East Carolina University
Tulsa
East Carolina Suffers Sweep at Tulsa
October 17, 2014 | Volleyball
TULSA, Okla. - The East Carolina volleyball team struggled offensively in a 3-0 [19-25,17-25, 21-25] loss at Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane took advantage of missed serves and sub-par passing as the Pirates fell to 9-7 overall (2-5 American) and Tulsa improved to 12-7 on the year and 4-4 in the American.
"We did not play well tonight," Head coach Julie Torbett said. "Our middles had a hard time connecting on the ball and Sydney [Darden] struggled serving and on offense. The first set was a lot of missed serves and bad passes.
"The team can be good when they choose to be," Torbett continued. "Zarah [Cecich] played well and I thought Lauren Bewick came in and made a difference."
Cecich recorded 24 assists, six kills, four digs and hit .417 in the match, while Bewick collected eight digs and an assist. Ashley McRae registered a team-high nine kills, while Ashton Mares notched a team-best 10 digs.
Tulsa was led by Valeria El Houssine as she was the only player in the match to reach double-figures with 13 kills. She added nine digs, two service aces, one assist and one solo block. Bailey Clampitt dished out 31 assists and 11 digs for a double-double, while Brooke Berryhill posted a match-high 15 digs.
East Carolina was out-hit by Tulsa .117 to .196 in three sets. The Golden Hurricane put up 8.0 total team blocks to the Pirates' 1.0. The hosts also held the edge in digs (49-38), aces (6-0), assists (35-31) and kills (37-35).
The Golden Hurricane out-slugged the Pirates in the first set as they knocked down 14 kills to ECU's eight. Additionally, Tulsa used a 7-2 run to break a 10-10 tie and force the Pirates to call a timeout as they trailed 17-12. Tulsa pushed the game to set-point and won, 25-19, on an ECU service error.
The Pirates managed to post 10 kills in the second frame, however, they were also forced into 10 attack errors as they ultimately recorded a .000 attack percentage. Although Tulsa had its worst offensive output of the match during the second set as it hit. .118, the Golden Hurricane still managed to pull out a win, 25-17, as they took advantage of the Pirates' many miscues.
East Carolina recorded 17 kills in the third set, while Tulsa notched 13. Although the Pirates tallied more kills than their counterparts, the Golden Hurricane only registered three attack errors to hit .270, while ECU hit .205 with eight attack errors.
Tulsa led throughout the third set as the Golden Hurricane allowed the Pirates to tie the game once at 5-5 after a Darden kill. From that point on, the hosts held the Pirates at bay and did not allow them to come within striking distance. The Golden Hurricane went on to claim the third and final set, 25-21.
The Pirates head to Dallas, Texas, to take on SMU in a Sunday match-up at 2 p.m. (ET). Live stats will be available on ECUPirates.com.
