, while Kaye-Alese Green posted three solo blocks and two block assists for a solid performance at the net.
The sets were close early on as the conference foes traded points, but UCF always managed to come out on top. The Knights used a balanced offense to take a four-point (18-14) lead on ECU in the first set forcing the Pirates to call a timeout. The Knights came back and pushed it to set-point (24-17) as the Pirates took their final timeout of the frame before defeating East Carolina 25-18.
The second set saw the Knights' offense on full display as they hammered out 13 kills while hitting .476. The UCF defense forced ECU into six attack errors and the Pirates turned in a .083 hitting percentage in the frame. East Carolina was limited to just eight kills in the set and came away with a 25-12 loss and an 0-2 deficit going into the intermission.
The Pirates came out in the third set and knocked down 17 kills, but an offensive surge from the Knights kept the Pirates at bay. UCF hit .486 in the frame with 19 kills and just two attack errors. East Carolina stayed close on the Knights' heels, but the Pirates were unable to pull out a win as they fell to UCF, 25-20.
East Carolina hits the road to take on Tulsa on Friday, October 17 at 8 p.m. Live stats will be available on ECUPirates.com.
