Gameday: Volleyball Ends 2017 With Home And Home Against Cincinnati

Matches 32-33: Cincinnati
The Matches	Nov. 22: at Cincinnati \\\ 1 p.m. \\\ Live Stats \\\ Live Video Nov. 24: vs. Cincinnati \\\ 1 p.m. \\\ Live Stats \\\ Live Video
Venue	St. Ursula Academy \\\ Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum
Tickets	E CU Online Ticket Center
Social Media	@ECUVB (Twitter) \\\ Instagram \\\ Facebook \\\ @ECUScoreboard (In-Match Updates) \\\ #ECUndaunted

CINCINNATI, Ohio. – The ECU volleyball team closes out the 2017 campaign with a home and home series against American Athletic Conference volleyball opponent Cincinnati.

The Pirates and Bearcats will play in Cincinnati Wednesday before meeting up in Greenville Friday for the season finale. Both matches are scheduled for 1 p.m. ECU will recognize its five-member senior class in a postmatch ceremony Friday.

The teams enter the weekend in a tie for fourth place in the AAC standings with identical 11-7 league records. UCF lurks a match back of the pair at 10-8 while Temple is in third place at 13-5.

In splitting a pair of matches at Houston and Tulane last weekend, the Pirates secured their first 20-win season since 2005. ECU rallied from a two sets to none deficit against the Cougars to win 3-2 Friday before seeing the Green Wave erase the Pirates' 2-0 lead to down ECU in five sets Sunday.

The Pirates are paced offensively by senior outside hitter Lael Ceriani who is averaging 3.10 kills per set. In all, ECU has four players that are putting up over 2.00 kills per set. Defensively, sophomore libero Brandee Markwith averages 5.05 digs per set while sophomore middle hitter Toya Osuegbu sports a 1.09 blocks per set mark. The Pirates are fourth in the league in hitting percentage (.232).

Cincinnati is led on the offensive end by Carly Nolan who is second in the conference at 4.12 kills per set. Abby Williams averages a team-best 3.80 digs per set and Jasmine Jones sports a 1.13 blocks per set mark. Collectively, the Bearcats average 12.50 kills, 11.68 assists, 0.96 aces, 15.93 digs and 2.28 blocks per set. Cincinnati defeated both Tulane (3-1) and Houston (3-0) over the weekend.

The Bearcats swept the season series in 2016 and leads the all-time series over ECU 11-1.

News and Notes: With her 28-dig effort at Houston, Markwith became the 12th player in program history to surpass the 1,000 digs mark for her career … She also now holds the ECU single-season record for total digs … Senior outside hitter Ashton Mares needs just 10 more kills to become the fifth player in school history to notch 1,000 career kills and digs … A win in either match against Cincinnati would give the Pirates 21 victories – the most in a single season since 1982 … Osuegbu is now eighth on the single-season chart in total blocks (125) … The 2017 squad is currently ranked in six categories on the single-season record book – digs (fifth), assists (fifth), hitting percentage (fifth), kills (sixth), block assists (seventh) and total blocks (10th).

Gameday: Volleyball Ends 2017 With Home And Home Against Cincinnati

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Lael Ceriani

Ashton Mares

Brandee Markwith

Toya Osuegbu

Footer