Volleyball Downs Tulane 3-2 For Fourth-Straight AAC Victory

Friday, October 13

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

13-6, 5-2AAC

Tulane

12-7, 1-5AAC

Tulane

ECU

Volleyball Downs Tulane 3-2 For Fourth-Straight AAC Victory

October 13, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Freshman right side Bri Wood exploded for a career-high 23 kills Friday night to lead the ECU volleyball team to a 3-2 (25-19, 18-25, 25-19, 19-25, 16-14) American Athletic Conference victory over Tulane inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. The win marked the fourth straight for the Pirates.

Team Records: ECU (13-6, 5-2 AAC) | Tulane (12-7, 1-5 AAC)

Wood, the reigning AAC Offensive Player of the Week, kept her strong play going by committing just two attacking errors in 43 swings for a .488 hitting percentage. She added four blocks for good measure. Senior outside hitters Ashton Mares and Lael Ceriani reached double digits as well, putting down 15 and 13 kills respectively. Mares competed her fourth double-double of the campaign by collecting 12 digs. Freshman setter Shelby Martin tallied her third double-double of the season, racking up 47 assists, 13 digs, five kills and a .625 hitting percentage. Defensively, sophomore libero Brandee Markwith led all players with 30 digs while senior defensive specialist Alex Jessett notched 12 digs of her own.

ECU continued its string of strong hitting performances, recording 62 kills on 166 attempts with 18 errors for a .265 clip. Conversely, the Green Wave piled up 68 kills but committed 25 errors to finish with a .232 percentage. The Pirates excelled defensively, out-digging (83-74) and out-blocking (9.0 to 2.0) Tulane.

Torbett's Take: "Bri had another spectacular performance. She is an exciting player and just a freshman. I also thought Brandee put together a really good defensive effort. It was nice to see our core principles of defense and blocking carry us through tonight."

Set One: The Purple and Gold enjoyed a fast start, establishing a 10-4 lead following a Ceriani kill. The advantage grew to 12-4 before the Green Wave put together a 10-5 run to slice the cushion to three at 17-14. ECU regained its footing, scoring eight of the final 13 points of the stanza to win it by six.

Set Two: Tulane flipped the script in the second frame, rolling to a 12-4 advantage. The Pirates answered right back as a Green Wave service error sparked an 8-0 run that knotted the score at 12. However, a 7-3 run by the visitors gave them a lead that proved to big to overcome in the end as the teams went into the intermission tied at a set apiece.

Set Three: A tight third set began to swing in ECU's favor as, with the Pirates leading 9-8, an 8-3 burst put the home side in front 17-11. Tulane could not recover and ECU went on to capture the stanza by six.

Set Four: The Green Wave rung up an 8-5 advantage in the fourth and would not relinquish the lead. The Pirates drew within 20-16 late, but a Kristen Thompson kill closed out the frame and sent the match to the deciding 15-point fifth.

Set Five: Kills by Wood and Ceriani helped ECU jump out to a 4-1 lead. The Pirates captured a 7-5 edge when a dig by Markwith found the Tulane side of the floor, but the Green Wave was able to forge a deadlock at seven. The teams sided out for a majority of the rest of the set before Tulane eventually reached match point at 14-13. However, a service error by Dayna Kern gave ECU new life and subsequent consecutive attacking errors allowed the Pirates to seal the match in extra points.

News and Notes

ECU won its first five-set match of the season in five attempts.
The Pirates have won four-straight conference matches for the first time since the 2006 season when that squad ripped off eight in a row in Conference USA play.
Head coach Julie Torbett needs just four more victories to become the winningest head coach in program history.
ECU has out-blocked 10-straight opponents and 10 of the last 12.
The Pirates improved 5-17 against Tulane and have won four of the last six meetings.

Up Next: ECU closes the weekend Sunday with an American Conference matchup against Houston. First serve is set for 12:30 p.m. The Cougars lost a 3-1 decision at Cincinnati earlier tonight.