ECU Visits South Florida For First-Place Showdown

Matches 26-27: East Carolina at South Florida
Coverage	November 9 \| at South Florida \| 6:00 p.m. \| Live Stats \| Watch November 10 \| at South Florida \| 2:00 p.m. \| Live Stats \| Watch
Location (Venue)	Tampa, Fla. (The Corral) (1,000)
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram \| #ECUVB #NoQuarter

Weekly Release No. 13 (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – With five matches remaining in the regular season, the American Athletic Conference East Division is still up for grabs as co-leaders East Carolina and South Florida meet for a pair of matches at The Corral in Tampa. Both contests will stream live through ESPN+.

Florida Atlantic will also have a say in the race as the Owls lurk just a game back of the Pirates and Bulls. FAU and South Florida are slated to face off Nov. 16-17 in Boca Raton.

ECU (18-7, 9-5 AAC) fell to current league leader SMU in three sets last Friday in Greenville. The Pirates could not quite match the Mustangs' offensive firepower despite a program single match-record crowd of 1,468 filling up Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. Sophomore outside hitter Angeles Alderete paced East Carolina with a double-double of 14 kills and 14 digs while SMU's Jamison Wheeler led three Mustangs in double-digit kills with 15.

The Pirates, who enter the latter part of the week ranked 116th in the RPI, are ranked second in the conference in opposing hitting percentage (.159) and third in both hitting percentage (.238) and blocks per set (2.43). Sophomore middle blocker Carlia Northcross is the league leader in blocks per set (1.18) while senior setter Julianna Askew checks in at ninth in aces per set (0.35). Alderete and junior libero Lara Uyar are also 10th in kills per set (3.08) and digs per set (3.82) respectively.

East Carolina holds an 11-3 record in matches played outside of Greenville with two of the setbacks occurring in five sets at Rice and Tulsa in late October. The Pirates own a pair of conference road wins at both UAB and Temple.

Scouting South Florida
South Florida (15-10, 9-5 AAC) picked up a pair of wins at Temple last week to snap a three-match losing streak that included setbacks to North Texas, Tulsa and SMU. Outside hitter Maria Clara Andrade was named the AAC Offensive Player of the Week after averaging 5.00 kills and 5.75 points per set as well as hitting .359 against the Owls. The Bulls rank second in the league in assists per set (12.66) and aces per set (1.74) while slotting third in kills per set (13.33) and fourth in hitting percentage (.233). South Florida boasts two of the top four players in the conference in kills per set as Buse Hazan is second (3.90) and Andrade sits fourth (3.61). Carolina Dykes also check in at four in assists per set (9.08). The Bulls are 7-4 at home this season with wins over Idaho State, Mercer, Tulane, UAB (twice) and Charlotte (twice) as well as losses to Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast and North Texas.

The South Florida Series
SMU leads the all-time series with East Carolina by a 13-9 margin. The teams split a pair of meetings last season with both sides winning a match on its home court. The Pirates are 4-6 against the Bulls in Tampa.

East Carolina At-A-Glance
Overall Record - 18-7 (.720) // AAC Record - 9-5 (.643) // Last 5 Matches - 2-3 (.400) // Last 10 Matches - 6-4 (.600) // Last 15 Matches - 10-5 (.667) // ECU will play the 99th match of the Adler Augustin era when it visits South Florida Thursday evening. // The Pirates' all-time record stands at 574-861 with the program in its 46th season of competition.

Up Next
East Carolina closes out its 2023 home slate with a pair of matches with American Athletic Conference newcomer Charlotte Nov. 17-18.

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Players Mentioned

Angeles Alderete

Julianna Askew

Carlia Northcross

Lara Uyar

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