Positive Month For Pirates

Pirate Nation!

I hope you are as excited as I am about our upcoming Thursday night football game against Temple on ESPN at 8 p.m. Our staff is preparing to host a passionate group of Pirates.

Before we talk football, let's look at several positive stories going on within our athletics department. September has been a very productive month for our student-athletes and teams.

The Pirates men and women's swimming and diving teams opened the season with dual meet road wins over Old Dominion last weekend. Head coach Matthew Jabs and his staff continue to do a solid job leading the program. Following a road meet at North Carolina next weekend, the teams will be in action at Minges Natatorium on Saturday, Oct. 12 versus William & Mary.
The volleyball team opened the non-conference portion of their schedule 12-1, the best start in program history. We are looking forward to having them back in Greenville this weekend as they host USF (Friday, 7 p.m.) and UCF (Sunday, 1 p.m.) at Minges Coliseum. Admission is free and would love to see an outpouring of support for this group led by head coach Julie Torbett. If you haven't been to a volleyball match, give it a try.
Head coach C.C. Buford and our women's golf team are off to a sizzling start, finishing second at the Minnesota Invitational to open the season and then won the Pirate Collegiate Classic last week at Greenville Country Club. Senior Dorthea Forbrigd took individual honors for her third career win. It was special to see so many head coaches and staff members out supporting the team during the event. Pirates always support Pirates.
Our women's cross country team won the Navy Invitational earlier this month while the men finished second. Freshmen Chase Osborne and Laura Green were named the student-athletes of the month following an outstanding August.
In case you missed it, senior golfer Blake Taylor made history at the Old Town Collegiate last week when he shot a school-record 63 in the opening round. The Pirates finished sixth in the team standings.
Congrats to men's tennis sophomore Diogo Marques for earning his first tournament title, winning his draw at the Liberty Invitational to open the season.
The women's soccer team split a pair of road conference games over the weekend. They get some much-needed rest before returning to action with home matches at Johnson Stadium against Tulsa (Oct. 10, 7 p.m.) and Memphis (1 p.m.). This is a fun team to watch and have battled through numerous injuries, but head coach Jason Hamilton and his staff have done a great job leading the team through adversity. Remember, free admission to all home soccer games.
The Pirates women's tennis team opened the season at the Coastal Carolina Invitational last weekend. Nastja Rettich and Michelle Ncube won their doubles match against host Coastal Carolina. Nastja won all three of her singles matches in straight sets and hasn't dropped a singles match since February. Sofia Anthony won in straight sets in her singles match against Coastal Carolina. Congrats to Sibel Tanik and Hanna Axelsson for making their collegiate debut with three doubles victories. Alisa Diercksen and Lisa Hofbauer competed at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic and earned doubles wins over Michigan State and LSU.

Basketball Season Is On The Horizon
Both men's and women's basketball teams officially started practice this weekend for the 2019-20 season. There's a lot of excitement for both programs as Kim McNeill starts a new era on the women's side, and Joe Dooley is building a program that Pirate Nation can be proud of.

I believe Minges Coliseum can be a homecourt advantage as we get more fans involved. Let's come together and build a basketball fan base unlike anything we have seen here. Season tickets are on sale now at ECU's Online Ticket Center or calling the ECU Ticket Office at 1-800-342-5328.

Cross Country To Host Pirate Invitational
Please mark your calendar for Friday, October 18 as our men's and women's cross-country teams will host the Pirate Invitational at Overton's Lake Kristi. The event would not be possible without the support of longtime Pirate donors Becky and Parker Overton, who allow ECU to practice and host the event on their property. I know our student-athletes would appreciate seeing Pirate fans as they compete. The event begins at 4:45 p.m. and is their final meet before the American Athletic Conference Championships in Memphis.

Meet Our Men's Basketball Team
The men's basketball team will be signing autographs and taking photos from 6:45-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3 right outside Minges Coliseum at Gate 5. This will be a great opportunity to meet our new student-athletes and head coach Joe Dooley.

Baseball, Softball And Lacrosse Open Fall Practice
I hope you had the opportunity to check out our baseball team over the weekend as fall practice has started. The Pirates will scrimmage every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in preparation for the Purple-Gold World Series on Nov. 1-3. Fans are welcome to attend. Liberty will visit Clark-LeClair Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 20 and we will have updates soon on the game time and different events around the contest. It will be a great opportunity to get a taste of baseball before we begin in February.

Courtney Oliver and the Pirates softball team are right in the middle of the fall season as well. You have two more opportunities to see the team in action at ECU Softball Stadium. We will host a doubleheader against Elon on Oct. 12 at noon and a 10-inning game against North Carolina on Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. I will see you out there.

Lacrosse head coach Amanda Moore and her squad have held two home games and finish out the fall season on the road over the next two weeks.

It will be February before you know it so get ready for another action-packed spring.

We Need Pirate Nation On Thursday
Thursday night in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is an amazing opportunity for East Carolina University, the football program and our community to showcase to the nation how fortunate we are to be part of Pirate Nation.

As I have written numerous times, your continued support gives our football team a home field advantage. Personally, the first two games have been eye-opening to see the passion of our fans. There is a pageantry that goes along with attending a game in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium that is like no other place I have witnessed.

Congrats to Coach Houston, his staff and our student-athletes for a gutsy road win at Old Dominion. The team snapped a lot of streaks with the win. I won't forget the smiles on the faces of our student-athletes and coaches as they entered the locker room. Yes, winning is great, but the happiness they had for each other is what I took away from the postgame celebration. A culture is being formed and I admire the energy and enthusiasm they bring every day to revitalize the program.

I would like to personally thank every faculty and staff member at East Carolina University for their support of our athletics department. We have made a conscious effort to give opportunities for faculty and staff to purchase tickets at a discounted price to our football games and they have responded in a big way. More than 2,000 tickets were sold for the home-opener against Gardner-Webb and we are halfway to that mark for Thursday's night game.

When the university and athletics are aligned together as ONE, there's no limit to what we can accomplish.

I can't write about support without mentioning Pitt Community College President Dr. Lawrence Rouse. Our marketing staff reached out to Dr. Rouse last week and inquired about sending information to all students, faculty and staff about Thursday's night game against Temple. We had the opportunity to visit campus this past Friday where we sold close to 500 tickets. Yes, 500! Numbers are still rolling in and will probably reach 1,000 tickets by kickoff. It really speaks volumes to the community we live in.

Make sure you tell a friend or two about Thursday night. We need to squeeze as many as possible into Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium as we Paint it Black.

See you on Thursday night.

Go Pirates!

Jon

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