East Carolina University
Temple
East Carolina Swept By Temple
September 28, 2014 | Volleyball
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina volleyball struggled against Temple as the Pirates dropped to 0-2 in the American Conference after falling in straight sets, 3-0 [19-25, 22-25, 13-25] to the Owls. ECU moves to 6-4 overall, while Temple improves to 10-4 on the year and 1-1 in conference play.
East Carolina faltered early on as the Pirates never led during the three-set match. ECU hit just .122, while the Owls posted a .229 attack percentage.
"I was not expecting that performance out of the team," Head coach Julie Torbett said. "We were very flat. We started every single set behind. We were never leading the game and that can't set the tone for the rest of the set. We have to be able to make comebacks. We uncharacteristically didn't go after balls and you'll never get a ball that you don't go after. We just seemed out of sorts and never got it going which requires additional communication that we didn't have, so it downward spiraled.
"With young teams, that can sometimes happen in those situations where no one steps up and leads," Torbett continued. "But, I don't like to make excuses. We just have to fix it and come back ready to go for the next match."
Temple used a balanced attack to keep the Pirates at bay in the first set as the Owls registered a 75-percent sideout margin, while hitting .212 in the frame. The Temple defense limited ECU to just .054 hitting as the Owls won by a score of 25-19.
Despite falling behind early in the second set, 6-1, the Pirates rallied and cut the Owls' advantage to three (14-11) forcing Temple to call a timeout. Following the break in action, ECU chipped away at Temple's lead and the Pirates managed to pull within one (22-21) after a kill from Kierra Lee-Dunson. Temple, however, finished the set with back-to-back kills en route to winning the frame, 25-22.
The third and final set was all Temple. The Owls' offense was perfect as they hit .517 with 14 kills on 27 attempts without committing an error. The Pirates logged 11 kills with five errors on 29 attempts to hit .207. Temple jumped out in front 4-0 and held a steady lead throughout the set before cruising to a 25-13 win over ECU.
"Temple is a good team and we did know that they did not play well against UConn, [last week]," Torbett said. "It was not their typical performance so we were not taking them lightly in any way. We just came out very flat from the start and it took us a little while to get into the match. We were too far behind in the first set, then we dug ourselves a hole and we did it again in each of the sets."
The Owls' Tyler Davis knocked down a match-high 13 kills on a .357 attack percentage, while setter Sandra Sydlik set the tone with 36 assists to go along with 11 digs for a double-double. Libero Alyssa Drachslin led the defense with 16 digs in Temple's first conference win of the year.
Lee-Dunson led the Pirates with nine kills, while senior setter Zarah Cecich contributed 25 assists. Freshman outside hitter Ashton Mares led the defense with 12 digs, while junior libero Erika Figueroa added 10 in the setback.
East Carolina looks to get back on the winning track when it plays host to North Carolina Central Tuesday, September 30, in a mid-week, non-conference contest. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at Williams Arena inside Minges Coliseum. Live stats and video will be available on ECUPirates.com.
