East Carolina University
Houston
Pirates Unable to Hold Off Houston in 3-2 Loss
November 07, 2014 | Volleyball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina dropped a five-set [23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 9-15] decision to Houston Friday night at Williams Arena inside Minges Coliseum. The Pirates have lost three consecutive matches and fall to 11-12 overall and 3-10 in the American. The Cougars improve to 13-13 on the year and 5-9 in league action.
Houston won the first set, but that did not deter the Pirates as they came back and evened the slate with a 25-23 victory in set two. East Carolina claimed the third set, but the Cougars came back and won the final two to put the match away.
The Cougars had four players in double-figures in Cortney Warren (24), Sarah Afflerbaugh (12), Kadi Kullerkann (11) and Kaiti Walters (10). As a team, Houston hit .233 and knocked down 69 kills. The Cougars were paced by Keandra McCardell and Sophie Paine who split setter duties and combined for 60 assists in the contest. Defensively, Natalie Keck recorded 24 digs, while Olivia O'Dell contributed 13 and Afflerbaugh and McCardell added 11 and 10, respectively.
Despite the loss, the Pirates turned in several strong performances as freshman outside hitter Ashton Mares led the team with 19 kills while adding 13 digs for a double-double. Sophomore outside hitter Sydney Darden also notched a double-double with 16 kills and 18 digs for ECU. Junior libero Erika Figueroa tied her career-high with 33 digs which is also good for second in the ECU single-game record book. Senior setter Zarah Cecich dished out 48 assists to go along with five digs, three kills and one block assist. Sophomore middle blocker Ashley McRae hit a team-leading .615 after knocking down nine kills on 13 attempts with just one attack error. She also added two digs and a block assist.
"I thought that Ashton played really well with 19 kills," Head coach Julie Torbett said. "Our outsides played pretty well and Ashley hit .615. Erika has been playing great in the last half of the season. She's been very consistent.
"Our blocking game was pretty good and we've limited our serving errors to five, and we out dug them," Torbett continued. "We just couldn't put the ball away when we needed to. I was not happy with our overall passing. We need to get the ball to our middles more. I thought we did a lot of really nice things, even in a loss."
East Carolina kept the match close as the first three sets were all decided by two points. The Pirates had their best offensive output during the third set when they hit .261 with 16 kills. In that frame, the Cougars hit .229 and it was the only set in which the Pirates out hit Houston.
The Pirates finished the contest with a .154 attack percentage and 56 kills. ECU held the edge on defense as the Pirates posted 82 digs to Houston's 75, while posting 9.0 team blocks to the Cougars' 7.0.
The first set of the match was a battle from the start as the conference foes exchanged leads four times and fought through 10 ties. Mares evened the score at 23-all with a kill, but the Cougars put the game away on a kill followed by an ECU attack error.
ECU evened the match at two sets apiece with a 25-23 victory in the second set. During that frame the Pirates registered 12 kills and recorded a sideout margin of 58-percent. East Carolina jumped ahead 8-3 forcing Houston to take timeout. The Pirates never looked back after that early lead as they held the lead for the remainder of the set.
The Pirates brought the momentum from set two into the third frame as they hit .261 and knocked down 16 kills. ECU surged ahead 9-4 and held the Cougars at bay the rest of the way. Houston began to mount a comeback, but East Carolina managed to put the contest away and win by a score of 25-23.
The fourth set was much like the first as the Pirates and Cougars battled through 11 ties and three lead changes. Houston broke the final tie with a kill from Warren as the visitors went up 22-21. The Cougars closed the set on a 4-0 run to force a fifth and deciding set.
East Carolina got on the board first in the fifth set, but Houston was quick to counter. The Pirates and Cougars traded points until the set was tied at 6-6. Houston knocked down three consecutive points to take a lead that it would not relinquish. Despite the Pirates' efforts, the Cougars put the set away on a kill from Kullerkann to win, 15-9.
The Pirates look to get back on the winning track Sunday, November 9, when they welcome Tulane to Minges Coliseum. First serve is set for 1 p.m. The first 100 fans in attendance at Sunday's match will receive five free wings from Buffalo Wild Wings.
