ECU Rolls Past Memphis In Three Sets

Friday, November 16

Greenville, N.C.

7:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

13-14, 5-11AAC

Memphis

11-17, 4-12AAC

Memphis

ECU

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

November 16, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – ECU collected its first sweep in American Athletic Conference play this season Friday night, blanking Memphis 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) in front of a season-high crowd of 754 inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

The Pirates have won three of the last four encounters with the Tigers, all in straight sets.

"It's always nice to sweep on your home floor, especially in conference play," head coach Julie Torbett said. "We played a pretty consistent offensive match and did well in serve-receive for the most part."

ECU limited Memphis to a .081 hitting percentage as the Tigers committed 25 attacking errors in the three sets – 10 of which were Pirate blocks. Conversely, ECU racked up 46 kills with only 17 errors on 112 attempts to end up with a .259 hitting mark. The Pirates also out-dug Memphis pretty handily to the tune of 56-39.

Sophomore outside hitter Sydney Kleinman paced ECU with 10 kills and hit .300 while redshirt freshman middle blocker Sydney Hall tallied nine kills and a .467 hitting percentage. Junior defensive specialist Maggie Hallow led all players with 14 digs. Kelsea Bivins scored a team-high 13 kills for the visitors.

With the score knotted at five early in the opener, a block capped a 7-4 Pirate run to put ECU ahead 12-9. The Tigers fought back to tie things at 13 following a Pirate ball handling error, but ECU netted seven of the next 11 points to forge in front 20-17 and force Memphis to burn both of its timeouts. The Pirates held on from there, taking the first set by three points.

The Tigers controlled much of the early and middle portions of the second frame and eventually pulled out to a 19-15 advantage. ECU worked its way back into things with a 4-0 run that featured a pair of Kleinman kills and tied the score at 19. With the teams deadlocked at 20, the Pirates left Memphis in their wake, ending the set on a 5-1 run to grab a 2-0 match lead at intermission.

A quick start afforded ECU a 6-2 lead to open the third. The cushion grew to 10-5 after a kill from Hall, but the Tigers answered and eventually took a 15-13 edge following a Pirate attacking error. A kill by freshman outside hitter Natalie Tyson would tie the score at 20 later on and it was all ECU from that point. Hall provided two of the final three points of the match and ended it with a nice kill to the middle of the court.

The Pirates play at home for the final time Sunday, hosting Tulane at 1 p.m. The Green Wave fell in five sets to Cincinnati earlier this afternoon.