East Carolina University
SMU
East Carolina Falls to SMU, 3-0
November 28, 2014 | Volleyball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina volleyball team received a strong performance from senior setter Zarah Cecich as she hit a match-high .667, but it was not enough as the Pirates dropped a 3-0 [17-25, 7-25, 18-25] contest to SMU Friday afternoon. With the loss, ECU falls to 15-15 on the year and 6-13 in the American Conference, while the Mustangs improve to 26-6 (15-5 American) overall.
The Pirates finished the match hitting .088 as the Mustangs limited the ECU offense to 22 kills in the contest. SMU turned in a solid effort with 46 kills while posting a .394 attack percentage to keep the Pirates at a distance. SMU held the edge in assists (44 to 19), digs (48 to 37), blocks (4.0 to 2.0) and service aces (6 to 4), but East Carolina continued to play its game as all players saw action for the Pirates.
"SMU is a very good team," Head coach Julie Torbett said. "They were picked to win the conference in the preseason poll. They were playing with a lot of purpose today. They're trying to get into the NCAA Tournament. They're kind of on the bubble. We knew they were going to come out hardcore, so we weren't surprised by that. We got everybody in the match and we saw some good performances. We saw some different things out of Sierra Lee-Dunson in the middle than what Natalie (Montini) brings, so it was an opportunity to play a number of people. We came out on the short end. I wish we would have had a little better showing, but they are a good team."
The Mustangs were led offensively by Caroline Young's 16 kills and .467 attack percentage. Young concluded the match with a double-double after adding 10 digs, a pair of aces and a block assist. Setter Avery Acker also notched a double-double with 40 assists and 10 digs to go along with five kills and a .625 hitting percentage. Defensively, Morgan Heise led the Mustangs with 11 digs.
Cecich tied for the team lead with six kills for ECU. She registered her half a dozen kills on nine attempts without committing an attack error. She also added 12 assists and nine digs in the contest. Erika Figueroa led the ECU defense with 11 digs, while adding three assists and two service aces.
"I felt like it was a battle between their setter and our setter," Torbett said. At one point, I looked at the stat sheet and Zarah was 5-for-7 and their setter was 4-for-7. They were pretty neck-and-neck. Zarah knows she has one more match tomorrow. She had a really good performance statistically and energy effort wise."
The Pirates started the match playing evenly with SMU. East Carolina fought the Mustangs through six ties and two lead changes during the first set. The Pirates recorded nine kills and hit .121, however, SMU tallied 14 kills on .303 hitting to break an 8-8 tie as the Mustangs jumped ahead 13-8. SMU found its groove and held the Pirates at a distance as the Mustangs went on to win the first set, 25-17.
SMU started the second set on a 6-0 run and never looked back. The Pirates knocked down a kill by Cecich to get a sideout, but the Mustangs went on 7-0 run as they took a 13-1 advantage. The Mustangs hit .444 in the frame, while the Pirates were forced into a negative attack percentage (-.143) as they committed seven errors and recorded only three kills. The Mustangs went on to cruise to a 25-7 set win to take a 2-0 lead over the Pirates at the intermission.
East Carolina fought back in the third set and hit a match-high .267 in the frame as the Pirates knocked down 10 kills with just two miscues. However, the Mustangs countered the Pirates' efforts with 19 kills of their own en route to hitting .441. Despite a pair of early ties in the set, SMU controlled the game and claimed a 25-18 win over ECU.
The Pirates close out the regular season Saturday, November 29, at 2 p.m., against Tulsa at Minges Coliseum. A Buy One, Get One Free ticket offer is available to all fans. Following the contest, senior Zarah Cecich will be honored in a senior day ceremony. Live stats and video will be available on ECUPirates.com.
