East Carolina University
7-4
Charleston Southern
3-12
ECU Volleyball Splits with Wofford, Charleston Southern
September 19, 2015 | Volleyball
ECU-Wofford Box Score 
| ECU-CSU Box Score
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The East Carolina volleyball team earned a split against Wofford and Charleston Southern on the final day of the South Carolina Invitational after the Pirates fell to Wofford, 3-1 [22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-25], before outlasting Charleston Southern in five sets [21-25, 25-16, 25-19, 21-25, 15-9]. Senior libero Erika Figueroa was named to the All-Tournament team after finishing the weekend with 42 digs to average 3.50 per set.
With the split, ECU moves to 7-3 overall, while Wofford improves to 7-6 and Charleston Southern falls to 3-12.
"We battled hard to beat Charleston Southern," Head coach Julie Torbett said. "We struggled against Wofford and just were not playing together. I thought Erika played well and tried to lead us through our struggles. Ashton [Mares] had a career-high 21 kills and a double-double. Kierra [Lee-Dunson] was solid with .522 hitting. Natalie did a great job all weekend.
"We are excited to enter conference play with a winning record and coming off of a win to hit the road again," Torbett continued. "It was good to get Torre [Blake] back and hopefully we can get Sydney [Darden] back soon."
Figueroa led the defense posting 17 digs against Wofford and coming back later in the day to record 20 versus Charleston Southern en route to being named to the all-tournament team.
Mares turned in a solid effort as she notched a pair of double-doubles before knocking down a career-high 21 kills against CSU. She finished the match with 13 digs, three block assists, two service aces and a pair of assists, while hitting .226.
Helping Mares on the offensive end were Natalie Montini and Kierra Lee-Dunson who finished the contest with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Montini added three digs and four total blocks, while Lee-Dunson had three digs and as many block assists while recording a team-high .522 attack percentage.
Junior Sabrina Gonzalez continued her stout play at setter as she finished the weekend with 92 assists to average nearly eight assists per set. In the Pirates' win over Charleston Southern, she dished out 48 helpers to help the ECU offense to a .261 hitting percentage.
Despite early struggles against Wofford and eventually falling in four sets, the Pirates did a good job regrouping and coming out strong against Charleston Southern in the nightcap.
The Pirates dropped the first set against the Buccaneers, 25-21, but refused to go 0-3 in the tournament. ECU bounced back and kept the second game close as the Pirates broke an early 8-8 tie and never looked back. East Carolina hit .440 in the frame and posted 15 kills as the Pirates rolled past the Bucs, 25-16.
East Carolina continued its offensive output in the third set as the Pirates knocked down 18 kills and hit .244. The ECU defense limited the Bucs to just 11 kills in the frame while hitting .150. The Pirates held a steady lead and ended up winning the third game, 25-19.
With the match in the Pirates' favor, Charleston Southern mounted a comeback and defeated East Carolina 25-21 in the fourth set, forcing a fifth and deciding game.
The Pirates took the fifth game by a score of 15-9 as East Carolina hit .438, while holding the Bucs to a mere .059 attack percentage. ECU did a good job of using a balanced offense, while the defense kept Charleston Southern guessing as the Bucs were forced into six attack errors.
East Carolina begins American Athletic Conference action Friday, October 25 at Cincinnati at 7 p.m. Live stats will be available on ECUPirates.com.
