Houston Squeaks By East Carolina In Five Sets

Friday, October 18

Houston, Texas

8:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

13-7,2-5AAC

Houston

13-9,7-0AAC

East Carolina

Houston

Photo by: Rob Goldberg

October 18, 2019 | Volleyball

Box Score

HOUSTON, Texas – East Carolina had its chances to hand Houston its first American Athletic Conference loss of the season Friday night, but the Cougars prevailed in five sets (21-25, 25-19, 20-25, 29-27, 16-14) at the Fertitta Center.

The Pirates drop to 14-6 overall and 2-5 in league play while the AAC West Division leaders improve to 13-9 and 7-0.

Sophomore Natalie Tyson enjoyed a career night, recording a personal-best 21 kills on 54 attempts and hit .333 while collecting 13 digs to complete a double-double. Juniors Bri Wood and Sydney Kleinman also got into the double-double column with respective stat lines of 18 kills and 17 digs as well as 16 kills and 13 digs. Senior Toya Osuegbu racked up a team-high six blocks and now has 300 for her career – the ninth most in program history. Megan Duncan led the home team with 19 kills while Abby Irvine turned in a double-double of 55 assists and 16 digs.

Houston hit .219 in the deciding set while East Carolina committed five attacking errors for .111 efficiency. The Pirates out-hit the Cougars in the match .244 to .220, tallied more digs (83-80) and piled up more total blocks (9.0 to 4.0) but Houston finished with the upper hand in kills (72-63).

ECU began to pull away in the middle of the first set, building a 13-8 advantage. The lead grew to 17-10 following a Cougar attacking error and the Pirates would hold on to grab the opener.

With the second set knotted at 10, Houston netted four-straight points to establish some breathing room. East Carolina not quite catch up as the Cougars won the frame by six to tie the match.

The third stanza was also a close battle that started to tilt in the Pirates' favor after a Houston attacking error gave ECU a 19-16 cushion. Osuegbu later finished off the set with two-straight blocks to put the Pirates up 2-1 going to the fourth.

East Carolina faced a 16-11 deficit in the fourth but fought back to pull within one at 18-17. Trailing 22-20, the Pirates used a Houston service error to spark a 3-0 run that sent ECU two away from victory. A kill by Tyson afforded the Pirates match point, but the Cougars staved it off with a kill. East Carolina had a couple more chances at match point and led 27-26 before Houston came up with three straight to send the contest to the tiebreaker.

The Cougars were quick out of the gate, scoring three straight to begin the fifth. However, a solo block by redshirt sophomore Sydney Hall tied things at five. ECU started to pull ahead and led 11-8 after a service error, but a 5-0 Houston run would prove the ultimate difference. The Pirates fought off a match point to pull even at 14, however, an East Carolina attacking error and a Cougar kill sealed Houston's comeback win.

The Pirates close out the weekend Sunday at 1 p.m. when they face Tulane in New Orleans.