East Carolina Torches Temple In Straight Sets

Saturday, October 14

Philadelphia, Pa.

1:00 p.m.

East Carolina University

16-4,7-2AAC

Temple

12-7,3-5AAC

East Carolina

Temple

October 14, 2023 | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – After fighting past Temple in five sets Friday night, East Carolina left little doubt Saturday and collected a 3-0 (25-22, 25-10, 25-19) victory to complete the American Athletic Conference weekend sweep of the Owls at McGonigle Hall.

The Pirates (16-4, 7-2 AAC) extended the best start to a season in program history while also matching the 2017 squad with seven wins in their first nine AAC matches. ECU continued to get it done away from home, improving to 11-1 away from Greenville and 6-1 in true road contests. East Carolina also notched its 11th sweep of the campaign – matching the most since the 2017 season.

Senior outside hitter Brittany Wood continued her recent emergence on the offensive end, pacing all players in the match with a season-high 12 kills while freshman middle blocker Farah Farooq was her usual steady self – chipping in with eight kills, five blocks and a .400 hitting percentage. Defensively, junior libero Lara Uyar racked up a match-best 17 digs and sophomore outside hitter Angeles Alderete followed close behind with 15 of her own.

The Pirates operated like a well-oiled machine in most aspects of the match, holding the advantage in total kills (43-23), service aces (8-2), total digs (53-40) and total blocks (10.0-6.0). ECU was able to slow down the Temple (12-7, 3-5 AAC) offense, limiting to home side to just .038 efficiency while firing at a more than respectable .269 clip itself. The Pirates even held to Owls to a negative percentage in the third stanza as Temple could muster just eight kills on 35 attempts with 10 errors.

Set One: An attacking error by Avery Luoma saw East Carolina establish some early breathing room at 12-9 but the Owls put together a 10-7 run to knot the score at 19. The teams then traded kills to settle for a deadlock at 20. From there, Wood and Alderete scored three consecutive kills while Farooq and Payton Evenstad teamed up for a block to put the Purple and Gold at set point leading 24-20. Temple stayed alive twice, but Alderete sent a rocket cross court and down to terminate the frame.

Set Two: The Pirates ramped up the tempo on offense and sent the Owls out of system from the service line in the second, racing out to a 9-1 edge. ECU nearly held Temple to single digits, reaching set point at 24-9, but Luoma notched a kill to put her side at 10. Askew ended the set just one rally later with a kill of her own.

Set Three: East Carolina did itself no favors to start the third stanza as the Owls took advantage of a handful of Pirate offensive miscues to take an early 8-3 upper hand. ECU settled down though, ripping off a 9-2 run to propel in front 12-10. As it turns out, the Pirates would never trail again as an Aulie Huff kill made it 17-11 and prompted Temple to utilize a timeout. The Owls sliced their deficit to three late in the proceedings, pulling within 21-18, but a Farooq kill restored order and helped East Carolina see out the match.

Up Next: ECU hosts AAC East Division opponent Memphis Oct. 19-20 inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.